white with foam

It’s a big relief to me knowing I’m not supposed to take seriously all the crowing about a Republican comeback as a result of this month’s elections. Beating a stumblebum like Deeds looked like fish in a barrel from here. But for the life of me, I can’t grok what happened in Maine, or, conversely, why things like Washington’s R71 don’t pass in more places.

I have low expectations for R71, in and of itself. It looks like no hearts or minds were changed in the Okanogan. If there were something truly culture-changing at stake, it wouldn’t be as painless as simply voting. OTOH, maybe we’re furthering a Molasses Revolution here, by which each referendum and every insurance plan’s redefinition of “dependent” serves to incrementally change the terms of the conversation.

It’s been said before, but I keep going back to the idea that civil rights are never granted, only taken. Many people believe the Supreme Court as it’s currently made up wouldn’t grant gay people any such thing, Sotomayor notwithstanding. If using the M word is so hard to choke down, surely it can’t be that hard to craft referenda that use other language to describe inheritance benefits, hospital visits and the like. So I don’t think it’s a language thing. If, as some say, the resistance comes from a half-formed, half-felt and rarely examined idea that everybody needs somebody to occupy a lower rung, someone to act out our complex frustrations on, then no amount of packaging will be stronger than that reality.

Except what you’re afraid of is not real. Come out of your bunker, Red America! No one wants to abduct your children, convert your wife, weaken your precious institutions or violate your person. I say this knowing as well as anybody the palliative lies one tells oneself in order to get up in the morning. I wouldn’t presume to tell gays to be patient; I’m just sayin’, eyes on the prize, brothers and sisters, eyes on the prize.

Benjy Ferree: Fear

Tags:   civil rights · gay marriage · R712 Comments