THE American presidency is often described as a “bully pulpit” used to advance new ideas and initiatives, new ways of doing things as well as to support old traditions and worthy practices.

In encouraging his fellow Americans to support the Second World War, Franklin Delano Roosevelt described four freedoms — freedom of speech and worship and freedom from want and fear — as ideals worth fighting for in Europe and for helping downtrodden people at home. In his inaugural address, John Kennedy said that a torch had been passed to a new generation of Americans who were “unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed…”

His successor, Lyndon Johnson, explained to a graduating class at Howard University in 1965 the reasoning behind his landmark civil rights legislation: “To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice, but the walls which bound the condition of many by the colour of their skin.”

This week, the current president, Barack Obama, made an important declaration in the continuing struggle for civil rights. It didn’t come in a rousing speech on the floor of the US Senate, in front of a large university gathering nor in a political rally. Rather, it was in a hastily arranged television interview.

“It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” It came three days after a similar statement by his Vice-President Joe Biden, on another television news programme and by his Secretary for Education Arne Duncan, two days before.

With that done, everybody took a deep breath, relaxed and went on about their business, right?

Oh, if only that were possible! You have to remember that these things are taking place in the Unequal States of America, where the Bible-thumpers hold considerable influence over politicians of all stripes and are in the driver’s seat in Republican campaigns at all levels.

It’s a presidential election year, and although the US has been suffering economic distress for several years since the utterly selfish and reckless behaviour of the Wall Street banking community struck body blows against the world’s mightiest economy, the chattering classes and the true believers have devoted as much attention to abortion, same-sex relations and the use of contraceptives as to the excruciating suffering of the middle class and the poor.

The US has a peculiar electoral system in which party supporters choose delegates to the political conventions through a series of primary elections, state by state. The individual who attracts support from the highest number of delegates is chosen the party’s candidate to run for president in the general election in November.

The Republican primary process, which ends in July, has provided much fodder for the army of talking heads who populate the US television industry, not to mention billions of dollars in advertising revenue for the TV and radio stations, newspapers, billboard providers and the vast army of people in advertising agencies, catering businesses and enterprises which furnish limousines, rent out meeting halls and provide folding chairs.

The Republican primary process, which began last year, features a former governor of the state of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, who has survived withering attacks by a motley crew of politicos, notably a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingich; US congressman Ron Paul, and former Senator Rick Santorum. A variety of wing-nuts abandoned the race in its early days when they failed dismally to attract voters.

They have gone through contortions worthy of a circus performer to present themselves as more conservative than the others. The contentions remind the onlooker of the early arguments about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin — ranging from creationism and the rejection of any concept of evolution; advancing various dates at which a human life begins; advocating grotesque procedures women should go through before being allowed to abort a foetus; railing against contraception, and condemning homosexuals to hell and damnation. As for letting gays and lesbians marry — well, that’s straight out of the devil’s handbook.

But there is considerable evidence that the American public is more interested in the deleterious effects of the dire economic plight in which many find themselves than in worrying about whether homosexuals can marry. Survey after survey has shown that a majority of Americans are reasonable on social questions, and a majority favour same-sex marriage.

Breakdowns of surveys show that a variety of groups — liberals, progressives, those with higher education and, most tellingly, women and young people — are comfortable with homosexual marriage and will worry about other issues when looking at a ballot on election day. One group which remains resolutely in the socially conservative camp is black church-goers, who are less tolerant on the issue than others.

Barack Obama says he evolved his way towards the decision. He is the president who last year ended the military’s deliberately ambiguous policy on homosexuality called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, much to the relief of both the rank-and-file it affected most and the senior officers who have had to tap-dance their way around that policy, brought in by Bill Clinton some years ago.

He finds it interesting that support for the subject is widespread among the younger generation: “You know, when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same-sex equality or, you know, believe in equality — they are much more comfortable with it.”

There’s also a personal aspect to his declaration: “There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

Bold and climate-changing as it is, Obama’s proclamation won’t affect the legal status for homosexuals in many parts of the US. True, homosexual couples can marry in Iowa, Connecticut, Maryland, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, the capital city, Washington, and the state of Washington. But 31 of the 50 states have banned same-sex unions.

The last to do so is North Carolina, which approved a constitutional amendment the day before Obama’s declaration. In the wider world, only 10 countries — Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Sweden — allow legal unions among homosexuals.

The election is still six months away and many things can happen between now and then. It is almost impossible to determine what effect Obama’s stand will have. However, all but the most stuck-in-the-mud will agree that it is a declaration of simple humanity. Our people use a phrase which my mother would often cite when she heard any of her children disparage someone because they seemed to be different — “‘im is sumbody pickney too!”