Bush Chooses Rove's Advice over Laura's

All polls indicate that George W. Bush has become very unpopular. The Republican run Congress are even more unpopular than him. So what is a battered Republican Party to do in an election year? Try to motivate the most reactionary elements of your base. Thus the same old rehashing of “gay marriage.” Bush made his big announcement earlier today, while the Senate is debating the issue as I write.

How shameful that the discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens is the tool of choice to boost political numbers. It was just earlier this month that Laura Bush herself said that it was not proper to use this issue as a political tool. It looks like that advice has fallen on deaf ears.

I realize that those who would sanction discrimination would claim that Bush is putting forward this proposed constitutional amendment because he believes in it. The evidence seems to suggest otherwise. For example, why is it always approaching an election that he brings this issue to the forefront, only to abandon it later? Also, Newsweek reports that a close friend of George W. Bush has said the following about his motivations:

One of his old friends told NEWSWEEK that same-sex marriage barely registers on the president's moral radar. "I think it was purely political. I don't think he gives a s--t about it. He never talks about this stuff," said the friend, who requested anonymity to discuss his private conversations with Bush.

Bush is at his best when he is dividing America on polarizing and hot button issues. He is changing the subject from all of his many failures, and those of his counterparts in Congress to anything that will divide Americans.

Consistently, Americans show that they are not very concerned about gay marriage. It is hardly on the radar. In a recent poll, only 3% said that abortion and homosexuality are the nation’s top moral concerns. But still the issue is forced on the American people.

George Bush and Republicans have made a series of sad choices by launching this attack on gay citizens. Division over unity, partisan politics over substance, and perhaps the saddest of them all; Karl Rove’s advice over Laura’s.