Feingold on Marriage Equality
In bits and pieces, I continue to make the case that a political party looking for the support of the liberal majority of American, the Democrats, for example, need to do it not by trying to step carefully around "controversial" issues, hoping to appease everyone (but please no one); but, instead, by standing up and loudly proclaiming their staunch support for liberal principles, civil liberties, and equality for all.
The following is excerpted from a press release, dated 4 April 2006, from Senator Russ Feingold (WI). The release is called Feingold Opposes Discriminatory Amendment: Supports Marriage Equality. It nearly takes my breath away with its and avoidance of wishy-washiness direct, positive statements.
Washington, D.C. – Responding to a question posed at his Kenosha County listening session over the weekend, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold said he strongly opposed the proposed civil unions and marriage ban facing Wisconsin voters this November. He also expressed his support for the right of gays and lesbians to marry.
[…]
“As I said at the Kenosha County listening session, gay and lesbian couples should be able to marry and have access to the same rights, privileges and benefits that straight couples currently enjoy,” Feingold added. “Denying people this basic American right is the kind of discrimination that has no place in our laws, especially in a progressive state like Wisconsin. The time has come to end this discrimination and the politics of divisiveness that has become part of this issue.”
[First seen at Pam's House Blend.]
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on Wednesday, 5 April 2006 at 02.47
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You're right. That kind of clarity and decisiveness is what we need.
I've been considering why Democrats so often seem incapable of putting what they really believe and want out there and then hard-selling the public on why they are right. I think it's a combination of things, beginning with insecurity about their standing in a period when the wind has not been at their back.
I think Feingold is an unusually confident incumbent. I think he's got an especially solid base of financial and voter support. That situation isn't shared by all Democrats. Indeed, congressional Democrats overall have plenty of reason to be gunshy.
Consider what happened to former speakers Jim Wright and Tom Foley, to Sens. Tom Daschle and Max Cleland, and to a liberal-Democrat establishment in Washington 35 years ago that seemed, if not invincible, at least extremely formidable in size and strength. Those weren't weak, peripheral players.
What's more, Democrats went to the wall for gun control and health care coverage, only to be made mincemeat by right wingers and their growing demagogic powers, and by a public tired of liberals and their causes and notions.
The post-Vietnam, post-civil rights era realignment of the political map was momentous. So was Ronald Reagan's ascent to the presidency. Leaders with the charismatic power of a Roosevelt or Reagan only come along every so often. Democrats desperately need one, but there's none in sight right now.
There's also a pendulum phenomenon at work in society. We have our liberal, expansive periods. We have our conservative, regressive periods. In my view, Wilson was a potential liberal powerhouse who came along in a conservative, regressive period, with a world war to contend with on top of that. As a result, he didn't get much liberal stuff done or grow and entrench the party that much. Roosevelt, by contrast, was a liberal, expansive leader who came to power at a time when an economic cataclysm literally blasted the public out of its long-running conservative, regressive stupor. His hand was thus immeasurably strengthened, and he had coattails like few presidents have ever had coattails.
When you stop to think about it, the last time a Democratic president came into office with a powerful wind at his back and plentiful goodwill among just about all those who weren't right-wing hard liners was Lyndon Johnson. That was quite a long time ago.
When we get another powerhouse Democratic president come to power in relatively congenial circumstances, watch for all sorts of things that have been on the back burner to get done. And watch for other Democrats to be a lot more assertive and resolute.