Dwight Pelz has pulled his support for the the marriage equality plank of the federal platform. He claims the problem is that this is an effort to embarrass Obama.
“I was unhappy to see them throw up some press release out there making it like this insurrection within the party,” Pelz says. “I wasn’t happy with them using my name,” he says, explaining that he didn’t like their tactics. “I didn’t realize it was part of a strategy to start a fight within the party and embarrass the President.”
“Frankly, I felt sandbagged.”
I appreciate that Pelz wants to support President Obama more than he cares about any particular plank in the platform. But if Obama can’t support a marriage equality plank, he deserves to be embarrassed. He’s on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of basic human decency.*
Furthermore, the Washington State Democratic platform will support marriage equality because most Washington State Democrats support marriage equality. Most of the caucus in the last session of the legislature supported marriage equality. We need a chair who will support for those values at the national level. I realize that party activists have the freedom to get ahead of elected officials on these sorts of issues, I just hope Pelz remembers that he’s an activist, not an elected official, now.
* I say this as someone who’s already wearing an Obama 2012 button, and who will knock on doors and make phone calls for him and the rest of the ticket.
Um… I guess I’m not understanding Pelz’s complaint. Did Pelz not support the federal plank when he was listed as supporting it?
THIS is why so many people hate political parties in general, and the Democrats in particular, when they watch party hacks like Pelz who are all for supporting basic human rights (and for a group that’s one of their party’s core constituencies, no less) – unless, of course, it might “embarrass” the Dear Leader.
Pelz also seems to be under the illusion that people who care about marriage equality don’t already know what Obama’s record is, and isn’t. Fuckwad.
And he’s a tactical idiot, too, because if R 74 makes the ballot in November a LOT of queers and their allies will be out voting against it. They’ll vote for president, too, and a bunch of other partisan races. You’d think he would care about that. Guess not.
I really don’t understand Pelz on this. I met him when he was on the King County Council and I was staffing a business area land use ordinance thru, and thought he was really smart (if more on the DLC end of the spectrum). If the Dems are craven enough to feel they have to “finesse” this at the national level I sort of get that they might have qualms given Obama’s obstinency, but for the WA State platform, given the progress that’s happened here, and R74, he just loses me.
Pelz should feel like an idiot for choosing the wrong side on this one.