Friday Feature: Snatching Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory

Marriage Equality in New York State is now a week old. It is a victory for human rights. The preceding sentence is said for just that reason. It is not necessarily a victory for everyone to play house, because there are many who celebrate the victory who do not necessarily want to get married or who believe that the government ought to sanction a sacrament. Still what happened was a great victory. Was it for all the wrong reasons? Do we care? Yes, we do, to a certain extent. To paraphrase a fast food commercial of the past, "Rights are rights."

One ought to bear in mind that this was all done with the help of politicians. When it comes to politicians, you take what you can get.

In this case, we'll take it. Thank you very much.

Of course, almost by rote, there are those progressives who want to take the silver cloud and give it a black lining. First up: Rachel Maddow, who took it upon herself to remind us that President Obama was against it~not precisely true and she knows it.

Most intelligen­t people understand what the President is doing and he actually came to NYC on Gay Pride weekend on the night prior to the vote for Marriage Equality was taking place. He actually said that gay couples deserve all the rights that straight couples deserve. He is, after all, a politician. He has done more for the Community than anyone since~well­, any POTUS. Dick Cheney who is the highest level politician to come out in support of Marriage Equality and who has a lesbian daughter in a committed relationsh­ip has not, after all, initiated anything. He is out of office now and has no need to fear repercussi­ons. Anything real from him? No. Leave the President alone, you will de-moraliz­e the base by attacking him on this. The progressive base will stay home or vote for a Nader-esque third party and we'll end up with a reactionar­y President. Chill, Rachel. Seriously.

Maybe one should not go so far as to dress Obama in the Chicago politician stereotype, nevertheless, Obama is a politician. The caveat is this: don't undermine him to the extent that we get another kind of politician that is even worse. Progressives were so demoralized over Humphrey in 1968 we got Nixon and in 1980 over Carter we got Reagan. Obama will evolve. Believe it. Rachel has a history of going off on tangents when it is least necessary. In 2008 she was afraid that McCain was going to win and discussed possible scenarios in how that was going to happen. It's one thing to point out what needs to change it's another to turn off the very people that are necessary to hold back a reactionary tide. Remember not one Democratic candidate in 2008 campaigned for Marriage Equality, not even that paragon of virtue, John Edwards. It's fine to disagree with Mr. Obama on where he is right now. He is doing a dance. Remember he has done more than his predecessors. That's a fact.

Then there are those who are wringing their hands that perhaps the Right Wingers and the Republicans are trying to harvest one-issue LGBT voters. It is an interesting hypothesis. Perhaps there are hedge hogs out there with that very road map making that very attempt, but it's not gonna happen.

New York is not the example to use for right wing "peeling." All successful New York State politicians are very pragmatic. All of them~ even the good ones ~ are Pander Bears.

Rights are rights. Are we going to worry about where they come from? Four Republicans voting for a bill in one pragmatic State does not a movement make.

This is Andrew Cuomo's victory. Believe it. Cuomo is an excellent politician. In this case he will not be co-opted. Believe it.

If the concern is that LGBT voters are one-issue, that is something that progressives and activists within the community ought to address. It is doubtful. Those who will move over to the GOP were voting GOP all along.

There is no danger of gays and lesbians moving en masse into the GOP. Believe it.

Left thinking people who are far to the left do not trust either Party anyway. Therefore, for those folks, it is a moot point. They, too, are very pragmatic thinkers and doers. Rule of thumb: go for and vote for the most progressive choice available~one that will win.

Caveat to the Left, let us take what we can get and move on. Again, rights are rights~let us not demoralize progressive thinking people, or we will end up with devils we don't know. Let us not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Let us use the victory to keep a progressive agenda alive and remind the LGBT community that there are other issues.