[Dialogue] Conserving That Compassion

[Harry Wainwright]

 <http://www.nytimes.com/>  <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/> 

 




  _____  

October 28, 2006

Editorial

Conserving That Compassion 

When future generations of Americans look back on the current era, they'll
puzzle over what it was about George W. Bush that made people imagine there
was anything compassionate to his conservatism. 

Having apparently lost all hope that he can use terrorism to scare voters
into electing Republicans this November, the president has now begun raising
the threat of gay marriage.

The moment the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling on the subject this
week, Mr. Bush began using every possible excuse to bring up "activist"
judges and gay weddings on the campaign trail. "I mentioned his love for his
family," Mr. Bush said at a rally for a Republican Senate candidate in
Michigan. "He understands what I know, that marriage is a fundamental
institution of our civilization. Yesterday in New Jersey we had another
activist court issue a ruling ..."

The court in New Jersey, for what it's worth, was hardly activist. The State
Legislature had given gay couples the ability to unite in domestic
partnerships that gave them most, but not all, of the legal protections
available to married heterosexuals. The court simply said that both kinds of
partners deserved the same legal protection, and left it up to the lawmakers
to figure out how to do it. Hardly a thunderbolt from the sky, but Mr. Bush
took up the cause of protecting the "sacred institution that is critical to
the health of our society" as if a cadre of antifamily jurists had just
abolished matrimony.

All this is, as everyone knows, just a show for rousing the base. If the
last month has taught us anything about the Republican Party, it is that
homophobia is campaign strategy, not conviction. Congressmen who trust their
careers to gay staffers vote for laws to enshrine second-class citizenship
for gays in the Constitution. Gay appointees and their partners are treated
as married people at official ceremonies and social gatherings. Then
whenever an election rolls around, the whole team pretends it's on a mission
to save America from gay marriage.

Mr. Bush and his faithful acolytes seem perfectly willing to stoke fears
that create division and sorrow in a country that doesn't need any more of
either. The president has just a little more than two years left in office.
You'd think that for once he'd want to consider devoting his time to making
things better instead of worse.

 

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