A Conservative friend of mine sent me this link to Michael Kinsley's latest column and added, "I don't know why you haven't linked to any of his pieces lately but I think he's absolutely right. I don't like that he's absolutely right but I think he is."
What he thinks Kinsley is absolutely right about is his view that America is coming around — faster than anyone would have once imagined — to accepting gay folks into our society as equal, unshunned participants. Just in my odd, diverse circle of friends, I see a lot of people who I never thought would do anything but cringe at the whole notion of homosexuality decide it's no big deal for them. (I mean, it's no big deal for them if others are gay; not that any of them are eager to try it.)
One of the interesting things Kinsley sometimes does is to read the platforms of our major political parties. I'm not sure anyone else does, including — and I am not kidding about this — the candidates who take an oath to run on those platforms and uphold them. George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and at least a few others I'd imagine (probably Kerry, too) all took positions contrary to the platforms they had pledged to uphold…and no one really noticed. The platform reflects the hardcore wing of the party and you can't win elections by siding with them.