Donnelly Weds Good Government & Good Politics
Last week, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly demonstrated a concept I have come to label as “enlightened self-interest.”
That means you do the right thing not only because it is the right thing to do, but you also get a benefit out of it. In Donnelly’s case it was coming out (pardon the pun) in favor of marriage equality, or in other terms, same-sex marriage.
Donnelly released the news via his Facebook page when he stated the following…
“In recent years, our country has been involved in an important discussion on the issue of marriage equality. While serving in the House of Representatives, I had the opportunity to act on a core belief of mine: we are a stronger country when we draw on the strengths of all Americans. I voted to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and was an original supporter of the bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their sexual orientation. It is also for that reason that I oppose amending either Indiana’s or our nation’s constitution to enshrine in those documents an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ instead of a ‘we.’ With the recent Supreme Court arguments and accompanying public discussion of same-sex marriage, I have been thinking about my past positions and votes. In doing so, I have concluded that the right thing to do is to support marriage equality for all.”
Donnelly in the past had opposed same-sex marriage and so this change was pretty big news across Indiana.
Now, some have argued that Donnelly was only doing this for political reasons and that he will pay a price when he is up for re-election – and by the way, that won’t be until 2018. That is the political genius of this move.
We all know attitudes have been changing at road runner speed on this issue over the last decade or so. When Gallup polled the issue back in 1996, only 27 percent of the public supported same-sex marriage while 68 percent opposed it.
I think it’s also worth a mention that 1996 was the year “The Birdcage” was released in movie theatres.
Fast forward to the most recent Gallup poll done in November of last year and you’ll see that 53 percent of the public favor of gay marriage and 46 percent are opposed. Break that number down even further by age group and you’ll see that 73 percent of Americans 18 to 29 think gay marriage should be legal, while 57 percent of those over 65 think it should be illegal.
I am willing to bet there will be more of 18-29-year olds around in 2018 than 65-plus. If these trends continue, and there is no reason to think that they won’t, time is definitely on Donnelly’s side. And I think it’s also worth a mention that in 1958, 94 percent of the public opposed interracial marriage. Today, it’s 11 percent.
This is why I have to give Joe credit where credit is due. He came down on the right side of this issue and it looks like the future will bear him out. There is no logical, rational reason that same-sex marriage should be illegal.
And for the people who stay up at night agonizing over this issue and how horrible it is, I suggest you seek out some therapy. And just so you know, the same people who weren’t going to vote for the senator over same-sex marriage likely weren’t going to vote for him anyway so he loses nothing in that department. If anything, it’s a net win as Donnelly has picked up support from the LGBT community which was tepid at best in some circles.
And at the end of the day, politics is about addition. And by supporting marriage equality, Joe Donnelly will definitely come out ahead on this one.
