Divider, not a Uniter

Bush's strategy: Pander to prejudice

All my optimism about the upcoming election ground to a halt this morning, just as the Massachusetts Supreme Court brought a smile to my face by saying that, yes, we were serious, and we won't take civil unions as a waffling way out. Marriage for everyone.

This is super news, but it would have been better if the presumptive Democratic nominee weren't from Massachusetts. Because I've figured out what the issue will be in this election, if Bush has his way: Me.

One day, someone will free me from my status as a wedge issue. A Democrat with nerve and guts will slam some poor Republican in a debate with a pithy statement that will knock this issue off the map, make it clear to the millions of Americans whose thinking on this issue is cloudy that, whether they support or hate the idea of gay marriage, it doesn't have a damn thing to do with their lives. What society and government eventually decide about the issue will help--or hurt--me, not them. Then the Democrat will get back to talking about the deficit, the war, the environment, health care--issues that impact everyone.

I hope the Democrat who can pull this off is John Kerry. But the fact that my life is about to be the center of the presidential election does not make me happy or optimistic. Please, America, prove me wrong.