Allright- I get it. United States Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) flipped his position in support of gay marriage, and he waited until after his re-election to do so. (Heck, he even waited until after Republican Sen. Rob Portman to do so) That fact was posted on my blog earlier this week. We got it. Point taken. Politicians lack conviction, and will always play games to get elected. We’re over it.
That is, until I read his explanation to The Huffington Post on why he changed his mind on gay marriage. You see, the people I know who oppose gay marriage don’t oppose gay marriage because of a dislike or some stereotype they hold against people who are gay. They simply view marriage as a religious sacrament between one man and one woman. Rather than working to redefine marriage, shouldn’t we focus on getting government out of the business of defining marriage altogether? They hold views against gay marriage despite the love that they also hold for gay friends, family members, or others. It’s not because of hate, bigotry, or some stereotype that they hold.
But apparently that wasn’t the case for Senator Tester. Here’s what he told The Huffington Post in an exclusive interview explaining his change of heart on gay marriage:
TESTER: “I think it’s just the people you run into, the people you meet, the goodness in people and the example they set,” Tester continued. “And it just kind of takes away a lot of the stereotypes that were in my head and I got to a point where, you know, I asked myself as a policymaker, as a U.S. senator, is it right that I should be denying somebody the right of happiness? And it wasn’t and that’s why we made a decision.”
The people he met took away some of the stereotypes that were in his head? Does anyone else find that disturbing?
Full audio/video can be found below:
The Atlantic Wire was at least one outlet to all out mock Senator Tester over his recent post-election flip on gay marriage.
Philip Bump had this:
Congratulations to Montana’s Jon Tester, the latest Democratic senator to clamber onto the back of the gay marriage train as it leaves the station. (And here we were convinced it was too late to do so.) In the spirit of encouraging the senator’s embrace of already popular/inevitable things, we’ve gone ahead and compiled some other things he might want to look into.
Earlier coverage from Politico:
Like McCaskill, Tester just won reelection from a red state, and won’t face voters until 2018. Warner is up for reelection in 2014, and Rockefeller is retiring.
As recently as last year, Tester voiced his opposition to gay marriage. A campaign spokeswoman told Bloomberg the senator “supports civil unions for committed same-sex couples, but in Montana, marriage is between one man and one woman.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/03/jon-tester-gay-marriage-89347.html#ixzz2OkK8BxSb
Comments
mel in Whitehall
Thursday, March 28, 2013 4:26 PM
WHEN are we, in Montana, learn that ANY politician that has been in “office” for over 2 terms or 12 years total loose all claim on “being one of us” in any way, shape, or form? It is truly a “game” of “saying what’s on the front burner today – get our photo’s in the paper – then, go behind closed doors and see whats’ in it for us personally and politically!..
This constant selling out of any principles by those we elect should be sounding some sort of alarm for all in Montana – and, the USA. Without our principles to guide us, we become common animals in the zoo of life. The only answer is ACCOUNTABILITY – where/when positions taken before an election become tossed aside without a truthful reason – then, a REVERSAL of that election by way of RECALL becomes mandatory!.. IF such path is NOT available due to some “old legal basis”, then it needs to be changed forthwith – or, simply bypassed by means of a FRAUD CRIME trial – for DEFRAUDING THE VOTERS!