George W. Bush does not care about gay marriage. He never has and he never will. As with his Christianity, Bush uses the subject of gay marriage to further his political ambitions or to throw up a smokescreen, but at the end of the day, he does not truly care about gays marrying.
How can I say this so surely? Take a look at when George W. Bush has discussed the prospect of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The first time was when he was running for president in 2000. He claimed that marriage should be between a man and a woman and would seek to change the constitution to protect the institution of marriage. Then he was anointed president by the Supreme Court and a funny thing happened. He forgot about it. It just went away. When did he remember this subject so dear to his heart? That's right, when he was running for president again in 2004. Suddenly, six months out from a tight election, George W. Bush remembered that he cared about gay marriage and proposed a constitutional amendment banning it. He did this knowing full well it did not have the ¾ votes it needed to pass. Why then propose an amendment he knew would not pass? Because he wanted to rally his Christian base to the polls in the upcoming election. It was red meat to throw to his base which was becoming rapidly disillusioned by their president. In an election that should have focused on a disastrous Iraq War and the lies perpetrated by Bush to start it, as well as so many other domestic problems such as a catastrophic economy, Bush had successfully turned the debate to gay marriage. The end result was not to ban gays from marrying, it was to distract the American people from the issues they should have been focusing on. The complicit Bush media machine went along with it and after another stolen election; Bush was back in the Oval Office.
Surely he would not forget his desire to ban gays from marrying again, right? Wrong. In fact he had forgotten it again from November 2004 until this week. Why the lapse in memory again? Because there was nothing to gain from proposing the gay marriage ban until this week. Remember, it is not about protecting marriage, it is about protecting Bush. What does Bush need protection from this time? Himself.
So in the face of all of these issues, what is the focus of our Commander in Chief? In light of a 29% approval rating, the Iraq War, Haditha, Plamegate, Downing Street, NSA, 750 laws broken, Iran, and the fact that in 2004 the will of the people was subverted, what is at the top of President Bush's agenda? Gay marriage. That's right. The issue that was completely forgotten about twice in the past six years by Bush suddenly is the direst issue on the agenda of our president. Forgive me for being cynical, but that is patently ridiculous. This is what is known as the politics of distraction. Bush used it well in 2000 and 2004, but it will not work this time. I can only assume that the president does not think too much of the collective intelligence of the American people. He has such disdain for our ability to process information that he thinks he can roll out the same tired scheme from 2004 and we will not even notice. George Bush only believes in the sanctity of marriage when he can gain something from it. He thinks we must be stupid and it is time for America to stand up and remind the entire GOP what is important in this country and what we will be voting on this November.
It is the economy stupid. It is Iraq stupid. It is Iran stupid. It is the NSA and illegal spying stupid. It is Valerie Plame stupid. It is Votergate 2004 stupid. It is Haditha stupid. It is Abu Ghraib stupid. It is healthcare stupid. It is Downing Street stupid. It is 750 broken laws stupid. It is tax cuts for the rich while services to the poor are cut stupid. It is not repealing the inheritance tax stupid. It is Tom Delay stupid. It is Duke Cunningham stupid. It is Jack Abramoff stupid. It is corruption stupid. It is WMD stupid. It is outsourcing stupid. It is about checks and balances stupid. It is about Congressional oversight stupid. It is about democracy stupid.
Don't be snookered again America. Don't be fooled again my Christian brethren. George W. Bush does not care about gay marriage. He is using it and you. His hope is if he screams loud enough into the echo chamber he has created that something will resonate with the American people other than what has dropped his approval ratings down to 29%. He is hoping for distraction. He wants you thinking that it is the gays that present the greatest threat to you today. Not the economy or the war but gays. Keep in mind though that he KNOWS it will not pass. His intent is not to change anything substantive, just the discourse in America. He does not care if gays marry as long as you are talking about whether they should or not. To hear George Bush wax prophetically about gay marriage in the face of the plethora of real problems facing us all is like how Shakespeare described life; " a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
