He can’t avoid the subject altogether. Can you imagine the headlines? Obama Rains on Gay Parade. POTUS O-bombs In New York. Obama’s Not-So-Fierce Fundraiser. Ok, true enough, all those apply even if he mentions marriage equality at the dinner but doesn’t come out in favor of it.
So let’s assume he does talk about marriage, civil unions, relationship recognition – call it what you will. Here’s the thing, it will be devilishly difficult even for our pitch-perfect president to effuse enough lofty rhetoric to obscure the elephant in the room.
The last time Obama addressed a massive LGBT fundraiser was at a Human Rights Campaign Gala in October of 2009. That speech, most certainly, was the starting point for the president’s speech writers as they eyed his Thursday predicament.
“It is no secret that issues of great concern to gays and lesbians are ones that raise a great deal of emotion in this country,” Obama told the audience in ‘09. “But these issues also go to the heart of who we are as a people. Are we a nation that can transcend old attitudes and worn divides? Can we embrace our differences and look to the hopes and dreams that we share? Will we uphold the ideals on which this nation was founded: that all of us are equal, that all of us deserve the same opportunity to live our lives freely and pursue our chance at happiness? I believe we can; I believe we will."
Hmmm… where can he go from here on Thursday? Seriously. It’s hard to imagine. I believe we can, I believe we will… but sorry, I just need a little more time.
Look, everyone knows this is a political calculation. President Obama was for marriage equality as a state senator in 1996 before he was against it as an aspiring presidential candidate in 2004 (the evolution of his positions are traced here). But as he heads into the 2012 election cycle, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for him to have it both ways on same-sex marriage – to carry the magic mantle of hope and change, to appeal to the better angels of our nature, while literally falling behind the trend lines on supporting something as fundamentally American as the expression of our liberty.
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| David Tyree |
Edwards, 27, is the host of "The Political Cesspool," a shamelessly white nationalist radio talk show that's broadcast for two hours every weeknight from a studio near Memphis, Tenn., where Edwards grew up and still lives.
"The Political Cesspool" in the past two years has become the primary radio nexus of hate in America. Its sponsors include the CCC and the Institute for Historical Review, a leading Holocaust denial organization. Its guest roster for 2007 reads like a "Who's Who" of the radical racist right. CCC leader Gordon Lee Baum, Holocaust denier Mark Weber, Canadian white supremacist Paul Fromm, American Renaissance editor Jared Taylor, neo-Nazi activist April Gaede, anti-Semitic professor Kevin MacDonald, Stormfront webmaster Jamie Kelso and League of the South president Michael Hill have all been favorably interviewed on the "Political Cesspool" this year, along with former Klan leader and neo-Nazi David Duke, the show's most frequent celebrity racist guest, who has logged three appearances.
White supremacist James Edwards
On the Jews (Feb. 20, 2007):
"A lot of their motivation is that they hate Christianity. They hate what we call the WASP establishment … and they're using pornography as a subversive tool against us. Jews are by and large dominant in the porn industry. I don't need to spend time convincing people the sky is blue. You know, connect the dots and look at the names of people controlling our media, and you find out what the common denominator is. … These Zionist Jews are more interested in subverting the dominant culture, which would be the European culture here in America, than they are in helping us and assimilating into our culture."
On immigration (May 18, 2007):
"The reason why America was a First World nation was because we had a First World population, and as we continue to be inundated with people from Third World nations we are going to become a Third World nation… . America is on the verge of collapse, as is Europe, as is the rest of the First World. We have to answer the question of whether white Americans and Europeans are going to survive to see another generation. … Desperate situations call for rash action.
On Christianity (May 18, 2007):
"The Christian church used to be the foundation and bedrock of this country, all the way up to the 1950s, and now the Christian church, just like any other institution that we founded, has been infiltrated by Zionist influence and by perverse leftist ideology.""
Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then. While I might not agree with David Tyree on anything else, on this single issue, he is absolutely right.
"Crime and violence follow African-Americans wherever they go. And if you think that is racist, then spend some time on the mean streets of south Memphis."
"Whites are in for the fight of their lives. America is becoming balkanized. We are being robbed of having a future in the very nation our ancestors carved from the wilderness."
“If millions of white people moved to Nigeria for some unfathomable reason, and the government of Nigeria began establishing quotas and other policies to force black business owners to hire white people, and began giving out massive welfare subsidies that whites received far out of proportion to their percentage of the population, and passed law after law requiring Nigerian blacks to treat white people as privileged citizens who must never be criticized or insulted, and started turning every altercation between a white and a black into an ‘anti-white hate crime’ while downplaying every white-on-black crime no matter how violent...well, how many white people in Nigeria would vote to change things? Not very many. So why would blacks in America react any differently?”
The arrival of Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. prompted a mini-parade despite the tight quarters and the presence of numerous marriage advocates — such as Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, who prompted a heated reaction from one of the Orthodox protesters by throwing an arm over his shoulder as she attempted to insert herself between Diaz and the cameras.
“You’re not a Jew! You’re not a Jew!,” he responded, just before a trooper moved in to ease the loose procession down the stairway.
Asked if he’d give up the Super Bowl to stop gay marriage, Tyree said: “Honestly, I probably would.”
“Nothing means more to me than that my God would be honored,” he said. “Being the fact that I firmly believe that God created and ordained marriage between a man and a woman, I believe that that’s something that should be fought for at all costs.”
“So I’ll lay down everything I am to preserve the honor and integrity of the God that I serve.”
