Hey look! It’s a Friday column! And it begins like so:
For what’s seemed like an eternity, Bill O’Reilly has amassed a fortune by anointing himself a “culture warrior” while waging what he’s called “the culture wars” — an ongoing battle between white Christian conservatives, commanded by narcissist-in-chief O’Reilly, against everyone else. As part of this so-called war, O’Reilly has routinely lashed out at one of his favorite villains: anyone who rightly agrees that America is a nation of secular laws, and he’d lump all of these people into the broad category of “secular progressives.”
Then, last week, like one of those cinematic moments when an entire battlefield drops into slow-motion and the sound becomes low, eery and muffled, the culture war stopped and the tide appeared to turn. On the March 26 edition of his show, O’Reilly seemed to be evolving on same-sex marriage when he admitted that marriage equality activists have a more “compelling argument” than conservative opponents who “thump the Bible.” Shocker! He went on to endorse the notion that individual states should be tasked with legalizing same-sex marriage — a de facto confession that he’d support it if it were to happen at the state level. [continue reading here]