Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Obama's Radical Pragmatism
1:05 PM | Posted by
Mike |
Edit Post
From Time's Swampland Blog, Michael Scherer lays out how Obama's positions re: GLBT rights will be frustrating to those who don't believe that separately equal works. "Radically pragmatic" is how he labels this incremental approach -- and to some there is a certain appeal to embracing a more evolutionary path.
The problem with this approach is the assumption that fundamental rights and equal treatment can somehow be handled in some sort of cafeteria model -- out of this one? choose another. Sacrifice this one, to get that one... and eventually the arc of history will catch up.
Certainly a less costly approach to those who eschew living up to the Constitutional guarantees of equal rights -- those who already enjoy full citizenship can take their time in getting to that emotional comfort spot that tells them it's okay to "let the gays be equal now"... as if they (and not the Creator as invoked by Jefferson) are the source of those inalienable rights.
So now that we are confronted by the "radical pragmatism" of the Obama Doctrine, what to do?
Understand what makes pragmatists tick: cost versus benefits.
We must forcefully press for civil equality in terms that make accomodation with the Rick Warren/James Dobson end of the spectrum too costly -- politically, economically, socially and whatever other levers we have at our disposal.
Obama's radical pragmatism will have no choice but to embrace a much more expansive (and revolutionary) GLBT rights agenda.
The problem with this approach is the assumption that fundamental rights and equal treatment can somehow be handled in some sort of cafeteria model -- out of this one? choose another. Sacrifice this one, to get that one... and eventually the arc of history will catch up.
Certainly a less costly approach to those who eschew living up to the Constitutional guarantees of equal rights -- those who already enjoy full citizenship can take their time in getting to that emotional comfort spot that tells them it's okay to "let the gays be equal now"... as if they (and not the Creator as invoked by Jefferson) are the source of those inalienable rights.
So now that we are confronted by the "radical pragmatism" of the Obama Doctrine, what to do?
Understand what makes pragmatists tick: cost versus benefits.
We must forcefully press for civil equality in terms that make accomodation with the Rick Warren/James Dobson end of the spectrum too costly -- politically, economically, socially and whatever other levers we have at our disposal.
Obama's radical pragmatism will have no choice but to embrace a much more expansive (and revolutionary) GLBT rights agenda.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
what is administrativia?
Recipes, politics, musings and more... the little and not-so-little things that make up my life...
!->
!->

Recipe Lists
Tag Cloud
AI
appetizer
asshattery
basics
beef
biden
blog
breads
breakfast
budget
cake
casserole
chicken
civil rights
clinton
cookies
coolness
cross-post
DADT
Democrats
dessert
diet
dips
economics
eggs
energy
errata
FAIL
glbt
GOP
health
history
hors d'oeuvres
Houston
Human Rights Campaign
humor
Ike
main course
mcsame
music
MWBC
no-bake
obama
oil
Out and Equal Houston
Overheard
photo
pie
politics
pork
potato
punditry
recipe
recovery
rewind
rice
salads
sandwich
shrub
side dish
soup
space
technology
tilt-shift
turkey
vegetarian
video
wingnuts
WTF?

Poltical Blogs & News
-
Monday Night2 hours ago
-
-
Noted3 months ago
-
Search10 months ago
-
-
-
-

Perry vs Schwarzenegger
News Links
Blogs & Other Favorites
- Air Quality Outlook
- Amazon
- Blogger Dashboard
- By the Bayou
- Continental Airlines
- Cooking Measurements
- Dilbert
- Earth Quake Activity (N. CA)
- Hulu
- Human Rights Campaign
- I Can Has Cheezburger
- Internet Movie Database
- Joe.My.God
- NASA
- Nutrition Data
- SiteMeter
- Snopes
- TCU
- The Bobblespeak Translation
- Towleroad
- Weird Universe
- Wikipedia
- WikipediaVision (Beta)
- YouTube
- YouTube Profile

0 comments:
Post a Comment