Some people are leaders and others are followers. Barack Obama campaigned claiming to be a leader yet has shown himself to be anything but a progressive leader. Rather than lead on issues and use the pulpit of the presidency, Obama is missing in action. And not just on the issue of gay marriage. The list is long: immigration reform, true health care reform, repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, employment non-discrimination protections - the list goes on and on. History, understandably treats leaders with respect and timid, disingenuous followers not so flatteringly. Obama seems determined to have history view his presidency in the latter category. The New Republic has a new piece that politely rips Obama a new one on the issue of gay marriage and compares Obama's weak kneed approach to same sex marriage with Woodrow Wilson's timid approach to women's suffrage nearly a century ago. Great presidents lead while timid followers end up in the not so great column. Barring some dramatic change in course, Obama's presidency will likely be viewed as one huge lost opportunity - and all because Obama refuses to move ahead of the curve and truly lead on anything. Here are column highlights:*
In the fall of 1912, as his campaign for president entered its final stage, Woodrow Wilson was speaking in Brooklyn when he was asked for his opinion on women’s suffrage. The issue was very much in the political ether, but Wilson had declined to take a stand on it. According to John Milton Cooper’s excellent biography of the twenty-eighth president, he responded by insisting that it was “not a question that is dealt with by the national government at all.” The woman who had asked the question was apparently displeased by this blatant dodge. “I am speaking to you as an American, Mr. Wilson,” she retorted. I am speaking to you as an American: It was a wonderful rebuke, . . .
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An evasive stance on a controversial civil rights issue from a liberal president; an insistence that the issue is primarily local, rather than national, in character; a complete failure of sincerity, nerve, and will: If these things sound familiar in 2010, it is because Barack Obama is taking exactly the same approach on gay marriage.
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Obama has also said he favors civil unions rather than gay marriage because the question of where and how to apply the label “marriage” is a religious one. This argument makes even less sense than his stance on state constitutions, since marriage, for better or for worse, is very much a government matter.
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Obama and those around him seem unaware that all of this is a problem; a look at some of the lessons from Wilson’s experience might help to clarify why they ought to reconsider. The first lesson is that history does not look kindly on this type of presidential conduct. Wilson is today remembered as a near-great president, but his indifference on questions of gender and race is more than a bit unflattering in retrospect. Second, like Wilson, Obama is running out of time to stay ahead of history. . . . Third, there is the problem of the example Obama is setting for the rest of the world.
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Obama has said that he wants to restore American moral leadership in the world. But how can he claim the mantle of moral leadership when we are being outpaced by so many countries and so many foreign leaders on one of the central civil rights issues of our time?
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The final lesson from Wilson is that what a president says and does matters. . . . .while he may not realize it, Obama is already leading on gay marriage; he is just leading in the wrong direction. . . . Obama’s stance seems to be a way of conveying to the country that he knows a lot of people still aren’t completely comfortable admitting gays and lesbians as full participants in American life, and that this is OK because he isn’t either. It is about the most cynical gesture you can imagine from an allegedly liberal leader—and we deserve better. I am speaking to you as an American, Mr. Obama.
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It's no secret that I am beyond disgusted with Obama. Likewise, it is increasingly no secret that I hope he ends up facing a primary challenge in the lead up to the 2012 elections. The nation deserves better.
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