COMMENTARY | I feel I should preface my remarks by stating emphatically that I am a liberal. But being a liberal does not negate my responsibility for intellectual honesty, and it is on that basis that I can and do sometimes offer criticism of those with whom I largely agree.
During a speech to the Human Rights Campaign, President Barack Obama called Republican candidates out for their silence when the audience at the Google-Fox News Republican Debate booed a gay soldier.
"We don't believe in the kind of smallness," said the president, "that says it's OK for a stage full of political leaders -- one of whom could end up being the president of the United States -- being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don't believe in that."
This comes from a president who, for whatever reason, cannot be bothered to stand up on the side of those law-abiding Americans who wish to express their love for each other in the bonds of legal marriage.
The president went on to say, "We don't believe in standing silent when that happens. We don't believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient. We don't believe in a small America. We believe in a big America -- a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America -- that values the service of every patriot."
The president was right. We are bigger than that, but the president is a hypocrite. He is constantly silent. He is silent on the treatment of Muslim Americans. He allowed New York Rep. Peter King's senseless hearing on the "radicalization of American Muslims" to proceed without any statement from the White House. He couldn't do anything to stop the hearings, but he certainly could have used his bully pulpit to shame the people conducting those hearings.
Then there's the subject of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque." The president took a pass on speaking to the wisdom of the location of the mosque, but that's not leadership. Leadership is having the fortitude to say "No! It shouldn't be placed two blocks from Ground Zero. Instead, it should be in one of the two footprints of the trade center, facing a Christian Church in the other, to remind us forever of a time when hate dishonored our gods."
Time again, President Obama has remained silent on those issues that a president can and should use his bully pulpit to speak from -- in order to lead.
President Obama doesn't have this next election in the bag, yet, and despite what the pundits will tell you, this election will not be about the economy. This election will be about social issues. It will be about same sex marriage, and how we treat Muslims. It will be about how we relate to the poor and how we go about meeting our obligations to the most needy people in our nation. Democrats won't vote for anyone (other than Gary Johnson) in the current field because we would rather be poor than evil, but that doesn't mean for one second that we are happy.
President Obama said some great things at the HRC event, and he was right. I just wish that he could have said it without dragging so much hypocrisy behind. What good is it to have a president with whom we agree, if he's not standing up and leading on the issues?
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