The left tries to divide us on marriage

Rich Lowry:

...

Warren supports partnership benefits for gay couples, but not marriage. According to a recent Newsweek poll, he's among two-thirds of Americans against gay marriage: About a third of Americans favor gay marriage, a third favor civil unions but not marriage, and a third favor no legal recognition. Even Barack Obama - the liberal paladin whose inauguration allegedly will be besmirched by Warren's presence - says he opposes gay marriage, although apparently few of his supporters believe him (for good reason).

Warren is a particular provocation to the left after the passage of Proposition 8 in California. The ballot initiative - supported by Warren - amended the California Constitution to define marriage as a union between man and woman.

The vote was necessary only because the California Supreme Court had imposed gay marriage on the state earlier this year. As in so many other culture-war battles, the traditionalists were the ones in a fundamentally defensive posture. They defended an age-old definition of gay marriage, while the left sought - using its favorite tool, the courts - to run roughshod over majority sentiment.

Now, traditionalists will have to beat back an attempt to define their view of marriage as out of bounds, as the moral equivalent of racism. Mormons who contributed financially to Prop. 8 have been vilified and intimidated, and California Attorney General Jerry Brown has deemed Prop. 8 so illegitimate he won't defend it in court even though it's his duty to do so.

The attacks on Warren are part of this strategy: If Pastor Rick can be defined as a hatemonger undeserving of a prominent public stage, surely the same can be done to any opponent of gay marriage.

In a story about Hollywood's outrage at Obama's choice of Warren, Democratic political consultant Chad Griffin told the Los Angeles Times: "Rick Warren needs to realize that he is further dividing us at a time when the country needs to come together. I think he needs to gracefully step aside."

Ah, yes, "gracefully step aside." That's essentially what the cultural left has been asking traditionalists to do for 30 years now, to politely shut up while it goes about redefining the country's mores. The answer must now be, as it has always been, "No way, no how."

One of the interesting strategies of the left is to take a minority position and then accuse the majority of being divisive. They did this in the Vietnam war and LBJ fell for it completely. In every controversy where they are in the minority they act as if they are the majority and everyone else is out of step or out of touch.

They are doing something even more disgraceful in the argument about gay marriage. They are trying to shut down debate and demonize their opponents. Who do they think they are--AlGore arguing about "climate change"?