Just Think If We Led On "Wedge Issues"

A just released national Pew Research poll includes these findings:

Public acceptance of homosexuality has increased in a number of ways in recent years, though it remains a deeply divisive issue. Half of Americans (51%) continue to oppose legalizing gay marriage, but this number has declined significantly from 63% in February 2004, when opposition spiked following the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision and remained high throughout the 2004 election season. Opposition to gay marriage has fallen across the board, with substantial declines even among Republicans.

... The poll also finds less opposition to gays serving openly in the military and a greater public willingness to allow gays to adopt children. A 60% majority now favors allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, up from 52% in 1994, and 46% support gay adoption, up from 38% in 1999.

... Strong" opposition to gay marriage, which surged in 2004, has ebbed to a new low. This is particularly the case among seniors, Catholics and non-evangelical Protestants. Among people age 65 and over, for example, strong opposition to gay marriage jumped from 36% in 2003 to 58% in 2004, but has fallen to 33% today. White evangelical Protestants are the only major group in which a majority still strongly opposes gay marriage, but even here the intensity of feeling has receded somewhat.

Yes, positive attitudes about equal citizenship rights for all, including gay civil marriage, are trending strongly upward, even though most Dems are doing next to nothing to change people's minds. Think what could be achieved if we decided to lead on this and other "controversial" issues -- to offer persuasive arguments to counter biases nursed by the conservative noise machine, to educate citizens on what's really at stake if we don't secure basic rights for all. Instead, too many seem mired in fear and even shame about what we Democrats really believe.

I think we should be proud of our decades-long pursuit of justice, equality and fairness for all, not fearful to admit it. The Democratic Party has taken many risks in the past supporting positions that were very controversial at the time -- strongly lobbying for labor rights, for equal civil rights for racial minorities, for women's rights, for environmental regulation and much more. Since when are we afraid to take on the biases and injustices of our time, to confront the forces of prejudice and narrowmindedness and convince voters of what's right?

I'm sure if you polled voters during the eras when we fought for these things, you'd find we were out front on the issues. We were "out of sync" with the attitudes of many voters all right. But instead of shrinking from the challenge, we plunged in and fought for our values. We didn't cave to the threats and badgering of those on the other side of the issues. We stood tall and explained why.

I think about all this in terms of positions that were cut out or watered down in the NM Dem Party's 2006 platform. Unfortunately, strong resolutions on gay civil rights that were approved at every level of the Party were tossed aside when it came time for platform creation. We've been told in no uncertain terms by -- believe it or not -- a gay man who serves on the platform committee, that we'll do our cause harm if we seek to lead on this issue. Can there be a more co-opted or self-defeating attitude than this? And yet it prevails in way too many corners of the Party. At least for now.

We have a long and proud history of representing those whose voices have been stifled, whose lives have been shrunken, whose rights have been trampled upon by prejudice and ignorance and greed. If we stop doing this our of fear and calculation, who are we as a Party?