Evolution is undirected, political evolution doubly so

Pioneering gay rights activist Frank Kameny, at a White House event to commemorate his work. Photo from the White House photo stream.

To everyone wringing their hands over the Obama Administration's weird collective dance around the question of marriage equality: You do know that evolution is an inherently undirected, frequently random, ultimately goal-less process, right? In which case, the President's description of his position as "evolving" is an exceptionally apt fit for the inefficient waffling, contradictory signals, and even reversal of previous positions that we've observed over the last several years.

See, doesn't that make you feel better?

Yeah, me neither.

How about this as a kicker instead: evolutionary changes that appear to be directionless over short periods of time may eventually turn out to be part of much longer-term trends.◼