As I'm sure we all know, the U.S. Senate debated the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage this week. And thankfully it didn't proceed to the floor for an actual vote, thanks to 49 Senators who are reasonable and half-way decent human-beings to whom I don't want to be excessively snarky because Goddamn, our side needs every warm body it can get. And yet at the same time, I want to suggest most of the Senators who spoke up against the amendment did not do so in a way that was at all effective either for (1) swaying their colleagues, or (2) defending their decisions to hostile constituents.
Much of what I'm going to say falls under the category of the same old story for people who read dailykos frequently and who have absorbed the basic critique of mainstream political strategy that gets made here all the time. But as none other than Margaret Thatcher said, "Sometimes that's what the truth is: the same old story."