Duck dye nasty

Just after Christmas, A&E decided to put profits over people and reinstated Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty.  Despite some squid ink about "promoting tolerance", this is clearly a defeat, and the knuckle-dragging anti-gay crowd is duly crowing.  Still, there are some positives to keep in mind.

This is the loss of a pretty small battle in a war which our side is overwhelmingly winning.  Eighteen US states and more than a dozen foreign countries now have legal gay marriage, and at times it has seemed like almost every week brings a new addition to the list.  Support for gay equality across the board is higher in this country than ever before, and still rising rapidly.  The only big recent setbacks were new anti-gay laws in Uganda and Russia, and those are so brutal in their implications that even some fundies aren't quite comfortable publicly embracing them.  At a recent Christian Right conference in Washington DC, the mood was mostly one of profound alarm at the way things are going.

As for the Battle of the Duck itself, gay and black Americans, and others who care about their dignity and rights, have seen an individual who made utterly repugnant statements about them being embraced and championed by a wide range of conservative politicians, media personalities, and others, including Republican Presidential hopefuls.  It's a reminder, for any who needed it, of the key fact that the right wing is the enemy.  That reminder will sit there, a stinking heap of ugly and all-too-revealing recorded statements, ready for Democrats to dump out again in public as we approach next year's mid-term election, in which motivation of voters on our side will be crucial for turnout.  The RNC's hopes of fooling Americans outside their fundie base with fatuous and hypocritical "outreach" have taken yet another hit.