Meet the New Boss…

If you ever needed a reminder that the deep differences between Democrats and Republicans sometimes don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, George Bush's peroration on gay marriage yesterday does the trick.

Sez the prez who knows "we're all sinners" (the only question being whether we be in the hands of an angry god or a loving one):

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

As liberals gear up to bash Bush for his reactionary thinking on this point, they ought to remember the actions of the only twice-elected Democrat president since FDR. When Bill Clinton signed The Defense of Marriage Act in September 1996–an act specifically intended to foreclose state recognition of same-sex marriages–he noted that he had "long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages."

While Bush's position is no surprise, new Gallup polls on attitudes toward homosexuals are: Over the past two months, support for gay relations between consenting adults is taking a dive, as is support for same-sex unions.

That's not just bad news for gays and lesbians. It's a bad sign for a country that prides itself on individual rights and tolerance.