Senator Bob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, has opposed gay marriage. Now he has changed his mind. Why? Because his son came out as gay. The path to a politician’s heart, it turns out, is through his DNA.
As Ethical As a Three-Euro Note
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
5 Comments. Leave new
Somebody please fill me in on Dick Cheney’s reaction when he learned his daughter Mary is a lesbian. Did he back off?
@derlehrer: Dick Cheney didn’t give a shit, because he never truly cared one way or another.
Most of the Republican upper echelon elite don’t actually personally care about social conservative issues like LGBT rights/equality, abortion, religion, ect… These individuals, including Dick Cheney, just pretend to care about these things because it allows them to wrangle the dumb angry white male vote, because dumb angry white males do care about those things. Moreover Dick Cheney knows that dumb angry white males care more about those things then the evil things Dick Cheney wants to be able to get away with. So Cheney wrangles their votes and backing to satisfy his evil aspirations by paying feigned token concern to to their social conservative issues.
Thus when his daughter came out he didn’t bat an eye. He just made sure he never was with her at the same time he was backing or propping up republican candidates who openly proclaimed their anti-gay stances.
As for for Senator Bob Portman, I have no idea, he may or may not be a true believer. If he was a true believer then Rall’s cartoon is correct, he only takes stances that effect him and his immediate family and nuts everyone else. But if he is more in the Cheney camp then this cartoon isn’t right. If this is the case then what probably happen was Bob Portman decided to ditch his feigned stance against gay rights because when his son came out he decided that he wasn’t smooth enough an operator to get away with being both for and against gay rights in proportion to exactly when and where would be of optimal benefit for his carrier and family in all situations like Dick Cheney somehow manages to do.
It only counts when it hits home – and that is why we need a draft army.
@ someone –
And that is why future reference books might someday contain an entry equating “machiavellianism” with “cheneyism”!
A pity to see the memory of a great political theorist and philosopher like Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli sullied by being connected to the life and times of a mafia boss like Richard Bruce Cheney….
Henri