*Note* I know this is a good week late, but I’ve been
incredibly busy and as I mentioned in my introduction piece this blog is my
least priority of everything going on in my life. In fact, many things I write
based on topical events will likely be a little bit behind.
As everybody knows by now President Barack Obama came out
last week in support of gay marriage, making him the first U.S. President to
ever do so. It’s really no surprise that President Obama supports gay marriage,
a funny joke from “Saturday Night Live” head writer Seth Meyers on Weekend
Update last Saturday night said: “This week President Obama was finally outed
as a Democrat.” But, it does show massive balls on the part of the President to
actually come out and say that he supports gay marriage, especially in an
election year in which many suspect we could see one of the closest elections
ever.
That’s the thing you’ve got to love about this President, at
least in this situation, even though he knows this stance is one that could
come back to bite him severely on the ass, he goes through with it anyway.
There aren’t too many politicians who’d risk political loss to speak their
minds and the fact that President Obama has done this shows great courage and
bravery (conservatives can take this moment to spit on the ground and say
something to the effect of ‘bullshit’).
When President Obama first came out in support of gay
marriage I actually didn’t think that it would be a moment that could possibly
hurt him. I was thinking that gay people were going to vote for President
Obama, being a Democrat/liberal, whether he came out in support for gay
marriage or not, because we all know there’s no way in Hell that gays would
vote for a conservative candidate, because most conservatives seem to want to
banish gay people to Hell or in some cases (like that of Michele Bachmann’s
husband) want to cure them of their disease. This remains true: gay people
would have voted for President Obama no matter what.
However, what I failed to realize was that a key demographic
that voted for President Obama in 2008 could possibly be turned off by his
stance on gay marriage. That, of course, would be the black vote. Now, I’d
figured initially the same as I would for gay voters. Black people would of
course vote for President Obama, not because he’s of their race, but because
most minorities would generally vote for Democratic candidates to begin with.
Again, conservatives are not very good about standing up for non-white,
non-straight peoples. But, then I started to read about how vocal many
African-Americans are about their stance on being against gay marriage, mostly
for religious reasons.
If there is one thing that could probably keep black people
from voting for President Obama or any Democratic candidate, in general, it
would be their religious beliefs. I still believe that President Obama will get
the majority of the black vote come November, but if things are as close as
people are forecasting than even the smallest switch in the minds of voters
could affect his reelection chances.
President Obama’s approval of gay marriage is a momentous
decision in the history of the Presidency and will be whether or not he’s
reelected or becomes a one term President. It’s a risky move, for sure, and
that’s the biggest reason why I have to salute the President for his decision.
It was the right thing to say and he said it, consequences be damned.
