Letter: Sitting this one out

Dear Editor,

Thanks, but I’ll be sitting this one out.

After President Obama’s announcement that he has “evolved” into supporting gay marriage, I am now in a presidential voting quagmire. I can’t vote for Mitt Romney because of the GOP’s determined economic dismantling of the middle class, and now I no longer have a democratic candidate that shares my finely nuanced position that marriage is between one woman and one man, but that in a decidedly secular society homosexual couples should enjoy equal rights and protections under the law in a civil union.

To be sure this was a political decision in which President Obama seeks to re-energize younger voters who largely support gay marriage, and it is now public knowledge that several of Obama’s top fundraisers are members of the LGBT community. But at what cost? How many are there like me who are both registered Democrats and more socially conservative?

Maybe the president’s political assessment is accurate in that the political benefits will outweigh the costs. Maybe my vote is expendable to the president in a key swing state like Wisconsin. I’ve received many emails from the President and other Democrats explaining the president’s shift and soliciting my continued support. And to them I now say, “Thanks, but I’ll be sitting this one out.

Tags: opinion, letters, politics