Telling Obama who he can/can't associate with religiously is itself intolerance [View All]

[Alhena]

This won't be popular here, but I really don't care. My views are as follows:

1. I personally would prefer that homosexuals have the right to marry or do anything else that makes them happy that does not hurt other people.

2. I personally think the Bible, Koran, etc are obvious and blatant fairy tales whose huge influence are monuments to man's inability to accept his own mortality and insignifigance in the scheme of the universe.

Having said that ...

1. I respect peoples' genuinely held beliefs, including those of the most backwards southern baptists.

2. The fact is that even in the liberal state of California, most people oppose gay marriage. I'm sure that means that nationwide a significant majority oppose it, and, among preachers, a very large majority oppose it. That makes opposition to gay marriage a very prevalent view among preachers. Obama had to select *some* preacher to give his invocation, and to suggest that he has committed some unpardonable outrage by selecting a very mainstream preacher strikes me as being silly.

3. In my view, telling someone that he has to shun another person- that he can't associate with him, because of his views, is itself intolerant. I thought it was intolerant with regard to Rev. Wright and I think it's intolerant with regard to Rev. Warren. And for the record, I don't particularly care for either of these two men. I suspect they are both demogagues and con artists as I personally think a person has to be in order to preach obvious fairy tales for a living (and for great profit in the case of both men).

4. There's a shrill quality to the attacks against Obama on this issue that is very grating to me. I prefer rational and calm arguments. There seems to be an unforunate belief among many in our party - especially in the netroots- that if they scream loudly enough about an issue, even if they are in the minority of Americans, then it makes them right. I happen to think they are right on the gay marriage issue, but I also recognize that I live in a democracy, and most Americans disagree with me on gay marriage. I think the internet, and our ability to make a message board post or a Daily Kos diary - gives us an exaggerated sense of our self-importance. We each get one voice and one vote. And, in our democracy, the voice of a Daily Kos diarist or DU poster is worth no more than that of the most backwards, trailer-park living redneck. I think that's the way it should be.

5. Obama is the president of the United States- the entire United States. He is obviously moving to the center and has been for a while. Deal with it, or don't deal with it, but it's been happening for a while and will continue. It could be purely political, or he could just want to be the president for the nation as a whole. But regardless, there's a shrill and futile quality to this continued amazement that a Democratic president is moving to the center, just like Bill Clinton did and just like the next Democratic president will. After having a chimpanzee as president for the last 8 years, I'm personally grateful as hell that we have an extremely intelligent and decent man as president. And while I'd rather not see him move to the center on certain issues, I am pragmatic enough to prefer that he did move to the center and get re-elected in 4 years than to see him make the next 4 years a monument to liberalism only to see Bobby Jindal as our next president in 2013.