Month: November 2008

The Day After

Wilkinson cautions against romance in politics:

The government of the state is profoundly important. And I think American voters picked a competent, decent, and sober executive officer. But this is not, headline writers, Barack Obama’s America. He is not your leader, any more than the mayor of your town is your leader. We are free people. We lead ourselves. He is set to be a high-ranking public administrator. Sure, there is romance in fame. But romance in politics is dangerous, misplaced, and beneath intelligent people. Were we more fully civilized, we would tolerate the yearnings projected on our leaders. Our tribal nature is not so easily escaped, after all. But we would try to escape it. We would discourage and condemn as irresponsible a romantic politics that tells us that if we all come together and want it hard enough, we’ll get it. We would spot the dangerous fallacy in condemning as “cynicism” all serious attempts to critically evaluate the content of political hopes.

Amen. I cannot express how relieved I am that Obama has been elected, after following him for two years. But I also intend to remain critical, skeptical and vigilant in blogging his administration. After a little rest.

Marriage In Connecticut

Some perspective. Massachusetts still has full marriage rights; so does Connecticut. New York will recognize Massachusetts marriage. Obama has pledged full federal civil unions (yes, I know, I’ll believe that when I see it and it sure won’t happen any time soon). But yesterday, Connecticut also voted on a constitutional convention to revoke marriage rights. It lost by a big margin. I also think a lot of people will see what happened in California and it will change their minds. Now: gay groups need to do much more work engaging African-Americans. And one of the critical steps will be encouraging more black gay men and women to come out.

The Coming Legal Battle

The challenges to Prop 8 have already begun. More here. I’m not enthusiastic. I think, perhaps quixotically, that civil rights movements tend to gain real momentum when the victims of discrimination are publicly humiliated by majorities with power. How we react is very important. We need not to sue; we need to explain. We need to respond with self-confidence. And with charity. Remember King.

The Odd Truths About Sarah Palin I: Saks Appeal

Well, well, well:

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin’s shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain’s top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior aide said that Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent "tens of thousands" more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband. Some articles of clothing have apparently been lost. An angry aide characterized the shopping spree as "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," and said the truth will eventually come out when the Republican Party audits its books.

We will soon find out a lot more about the Wasilla wannabe. If you think I’ve moved on from chronicling this crazy person who nearly got within a heartbeat of the presidency, then, well, you haven’t read this blog for that long.

Inviting A Backlash?

Dreher reacts to 8’s passage:

…by appealing to the courts to impose something as radical as same-sex marriage, something that has never in the history of human society existed, they invited this backlash. Now, traditional marriage has been constitutionalized, and same-sex couples are worse off than before, because they only way they can get marriage now is by amending the state constitution.

It was a foolish strategy, and if the US Supreme Court should in the next decade or so discover a same-sex marriage right in the US Constitution, there will swiftly arise a movement to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman. Yes, the Federal Marriage Amendment failed in the Senate in 2005, but I think that’s because the idea of court-imposed gay marriage was an abstract threat. In California, it was a reality, and that appears to have galvanized voters.

Actually, of course, the legislature had twice voted for marriage equality in California, it had existed in Massachusetts for several years, and in Spain and Canada and elsewhere for years. As for strategy, it was not a strategy. Couples sued for their rights, and the court responded. And the Federal Marriage Amendment is as dead as a doornail. As for Gavin Newsom, well, yes: a total idiot. Always was. Always will be. But this movement is deeper and broader than any politician, let alone a non-entity like Newsom.

France Loves Us Again

So says Judah Grunstein:

Today, America is who France would like it to be, because on a historic level, Obama’s election represents all of our potential for change, progress and evolution that France finds so attractive. And I think that can be generalized for the world. The quarrels will come not on the level of history, however, but later, when history is brought back down to earth by the urgencies of politics.

This Iraq journalist is overjoyed, if still suspicious.