It is important to recognize that DOMA was, to a great extent, supported by Democrats as well as Republicans. The vote was 85-14 in the Senate and 342-67 in the House. I do not know how many Democrats voted for it because of their convictions and how many voted for it because of their fears.
The importance of recognizing this Democratic connivance in horrendous legislation is because we saw Democrats run similarly scared in 2010 and do not yet see full-throated support for the President's position that Republicans are the party of Social Darwinism, of the 1%. It is as if Democrats are unwilling to defend their own principles (Elizabeth Warren is a modern exception), assuming that they have Democratic principles.
It is also important to recognize Bill Clinton's complicity. Against those votes, a veto stood no chance. However, he could have been far more vocal in opposing the legislation and then when letting it become law. Instead, he took cover behind the claim that the law would not empower discrimination, violence, or intimidation. Just as with his complicity with regard to the abolition of Glass-Steagall and the farce of the Kyoto Protocol, I trace our current issues with this issue back to Pres. Clinton's desire for popularity, which took precedence over his desire to be right. Democrats have paid a price for that ever since.
On Friday, September 20, prior to signing the Defense of Marriage Act, President Clinton released the following
"signing statement", which did absolutely nothing but make him appear to be against hate. His opposition to governmental recognition of same-sex marriage was already well-known; it was the same position that Pres. Obama initially took. Politically expeditious, morally wrong.
Quote:
Throughout my life I have strenuously opposed discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans. I am signing into law H.R. 3396, a bill relating to same-gender marriage, but it is important to note what this legislation does and does not do.
I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position. The Act confirms the right of each state to determine its own policy with respect to same gender marriage and clarifies for purposes of federal law the operative meaning of the terms "marriage" and "spouse".
This legislation does not reach beyond those two provisions. It has no effect on any current federal, state or local anti-discrimination law and does not constrain the right of Congress or any state or locality to enact anti-discrimination laws. I therefore would take this opportunity to urge Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, an act which would extend employment discrimination protections to gays and lesbians in the workplace. This year the Senate considered this legislation contemporaneously with the Act I sign today and failed to pass it by a single vote. I hope that in its next Session Congress will pass it expeditiously.
I also want to make clear to all that the enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination, violence or intimidation against any person on the basis of sexual orientation. Discrimination, violence and intimidation for that reason, as well as others, violate the principle of equal protection under the law and have no place in American society.
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Ah well, not like we don't have lots of redundancy here in FB 
