Editor’s Note:
I don’t
normally give much thought to being from Connecticut. We have a nice,
mild climate, and there aren’t many tornadoes, hurricanes or crime
sprees to worry about. However,
politically, I’m
sometimes struck by what sensible centrists Connecticut residents are as a
whole. Collectively, we seldom do things that makes me think, “Christ, that’s embarrassing,” as I might if I lived in some other
states, especially those
way down south in Dixie.
Proud to Be a Connecticut
Yankee
At a Barack Obama victory party in Greenwich, Conn.,
guests both black and white repeated over and over, “I never thought I’d
live long enough to see a black president.” At this same celebration, the head
of the Democratic Town Committee announced that Obama had carried Greenwich. I
never thought I’d live long enough to see that.
For decades, Greenwich natives have had to hear their
hometown, deservedly or undeservedly, referred to as a bigoted and racist place.
Yet this time around, Greenwich — like Connecticut overall, which experienced
an Obama landslide — has reason to be proud.
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Nationwide, the fly in the November 4th ointment for
some liberals (and a feather in the cap for right-wing Christians and other
assorted bigots) was the passage of several anti-gay-rights referenda, including
California’s Proposition 8, which, by 52% to 48%, banned gay marriage. In much
of the country, the legalization of same-sex marriage is probably overreaching
on the part of gay rights activists; however, for those who take civil rights
seriously, Prop 8 is an example of the tyranny of the majority against the
rights of an unpopular minority, which our Constitution was written to prevent.
Of course, no such referenda were floated in Connecticut, which
recently moved from civil unions to legalized gay
marriage. This might seem somewhat surprising in the Nutmeg State, which isn’t
usually mentioned in the same breath with such Sodoms and Gomorrahs as
California and New York. Nevertheless, supposedly stodgy New England is now home
to the only two states that permit same-sex marriage, so we Yankees have another
reason to be proud. |
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Recently, the Stamford Advocate announced
the marriage of a gay couple, who were also celebrating 50 years together.
Despite this routine publication of what televangelist Pat Robertson once
referred to as “sticking their fingers in God’s
eye,” the sky hasn’t fallen, Jehovah hasn’t rained
down fire and brimstone on Washington Boulevard, large numbers of teenagers
haven’t “chosen” to become homosexuals, and heterosexual spouses haven’t
abandoned their marriages or their children in droves as a result of Connecticut’s failure to
defend the family from gay weddings.
Not that long ago, miscegenation was also deemed
contrary to God’s will, but mixed marriages were eventually legitimized. No
one has come up with a single good reason why interracial marriage, civil union
or gay marriage threatens conventional matrimony. Eventually, most Americans are
likely to realize that civil unions are just civil rights, and applying the
term “marriage” to them is just a semantic distinction without a difference.
Someday, the rest of the country is likely to follow
Connecticut’s lead. Okay, maybe hard-core bigots in the deeply red, former
slave states such as Alabama and Mississippi won’t, but the trend among
younger voters is a live-and-let-live attitude toward harmless sexual
orientations. Tolerating other people’s proclivities isn’t libertine: It’s
inherently libertarian — getting government out of our bedrooms.
The 2008 election has solidified New England’s
moderately center-left leanings. Of the region’s 12 senators, the only
remaining Republicans are centrists Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.
And New England’s last conservative House member, Connecticut’s Christopher
Shays (a Republican who habitually pretended to be a Democrat around election
time), was also unseated this year.
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In Connecticut, the only fly in the ointment for
Democrats continues to be Senator Joe Lieberman, who’s evolved into another
Republican pretending to be a Democrat. After endorsing John McCain, Lieberman
deceitfully vowed not to attack Obama during his address to the Republican
convention. He then scathingly assailed Obama in St. Paul and then campaigned so
relentlessly (and negatively) for the GOP that he looked like a grinning parrot
on McCain’s shoulder in dozens of photo ops.
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Lieberman’s devotion to the disastrous “Bush
doctrine” of preemptive war and the perpetuation of an endless occupation of
Iraq has trumped his more-liberal tendencies in other areas. His willingness to
support a conservative Republican pledged to appoint hard-right justices to the
Supreme Court nullifies his previous support for liberal policies —
pro-choice, environmentalism, gay rights, etc. — that would be eradicated by a
court dominated by a Roberts/Scalia majority. And Lieberman’s presidential
pick also favored continuing the disastrous feed-the-rich tendencies of the now
spectacularly failed Bush economic policies.
In the spirit of reconciliation, bipartisanship and
achieving a filibuster-proof Senate majority, the Democratic caucus elected to
keep Lieberman in the fold, with Obama’s approval. This was probably a good
move politically, especially after eight years of divisive Bush partisanship and
us-vs.-them fanaticism.
However, in 2012, Connecticut’s Democratic majority
can express their disapproval (already demonstrated by Lieberman’s dismal poll
numbers) for the state’s only right-wing representative by electing someone
who better reflects the state’s political outlook. Then, Connecticut will have
one more reason to be proud of itself.
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