Krugman writes a self-righteous piece? What a surprise. By his apparent standards, the only people worth praise are people who have always been right and never changed their minds. And I have yet to hear why changing one's mind about a moral matter and public policy because of compassion for one's child is "the wrong reason" to do so, or hypocritical. Compassion isn't an abstract principle, it arises out of experience. I'm too much of a consequentialist for all this. If someone decides to do the right thing and does it, then they get my admiration, period.
I think that's exactly right. Senator Portman changed his position because he loves his son. That's a good motive in my book; that's real family values. Sure, he was against gay marriage officially a few days ago. But, when it comes to gay rights, most politicians have been on the wrong side until fairly recently including Obama and Clinton. Progress requires accepting people who were on the wrong side and not belittling them for not switching sooner.
And in terms of tactics for the marriage equality movement, this is powerful. This tugs at emotions everyone understands. It demonstrates that if you love and respect a gay person, you can't be against marriage equality. Once Rob Portman truly understood the issue, he couldn't live with himself being on the wrong side.
