President Bush Flip-flopping on Gay Rights Issue?

An anonymous reader writes "In a move that has upset some in the GOP, George Bush has suddenly declared his support for civil unions for gay ane lesbian couples. Will such a move help or hurt him this late in the game?"

Comments

Re:Unfortunately...

[rhakka]

Marriage as an institution has existed as a legally binding institution for thousands of years. For a very, very long time it was a transfer of ownership of a woman from father to the new husband.

Yet it's religious? Religions co-opted marriage. Marriage itself is neither inherently religious nor secular at this point. It has been one, the other or both for so long making such a statement is silly.

Re:How is this flip flopping?

[mopomi]

So, according to your definition, women past the age of about 50 http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=94F4 C769-0E44-4BA5-AF20E9E264577527 should not be allowed to marry? A man or woman who is sterile due to age or accident or choice should not be allowed to marry? These situations preclude procreation, and thus, according to the extreme views you espouse above would preclude any reason to marry, other than for some sort of monetary benefit (I guess).

So this seems reasonable to me, and doesn't strike me as flip flopping.

Except, of course, for the fact that in previous statements, Bush has stated that in order to "protect" (from what, exactly?) marriage, it must be defined as only between a man and a woman, and that same sex couples do not deserve the same rights as others in this country. However, I agree: it's not flip-flopping, it's just that he doesn't actually know what he's said (or believed) in the past.

It's remarkable that two (at least) of the last three republican presidents can't (couldn't) remember what they say or do from day to day. It's also remarkable that those two presidents had essentially the same staff.

As a Licensed Minister, I agree

[Fished]

As a licensed (Baptist) minister, I agree. There is a huge difference between marriage as I believe God ordained it and the mockery of marriage we call civil marriage, even if you leave aside the gay marriage issue. In God's marriage, divorce is allowed only in the most dire circumstances, remarriage is never allowed, and the husband and wife "become one flesh." In civil marriage, the opposite obtains. It's time to stop equivocating on what marriage is and get the state out of the marriage business.