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WTF is Obama Thinking, Part 2: Rick Warren |
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As Josh mentioned, Obama’s choice of bigoted pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration is a major letdown to anyone who cares about equality or social justice. Ann at Feministing best explained why this is a slap in the face to Obama’s pro-choice, gay, and progressive Christian supporters:
What?! Surely Obama could have found a non-bigoted religious leader to give the invocation. Warren, despite being considered a nicer-and-friendlier “new evangelical,” equates same-sex marriage with incest, says Christians who work for social justice are basically Marxists, and is staunchly anti-choice. (He recently told Steven Waldman of Beliefnet that he believes he is obligated to lobby the president to end abortion rights, but not to stop the use of torture.)
Now, this is morally wrong, period. But since Obama’s defenders from critics on the left often use “strategy talk” to justify his behavior, let’s get into that.
Rick Warren is never going to support progressive causes or candidates on a regular basis. Even if he embraces Obama, he’s not going to tone down his opposition to choice, gay rights, or social justice. Rick Warren already invoked Obama’s name in his ad against Prop 8 in California, imagine the damage he can do in upcoming issue fights with the added credibility of delivering Obama’s inagural invocation. The media has a boner for these kinds of “bipartisan” figures — when Warren inevitably attacks the next Democratic presidential candidate (or even Obama), it’s going to carry far more weight than your typical right-wing pastor. Giving him credibility is not great long-term political strategy.
We are not going to win people who believe abortion is like the Holocaust. On the other hand, we can do plenty of damage to our own coalition. Although we can’t definitively make claims about causality, Obama was less than sensitive to gay issues during the primary. The result? Vs. 2004, Obama underperformed among gays more than any other demographic group, and they were one of the few groups where he actually did worse than Kerry in the national popular vote:
I think that speaks for itself.
Well put, Nirmal. Well put.