FGB Footnote: Warren

Carla Axtman has an intelligent post at BlueOregon about the Warren flap, and I think in essence she's right.

There are a lot of excellent bloggers who know how to take the fight to the halls of DC and beyond. The ability to stir things up is a hallmark of what some of us love to do. But the ability to do this stirring has its limits. Our political capital is finite. Do we really want to spend it in an attempt to influence Obama to dump Rick Warren's Inaugural invocation? Really?

I have to admit I hadn't really thought about the fact that some voices are still calling on Obama to rescind that selection. I figure it's a done deal and he can't afford to back down on it. However, unlike Carla, I'm not so sanguine about Obama's commitment to civil rights:

Obama has made his position on gay rights crystal clear. By segmenting the evangelicals, Obama may just be bringing in those who focus on poverty and global climate change--and aren't particularly interested in fighting gay rights.

There are a lot of people who think gays should have equal rights, but they're not going to do much to make sure that happens -- take your pick of almost any Democrat in Congress, for example. I just have to reiterate what I've said before: harness this energy and point it right at Congress -- not Obama, because all indications are that now he's actually (almost) president, our issues are going on the back burner -- again -- and we can't pressure him the way we can our representatives: we're constituents, and that still carries some weight, especially on issues that don't have major corporate interests at stake. (And by all indications, the major corporate interests, if they have an opinion at all, are on our side.)

Oh, and yes, of course, there are major issues that affect everybody in this country right now, and I don't think I need to enumerate them. But I hadn't heard that Congress can only concentrate on one issue at a time -- unless the other ones are ours, of course. Push. And push hard.

Rick Warren, as I see it, at this point should be nothing more than a generator.