You Got Spunk? They Hate Spunk.

Who can turn the world on with a smile? Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? President Obama, that’s who!

Unless you’ve been under a rock all week, you probably know by now that on Wednesday, my President came out in favor of same-sex marriage, exactly one day after North Carolina voted to amend their constitution which now defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman.

WAY TO STICK IT TO EM’, MR. PRESIDENT! These right wing crazies need to understand that they are in the minority and that America is a country that embraces diversity. What’s more, you’ve shown everyone a lesson on tolerance and acceptance and...wait, wait...something’s wrong here.

Who am I to be reveling in the refreshing candor of a politician who is obviously using this as a campaign ploy designed to pander to one-tenth of the population of the country? Why, If I want to rub North Carolina’s face  with the gooey icing of my patented cream cheese frosting that sits proudly atop my freshly baked victory carrot cake, wouldn’t that make me a lowly, jealous and angry slug of a human being? I mean, if I did the happy dance over taking away someone’s right to take away someone’s right, am I not reducing myself to their level of inhumanity?

Well, hell yeah I am. But who cares? For the first time in the history of this country, the person at the very top of the political food chain has stood with us on this issue. And so to the people of North Carolina I proudly say, suck it!

If ever Americans needed a clear line of demarcation between the strength and character of this President and Mitt Romney, this was it.  With those few sentences, my President proved once again that he is a man of character and conviction who is not afraid to stand up for what is right and just.

Of course, I would be more than remiss if I did not acknowledge his point man, Vice-President Joe Biden, who opened the door for my President on last Sunday’s Meet the Press by acknowledging that he too supported same-sex marriage.

At first I thought this was just another one of those embarrassing Uncle Joe ‘oops’ moments. But three days later, when the President was coming out, I realized that Uncle Joe is as crafty as a fox; a silver fox. This move had all the precision planning of the Bin-Laden hit, minus Seal Team Six.

Romney naturally, was speechless and released a somewhat limp response and reiterated his continued support of hetero marriage only. This has been his position from the get-go and maybe the only one he hasn’t flip-flopped on since he began running five years ago. I’m not surprised though considering that it was the Mormon Church’s influence that overturned Prop 8 in California. It’s strange that this would come from them considering their relatively recent abandonment of polygamy.

Both of these endorsements (Obama and Biden) mean nothing of course, and yet they mean everything. To the people of North Carolina who want to believe that we are going to go back in the closet and return America to a white-dominated patriarchy, this was a big, giant thumb-nosing. To the millions of GLBT people who want nothing more than to have first-class citizenship, this was a major step forward to that end; for no sitting U.S. President has ever done what my President did last Wednesday. And while it doesn’t change what happened in North Carolina, it does present a clear choice to Americans in November. Will they choose the man who supports the views of the far right on retro-fitting vaginas to suit some delusional pre-World War II view of women, who had to be shamed into allowing interracial marriage, who even now have the chutzpa to inject religious views into what is clearly a civil issue? Will they choose to elect a man who flip flops more than an Aunt Jemima pancake on a hot griddle, but whose religion is surprisingly lily-white and would deny America’s Aunt and beloved icon membership to same? And finally, will they elect a man who clearly is so out of touch with the mainstream that he believes corporations are people?

Barack Obama is not perfect to be sure. But I believe with all my heart that this man has the best interests of the American people at the top of his agenda. From his handling of the automobile crisis to the banking situation, to gay rights, he has stood his ground and done the right thing against almost insurmountable odds.

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, we are at a turning point in this country. There is a dangerous movement afoot by the extreme right to undo the very roots of our Constitution and put in its place a quasi-theocracy, which can only turn into tyranny. But this is not about religion; this fight is about a white patriarchy being forced to turn over the reins of power to the very groups they have so successfully oppressed for the last 200+ years. They are so fearful of becoming a minority that church pastors are now commanding their flocks to procreate in an effort to stem the tide. It’s really kind of sick.

As a case in point let’s take a look at Shaun Winkler.

  See Shaun. Shaun is running for Sheriff of Bonner County in Idaho. Shaun has lots of friends in the Ku Klux Klan. Shaun likes his friends so much that he became an Imperial Wizard.

Spot, the dog, is afraid of Shaun. So is Puff the cat.

Shaun likes fire and religion. He likes it so much that recently he invited the media to watch him burn a cross to show how much he cares. Remember, Shaun is running for Sheriff.

“We look at it more as a religious symbol”, said Shaun to his media friends. “Mainstream society looks at cross lighting as a symbol of hate, but it predates the Klan by hundreds of years”.  Shaun is correct. Emperors of ancient Rome used them to hang early Christians on and then set them on fire to provide light for their parties.

Shaun has a kinder, gentler side though. “Most people don’t know that we don’t just oppose the Jews and Negroes. We also oppose sexual predators and drugs of any kind,”

said the wizard. While he doesn’t condone the use of using humans as torches, he believes that immediate hanging is an acceptable form of punishment for drug dealers and those convicted of being sexual predators. Spot and Puff think Shaun is insane because he says that his personal beliefs won’t guide the way he would act as sheriff. Both Spot and Puff and Dick and Jane laughed until they peed themselves when he said this.

They won’t be laughing if he gets elected.

Whether you want to believe that this polarization of America is racial or not, I can’t help but believe that the vitriol I’ve seen directed at my President would not have happened if he were white. Sure the Republicans and Democrats would have bickered over issues, but that is the nature of a two party system. But this is a struggle for power to control the future of this country. And if you don’t believe that, take a good look at what Mitch McConnell said almost immediately after President Obama took office.

"The single most important thing is for Obama to be a one-term president"

That’s their goal. Not jobs, not economic growth. Their goal is to restore America to a lily-white power base and to legislate the rights of all Americans to conform to a twisted view of what they believe America should be. And you, as an American, ought to be outraged that you are being used for that purpose.

That’s it. I’m done bitching. Everybody hug, everybody eat. Abbondanza!