The Movement Made Him Do It

thedailybeast.com — In the immediate sense, it was apparently the comments by Joe Biden (and to a secondary extent Education Secretary Arne Duncan) that forced the president's hand, leading to his historic announcement in support of same-sex marriage. But in the deeper and more long-lasting sense, the movement made him do it. That's exactly how politics on the left is supposed to work. Franklin Roosevelt had the famous phrase: "Make me do it." He was speaking to activists for the labor movement or some other faction fighting for a slice of the pie, and he was saying to them, don't expect me to back you out of the kindess of my heart, even if in my heart I agree with you. This is politics, and you have to create the conditions that make it possible for me to support your cause. And that's what the LGBT movement did.

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