{"id":881,"date":"2004-05-31T15:55:14","date_gmt":"2004-05-31T23:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/05\/31\/president-bush-isnt-elite-and-neither-is-senator-kerry\/"},"modified":"2004-05-31T15:55:14","modified_gmt":"2004-05-31T23:55:14","slug":"president-bush-isnt-elite-and-neither-is-senator-kerry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=881","title":{"rendered":"President Bush isn't elite, and neither is Senator Kerry"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Blankenhorn<\/a> at the Family Scholars Blog writes:<\/p>\n

New poll: “The American public continues to oppose the idea of same-sex marriage and supports a constitutional amendment to outlaw it<\/a>.” Given the all but unanimous media and elite acceptance of SSM, along with fierce opposition to anyone opposing SSM, it’s easy to lose sight of this pretty basic fact.<\/div>\n

What I love is the bit about the “all but unanimous media and elite acceptance of SSM.” What world does Blankenhorn live in? Is he somehow unaware that his co-worker Maggie Gallagher<\/a> – not to mention folks like William F. Buckley Jr<\/a>, John Leo <\/a>and Ann Coulter<\/a> – have more than a little access to the media? Did he not know his associate Elizabeth Marquardt <\/a>was published in the New York Times? Has he missed out on seeing gay-haters like Glenn Stanton <\/a>and James Dobson <\/a>interviewed respectfully on major television networks?<\/p>\n

Is he unaware that FOX exists? (There is no gay-basher in the USA that Sean Hannity won’t interview with softball questions – Hannity recently gave a fawning interview to the head of the folks who want South Carolina to leave the United States over the gay marriage issue). Is he unaware that talk radio exists?<\/p>\n

There is no credible standard by which same-sex marriage opponants could be said to be “all but unanimously” absent from the media.<\/p>\n

Similarly, what “elites” is David refering to? Apparently, he doesn’t consider either President Bush or John Kerry (both of whom oppose gay marriage), or the vast majority of both the Senate and the House, to be “elites.”<\/p>\n

He doesn’t consider himself to be an elite – since every non-elite American citizen is a think tank scholar Harvard graduate (gosh, nothing elite about that!).<\/p>\n

He doesn’t consider the Bradley Foundation, with its $500 million dollars of assets, “elite”; nor the mulitmillionairre Coors family, nor the Olin Foundation, nor the Scaife Foundation – all of whom have given away loads of cash to support conservative think tanks, including David’s own think tank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

College <\/a>professors <\/a>who <\/a>oppose <\/a>SSM<\/a>? Not elite.<\/p>\n

To recap: Ivy-league-educated think tank scholars like Blankenhorn are not elites. The multimillionairres who support Blankenhorn’s and other right-wing think tanks are not elites. The most powerful leaders of both major political parties are not elites. Professors are not elites, not even Harvard professors like Mary Ann Glendon or Richard Parker. Even William F. Buckley Jr<\/i>. is not an elite.<\/p>\n

Is there any non-partisan definition of “elite” in which David’s claim even remotely <\/i>makes sense?<\/p>\n

Finally, in case David Blankenhorn hasn’t noticed, folks who support marriage equality have faced “fierce opposition,” too.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

If there’s a legitimate case to be made against gay marriage, David and his associates have come as close to making it as anyone (and far closer than most SSM opponants). And they’ve done it without resorting to virulent homophobia, for which they should be given credit. Nonetheless, this sort of counterfactual self-pity-party about media access, “elites” and “fierce opposition” is advacacy at its weakest and most partisan.<\/p>\n

It’s particular galling coming from David Blankenhorn, whose life – from his elite education to his elite think-tank gig – has given him an ability to participate in the gay marriage debate far beyond what most Americans could dream of. I’m sure he’s worked very hard for what he’s acheived. But given his privileged position, compared to the average US citizen, David should have the good grace not to whine about “elites.”.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Blankenhorn at the Family Scholars Blog writes: New poll: “The American public continues to oppose the idea of same-sex marriage and supports a constitutional amendment to outlaw it.” Given the all but unanimous media and elite acceptance of SSM, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-same-sex-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}