In today’s Impromptus, I take up an old theme of mine: the amazing speed with which things can change in America. The quicksilver quality of the zeitgeist.
One day, no one thought of gay marriage (or few did). The next day, “civil unions” were the far-out, progressive position. The day after that, if you favored civil unions but not gay marriage, you were a Klansman. A Nazi. That’s where we are now. Try refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding, or refusing to rent your hall for such a wedding. Just try it.
I’d like to add something here in the Corner. Running in 2008, both Barack Obama and Joe Biden were four-square against gay marriage (or said they were). In April of that year, Obama said, “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.”
Doesn’t that seem like a thousand years ago?
The topic of gay marriage came up in the vice-presidential debate. Joe Biden and Sarah Palin said they had the same position. They were against gay marriage. So, the moderator said, “Wonderful. You agree. On that note, let’s move to foreign policy.”
Two days before the election, Obama reiterated, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”
Running in 2012, of course, both Obama and Biden sang a different tune. They had had an epiphany or something. (Is “epiphany” too religious a word for our modern society?)
Here’s the grating thing: They scorn people who are against gay marriage as, basically, Klansmen and Nazis. The blink of an eye ago, they themselves were against gay marriage (officially)! But now the people who hold that same position — the Obama-Biden position until May 2012 — are Klansmen and Nazis?
More than grating, that is galling. Obama should be embarrassed. (I’m not sure that Biden is capable of embarrassment.)
Conservatives are supposed to be tough, and I’m all for toughness — rah! — but politics is far too mean. Unnecessarily and disgustingly mean.