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Obama on Marriage: Bigot or Liar?
National Review ^ | 06/30/2010 | Robert P. George

Posted on 07/02/2010 2:01:53 AM PDT by iowamark

Like Sherlock Holmes’s dog that didn’t bark in the night, liberals have been strangely silent about Obama’s comments on marriage.

It has become a matter of orthodoxy among progressives that those who believe that marriage is properly defined as the union of one man and one woman are guilty of bigotry.

There is a problem, however: Barack Obama has assured voters that he believes marriage to be the union of one man and one woman — not two men, two women, or some combination of more than two people. As Donald Trump rather pointedly noted after the Miss U.S.A. pageant, President Obama’s position on the definition of marriage is identical to the position stated by California beauty queen Carrie Prejean.

So what do progressives think? Has the president embraced bigotry? Or has he lied to the American people about his position on what marriage is and how it should be defined?

On either side’s account, the dispute over the nature and meaning of marriage is profoundly important. Those who seek to redefine marriage to include same-sex or even polyamorous relationships believe that the historical definition of marriage as a male-female union denies people who incline toward other forms of sexual partnership equality and fundamental rights. Those who defend the historical definition — I am one of them — believe that redefining marriage will further erode public morality and weaken the already battered institution of marriage.

So if the president is lying, he is lying about something that really matters. It is no innocent fib (like Robert Gibbs’s fib that the president did not bow to the Saudi king).

So which is it? Is the president a bigot or a liar?

For what it’s worth, I think he is lying. I doubt that Barack Obama believes in the conjugal conception of marriage as a male-female union. After all, he opposed California’s Proposition 8, which restored the historical definition of marriage in California law after it had been erased by the state’s Supreme Court, and he has vowed to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act that was signed into law by President Clinton.

Moreover, I suspect that very few progressives doubt that President Obama is lying. So why do they give him a pass? Why do they let him get away with publicly embracing a position they regard as bigotry? Why is he not given the treatment they have meted out to Carrie Prejean, the Mormon Church, and others who oppose the redefinition of marriage?

My guess is that it’s because they know that redefining marriage remains a losing proposition politically. They know that the question of marriage has been put before the voters in 31 states, and in all of them — including staunchly liberal states such as Wisconsin, California, and, most recently, Maine — the people have voted to preserve marriage as the exclusive union of husband and wife. Evidently, progressives do not want to force one of their own to tell the truth and accept the political consequences.

But progressives who attack those who disagree with them about marriage as “bigots” should not be able to get away with this smear while simultaneously giving liberal politicians such as Barack Obama a pass. They need to give us an answer: If opposing the redefinition of marriage is bigotry, then what is Barack Obama, a bigot or a liar?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: gaymarriage; homosexualagenda; polyamory4romney; robertpgeorge; romney; romneymarriage
Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
1 posted on 07/02/2010 2:01:56 AM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark
Oh, please.

Anyone who believes Obama opposes ANY vehicle of social carcinoma is too stupid to feed himself.

Of course he's lying. Everything about him is a lie.

2 posted on 07/02/2010 2:05:12 AM PDT by Jim Noble (If the answer is "Republican", it must be a stupid question.)
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To: iowamark

both


3 posted on 07/02/2010 2:08:17 AM PDT by Doogle (IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN....PLEASE donate, because it's the RIGHT thing to do)
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To: iowamark

IMHO, he’s afraid of outing himself if he is perceived as pushing this issue too far.


4 posted on 07/02/2010 2:17:23 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: freeangel; All

We have a winner.


5 posted on 07/02/2010 3:37:59 AM PDT by RightOnline
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To: Jim Noble

“vehicle of social carcinoma” - nicely phrased. Thank you on this Friday morning.


6 posted on 07/02/2010 3:38:49 AM PDT by Pecos
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To: Pecos
I was at a university graduation a few years ago. When the Dean announced the degrees for the Women's Studies program, someone in the fieldhouse with a bullhorn spoke over "Division of Women's Studies" with "Division of Social Carcinoma".

I liked it, so I stole it.

7 posted on 07/02/2010 4:08:08 AM PDT by Jim Noble (If the answer is "Republican", it must be a stupid question.)
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To: iowamark

Whenever he agrees with me, he is lying.


8 posted on 07/02/2010 4:09:35 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (The Obama magic is <strike>fading</strike>gone.)
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To: Jim Noble

Think about this:

The ACLU types want to banish GOD from every aspect of public life and promote GAY marriage where couples promise UNDER GOD to love, honor and cherish!!!!

Progressive pretzels!!!!!


9 posted on 07/02/2010 4:41:27 AM PDT by sodpoodle (Despair - Man's surrender. Laughter - God's redemption)
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To: sodpoodle

You bannish God, you get sobs like obama and worse.

Think 2009 and 2010 are bad? You better buckle yourself in and hat, You ain’t seen nothing yet.


10 posted on 07/02/2010 4:47:26 AM PDT by sport
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To: iowamark
Can I choose "idiot"?

ML/NJ

11 posted on 07/02/2010 5:12:21 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: iowamark
Can I choose "idiot"?

ML/NJ

12 posted on 07/02/2010 5:12:29 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: iowamark
Democrats aren't bothered by their own inconsistencies.
13 posted on 07/02/2010 5:24:00 AM PDT by libertylover (The problem with Obama is not that his skin is too black, it's that his ideas are too RED.)
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To: iowamark
what is Barack Obama, a bigot or a liar?

Well, the pedophile Mohammad had twelve wives and granted his devoted zombies the right to have four wives. So obviously the undocumented Muslim Marxist in Chief believes that four wives is the proper number. In this particular case he is therefore a liar.

14 posted on 07/02/2010 5:29:11 AM PDT by layman (Card Carrying Infidel)
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