That's the title of this article on Slate.com, regarding the reaction of the Republican Senator from Ohio to his son's decision to come out to his father and family. To Portman's credit, he has not only accepted his son as gay, but also reversed his previous negative stance on marriage equality. The article, however, focuses on the larger point that a public servant's moral compass should not be set solely or even primarily by that which touches him personally. To quote the article:
The great challenge for a senator isn't to go to Washington and
represent the problems of his own family. It's to try to obtain the
intellectual and moral perspective necessary to represent the problems
of the people who don't have direct access to the corridors of power.
And that, unfortunately, is precisely not only what is lacking within the Republican Party, but why it is lacking as well. Historically and presently, they boil public service down to self-service, to the point at which they only support measures to benefit the nation as a whole if those measures have some sort of advanced personal connection. Think, for example, of Senator Robert Dole's support for the Americans with Disabilities Act, or for veterans' benefits. To what extent would he have supported either had it not been for his own wartime injuries? Far worse, on the other hand, was former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, justifying in a television interview the fact that Texas received more in federal aid than it sent to Washington in tax revenue. He referred to the windfall as Texas' "fair share." That alone speaks volumes about what constitutes the Republican concept of "fairness." And worst of all: the 2008 federal bailout launched by the Bush Administration (and, sadly, also supported by the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats), which ratified the privatization of profits and the socialization of risk in the American economy.
More than anything else, this encapsulates the reasons why I am a Democrat. Despite being prone to put process ahead of substance, and thereby buy into bad ideas for the sake of "bipartisanship", we don't need to feel another person's pain personally to feel it. We don't need to have trouble visit our houses to know that people are in trouble, and need help. Our political positions don't reflect narcissism; they reflect the needs of a great nation, and both the confidence and resolve needed to solve them.
Good for you, Senator Portman, although far better for your son and his truly awesome courage. But, as to the question of whether your change of heart on marriage equality will lead to developing a greater heart for the needs of others, count me as a skeptic.
No comments:
Post a Comment