Of the three main topics for today's program, we'll comment on the president's trip to the Middle East first and then get to the domestic stuff. As New York Times columnist David Brooks said, both the left and right liked the results of his trip. With good reason, the president pulled a JFK speaking in Hebrew, telling a young crowd "You are not alone." Very powerful support. What we found interesting about Mr. Obama's trip to Israel is Prime Minister Netanyahu's change in temperament toward the president from their last meeting. When the Israeli Prime Minister visited the United States, he made news for first insulting the president and then having a rather cold meeting with him as it was reported. Little things like elections do matter and now that Mr. Obama has been reelected Mr. Netanyahu was definitely going to be more receptive. One reason is because of his struggle with his personal approval ratings at home that we're further damaged by his rebuke of the president. Secondly, the more obvious and speaking to what the president said was that in the face of hostility, America has Israel's back, which will always be the case despite squabbles amongst leaders.
However, also at the speech, the president said unequivocally that the Palestinians need a state of their own, to which he received applause. As Mayor Bloomberg had mentioned, he got both sides thinking about this possibility. There's no question that Barack Obama is a better representative than George Bush for the prospect of both sides talking simply because from the Palestinian perspective he is a more honest broker. With that said, make no mistake that Israel's security always comes first. The Administration left Secretary Kerry behind to handle the dirty work. As Richard Engel pointed out (great analysis all around in this segment), the Israeli apology to Turkey was big. All governments throughout history have always had trouble apologizing for anything so the significance of this gesture will not be lost, especially on the Turks. Mr. Engel pointed out that Istanbul would be the place for a Mid-East summit.
A summit that is desperately needed. Syria has completely melted down at this point and eventually outside forces who have been dabbling with the outcome are going to become overwhelming in what happens there. Iran, along with their nuclear ambitions, wants control of the region - they want to be that power (They have the influence in Iraq), and keeping Assad in power helps that cause. The United States Special Forces is training Syrian rebels in Lebanon but we haven't gone all in. The reason being is that someone at the Pentagon must be paying attention to history. We armed the Mujahadeen then eventually got the Taliban who didn't like us. We ousted Saddam and now have an Iraqi government more friendly with Iran than us. What do we get with Syria if Assad is gone? That's the question that no one can answer. Also, Americans are tired of our military getting involved in another Middle East country, we just don't have the patience for it at this point. There are louder calls coming from the Senate for a no-fly zone which would probably not upset the electorate too much. The jury is still out on whether that's a good idea or not.
Speaking of juries, that of course brings us back home and one of the other big topics of today's program - marriage equality and the upcoming Supreme Court hearings. The questions at hand are in regard to California Proposition 8 banning gay marriage and if the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional. We've said before in this column that we support marriage equality on libertarian grounds. It's that 'live and let live' attitude that most Americans have as the reason for marriage equalities wide support. Chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Ralph Reed's argument frankly was weak because he cited a study from one institution that said it was better if parents were a heterosexual couple. However, before he even finished Hilary Rosen and David Gregory were stipulating that there were other studies that had different results. Leave those aside for a moment and here is why we think his argument is insufficient. We understand his objection to marriage equality because Mr. Reed as the Chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition believes that marriage is a sacred religious institution and according to his religion, marriage is only between a man and a woman. That's fine, but here's the rub. Marriage, as all things, has evolved and today in addition to being a confirmation of love and commitment, it's also a legal contract that determines power of attorney, visitation rights, and tax rates, which do not recognize religion. And as we all know, in the First Amendment it states that no law shall be made with respect to religion. - nowhere in there does religious play a role.
In an abbreviated interview segment, which worked for the purposes of today's program, David Boies (Vice President Gore's lawyer in Bush v. Gore) outlined the three core issues:
1. Is Marriage a fundamental right?
2. Do same sex couples harm the children that they are raising?
3. Is there sufficient evidence that says raising a child amongst same sex parents is detrimental?
The Supreme Court has ruled 14 times, as Mr. Boies noted, that marriage is a fundamental right. If you extrapolate that, one of Americans' fundamental rights is equal protection under the law and marriage has lawful implications, hence everyone should be treated the same. And these are just the conservative arguments. Mr. Boies offhandedly said at the end that it was a basic civil rights issue, but that's exactly what it is at its core.
[As an aside, think about the brilliance of the Constitution for a moment. Two hundred and thirty-seven years later and we're still talking about the First and Second Amendments.]
In regard to gun regulation, we were prepared to write about what nutty things Wayne LaPierre said on the program, but he didn't really get there and was calmer than you would usually see him. We believe that is because he knows one thing - ultimately he won. The gun safety legislation coming out of the Senate will not contain any kind of assault weapons ban and other tougher provisions, like magazine size, will be watered down by the time the bill gets amended in the House's version. Universal background checks will be the big 'win' for the other side, but as Mr. LaPierre stated today, they don't work anyway, a 'speed bump for the law-abiding' he called them.
Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, spending $12 Million of his own money (we'll get to that in a moment), is running ads advocating for the universal background check, and it was noted that there was no mention of an assault weapons ban in those ads. The bar for the new legislation has been lowered to the point that the NRA and Mr. LaPierre have prevailed over Mr. Bloomberg.
With regard to his big spending of money and how that might be offensive to you. We think about it this way, Mr. Bloomberg is his own SuperPAC. The difference between him and say Karl Rove's American Crossroads, is that you have a name and a face for where all the money comes from. Whether you agree with Mr. Bloomberg's agenda or not, that's actually more transparent than Mr. Rove's operation that does not disclose from whom it gets its funds.
Mr. LaPierre may be right that background checks don't work, that an assault weapons ban is ineffective, that limiting magazine size doesn't matter. However, our core argument with Mr. LaPierre is that he refuses to acknowledge the primary cause of some many gun deaths in America - guns. He presents his argument as if the ease of availability to all sorts of outlandish weapons doesn't play a role in all the violence.
He reiterated today that there should be armed security in schools and that teachers should have the right to carry a gun while teaching, yet he condemns the role that video games play in promoting gun violence. What that says is that he thinks it is not all right for a kid to be exposed to video guns at home, but O.K. for that same kid to walk into school and be exposed to real people with real guns.
How a new gun safety law will probably shake out is that there will be universal background checks and much stronger penalties for straw buyers and trafficking. With regard to magazines, if there is a ban on anything, it will be the purchase of 100-round drums, but don't expect a 10-round limit on magazines. Our lawmakers are all conservative on the issue of guns, and lobbyists remind them of that everyday despite what the American populace thinks.
So much more we could say but we'll leave it there for now...
Round Table: Chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Ralph Reed; Democratic
strategist Hilary Rosen; Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne; and the
New York Times’ David Brooks
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