Saturday, December 20, 2008

Why I'm Both Happy and Pissed about Warren

Background: Obama picked a homophobic prick named Rick Warren* to invoke the sky giant at his inauguration. Rick Warren is the stereotypical evangelical asswhipe, who, for example, thinks that, if we allow gay marriage, we have to also allow incestuous marriages and pedophiliac marriages. 'Cuz, you know, homosexuality is exactly the same as incest and pedophelia in his eyes.

People are very pissed that Obama has invited such a jackass to his inauguration. There are certainly reasons to be pissed, but there are also reasons not to be.

1. Obama is able to use this outrage as cover to say things like this:
It is no secret that I am an advocate for gay and lesbian Americans.
Without this controversy, there's little reason for Obama to make such a statement, which, btw, is something no president-elect has ever said before.

2. The coverage is all about what a jackass Warren is. Some Americans knew before all this that Warren was a dumbass. Now, a larger percentage have heard about the quote comparing gay marriage, incest, and pedophilia. The coverage is making sure he continues to appeal only to the intolerant jerks that he already appealed to.

3. This is going to work on some percentage of people. Idiots who agree with everything Obama says other than the "fact" that he's Muslim can say, "Oh, if an evangelical idiot like me invokes God for him, I guess he must not be Muslim." Maybe they can leave the idiotic side of their personality behind and vote for the stuff that matters, and maybe they can even listen to Obama and learn something.

4. It's the part of the inauguration where they ask the sky giant to pay attention, and Obama picked someone who he does not agree with. In other words, Obama doesn't give a shit what the sky giant thinks. He's doing this for politics, and the religious side of it doesn't factor into his decision. That's great.

All that said, Warren is a big pile of idiocy. He was a big supporter of Prop 8, which was already a kick in the teeth to LGBTs on election day (I mean, it was also a kick in the teeth to those of us who think that kind of thing is evil, but not as directly aimed as it was at the LGBT community). So I can see how this makes people continue to think they aren't wanted. 

But here's the other part of all of this: it is our job in this play to be pissed off. Numbers 1-3 rely on as much of the left being pissed off about this pick for a meaningless post as possible. So, fuck Warren. And dammit Obama, why did you pick someone so bad that I'm considering digging through the Urban Dictionary to find an insult scathing enough to fit him. You should have picked someone who didn't matter at all.

* People keep calling this fucktard "Reverend" Warren. Fuck that. Reverend means "worthy of reverence." Why do we still use that term for idiots who clearly aren't worthy of reverence? Tell ya what, if people will agree to refer to people who work in education as "The Brilliant Jon Harmon," for example, perhaps I'll start calling these jerks "Reverends."

6 comments:

Libby Hickson said...

I was wondering what you thought of this choice! I'm still not quite sure how you feel about Warren - can you be a little more clear on that? ;-)

Die Anyway said...

Nope, there's just no way you can sugar coat it. I still have my hopes for BHO (kinda reminds me of BTO... one of my favorite rock groups) but picking Warren is more "crossing the aisle" than I want to see.

Jeffrey D. said...

6. Warren has spent the last several weeks backtracking and trying to make it appear as though he supports gay rights.

7. I know Warren is a dipshitty guy who says dipshitty things. But can anyone comprehend how popular this guy is? I used to date a born-again Christian and "The Purpose Driven Life" was like Bible 2 to those people.

And even though he isn't exactly "gay friendly," he's hardly Fred Phelps. He holds the same dumb beliefs about homosexuality as the 52% of Californians who voted for Prop 8, which are based on picked-and-chosen passages from a guide to culture that was written 2,000 years ago. (Side note: if you're ever in Aramathea, the Time Out! guide can point you in the direction of some fabulous gay clubs.) It's all dumb. And the fact that Obama has spurred a national dialogue in which the haters actually seem to be LOSING is, to me, proof that his decision was the work of a master.

I believe Obama is attempting to create a new mode of political discourse, and all the media responses I've seen are based in the old style of politics in which controversies erupt, politicians apologize and change their minds, and the machine chugs on. Good for O for not backpedaling. The only person who's changing his rhetoric here is Warren. When Obama can get one of the biggest evangelical figures to scrub his website clean of anti-homosexual references, that tells me there is a change a' coming, oh brothers and sisters.

Jeffrey D. said...

My list should have started with 5.

Jeffrey D. said...

And P.S. one more thing ... ya know who else feels the same way about homosexuals? The Pope. Something tells me if Obama had asked the Pope to deliver his invocation, it wouldn't have been quite as controversial. This all leads back to Harmon's original comment that religion = dumb. The real controversy is that there is religion in the presidential inauguration ceremony, period.

Jon Harmon said...

Excellent point about the Pope. Seriously, I love how this thing is playing out. I was going to bring this up when I blogged about my shared items, but it's been so long that this one probably won't make the list... but: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/12/on-transition-website-obama-promises.html

Awesome.