Let's Be Honest

Last night, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin had the opportunity to answer questions and advance the policies and principle by which they would govern the country. All well and good. But whichever side of an issue you take, the point of the debate is lost if we aren't honest about what the answers were.

Here's what Reuters said:

Palin, Biden agree on gay rights at debate

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Equal rights for gay couples, a divisive issue in the 2004 U.S. presidential election, produced a rare moment of agreement in Thursday's vice presidential debate between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin.

Except, of course, that they did not.

Here's what they actually said:

IFILL: Let's try to avoid nuance, Senator. Do you support gay marriage?

BIDEN: No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage. We do not support that. That is basically the decision to be able to be able to be left to faiths and people who practice their faiths the determination what you call it.

The bottom line though is, and I'm glad to hear the governor, I take her at her word, obviously, that she think there should be no civil rights distinction, none whatsoever, between a committed gay couple and a committed heterosexual couple. If that's the case, we really don't have a difference.

IFILL: Is that what your said?

PALIN: Your question to him was whether he supported gay marriage and my answer is the same as his and it is that I do not.

Governor Palin very carefully, deliberately divided Senator Biden's answer into two parts, and agreed only with the first part. In doing so, she made it very clear that she does not agree with the second. There can be no doubt of her meaning. So let's be honest about it. The governor has very strong beliefs on the subject - she believes that homosexuality is a choice, that she herself is tolerant and non-judgemental of that choice, but that the choice is intrinsically wrong. This belief drives her public policy on the issue - she would not, perhaps, actively persecute gay citizens, but at the same time she sees no reason to extend civil rights to people who "choose" to put themselves at odds with those rights. 

Palin says that a McCain/Palin administration would not "do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties." Except that those prohibitions already exist, when compared to the automatic allowance to heterosexual couples.

This statement is a far cry from Biden's statement that "in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple."

Now, I'm not going to tell you which position is closer to the correct one - at least, not in this post. And I spent a little extra time dissecting Palin's remarks because she was, in my opinion, deliberately misleading in order to avoid frightening away voters who might disagree with her. The important point here is that there is a clear difference between the candidates and between the platforms, and we need to be honest about it. 

If you agree with McCain/Palin that homosexuality is the result of a wrong choice that is ultimately harmful to society, and that gay Americans are therefore unworthy of the rights granted to heterosexual Americans - that if a gay man wants the protections of marriage all he has to do is marry a woman - then you can feel happy supporting the ticket on this issue. If you agree with Obama/Biden that the constitution guarantees the same rights and privileges to all couples regardless of their inherent sexual orientations - and that those rights in no way diminish those of others - then they are your choice; at least with regards to this particular issue.

It's really important to get honest answers, and to understand those answers. Not just on this issue - on every issue. The differences between the two tickets are stark and clear, and you want to be sure that you vote for the team with whom you agree. So let's insist that the candidates promote their positions honestly, and may the best team win.