Sixteen years ago this September, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act. While this fact seems to have largely escaped history, it will likely go down in history as one of the most enduring acts of his presidency. It has taken us every day of those sixteen years to turn back the clock on DOMA.
We bring this up not to muse historically about President Clinton’s long-past political decisions during a reelection campaign. No, the anniversary of the DOMA signing actually spotlights a far more serious issue; the ongoing ridiculousness of liberal hypocrisy with regard to same-sex marriage. It’s not just President Clinton, who now purports to support it, it’s also President Obama, another liberal who once opposed but now supports gay marriage. The fact is many Democrats, at both the national and state levels, routinely claim to support gays rights only when it’s time to shake the money tree.
In the middle of the night on September 21, 1996, Bill Clinton banned gay marriage with the swoop of a pen. Not until March, 2013 did he fully repudiate his actions, mere months before the United State Supreme Court struck down the law. It’s also worth mentioning Bill’s “evolution” on same-sex marriage surfaced three whole years after former Vice President Dick Cheney publicly declared support for it.
In another example of liberal hypocrisy, on May 8, 2012, North Carolina voted for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions. The following day, President Barack Obama announced that he supported gay marriage. Many people applauded the President, but few questioned his timing. Clearly it’s worth contemplating how many votes Obama could have changed had he supported marriage rights beforehand. It’s true that the amendment passed by a wide margin, but it seems cowardly to wait until the dust settles before telling people which side of the battle you’re on.
President Obama owed it to gay couples in North Carolina to speak out in their defense, but it sure seems like the Obama reelection campaign waited to see the numbers before striving to give anyone any real hope.
In case you’re not getting the gist, let’s review a third case of liberal hypocrisy. Recently, several liberal gay rights groups backed away from an attempt to put gay marriage on the 2014 ballot in Arizona. The reasons cited were lack of ability to raise funds and a lack of support. Both claims are downright laughable coming from groups famous for their ability to raise enormous amounts of money and secure large groups of people for their initiatives. What is more likely, is that these Democrat-controlled special interest groups would rather pin gay marriage to the 2016 ballot, not where it stands more of a chance in a completely red state, but where they can drive turnout for a Democratic Senate candidate. It’s just another example of democrats playing politics with an issue that affects the lives and freedom of thousands of Arizona residents. Democrats claim to care about “equality” in Arizona, but they want to make gay people wait until it’s politically expedient for them.
Gay marriage is not the only issue on which you see liberal hypocrisy, but on anniversary of the signing of DOMA by a democratic president, let’s speak to the truth of the issue. There are good and principled people fighting to expand freedom for everyone, and like it or not, many of them are Republicans. Conservatives who, in states like Arizona, actually have power. So, while Democrats wave the banner of gay rights and continue to use people as political tools, the Republicans who support freedom for everyone will likely be doing all the real work.
Matthew Bechstein and Ross Hemminger are Co-Directors of GOProud, Inc.