過橋抽板

"過橋抽板" is an idiom that literally translates to: "Cross bridge and remove plank". It means to abandon others after you are safe.

It would be similar to the first guy letting go of the plank after crossing the gap.

You should probably have guessed where I'm going with this by now.

I'm angered and saddened that women and blacks aren't more empathetic towards the LGBT faction. After having suffered through their own civil rights wars I would think those two demographics would identify more with this next oppressed minority. But no. Instead there's this vibe of "No skin off my nose. 執生! ~~~\( ^ヮ^)/"

And blacks. A lot of the news coverage regarding the black American response to Obama's declaration has been about how he's going to lose some of their support over this. I'm appalled but not surprised. It's true. Some people hate gays so much they will even go so far as to vote against Obama or abstain because of this. Just this.  
Economic policies? Social policies? Foreign agenda? Whatever. Gays? Wherever they are, I won't be. *harumph*

By the way, the brokenness of an entrenched two-party system should be very clear to you here.

I also heard talk about the role their pastors will play on that black response. On the other hand, I didn't hear corresponding talk about religion and the general white response. Church still holds a pretty important place in the general black community-mind in a way it no longer does among whites here.

When I heard that I pictured myself sitting across a chessboard with Christian god. I said, "So, we meet again." I believe I've said it before but I'll say it again: Religion is my enemy. Once again I find it standing in the way of Progress.
I can imagine that in later years the Church as a whole will somehow find it within itself to see gays as equal human beings, just like it managed to with blacks once upon a time. Slavery used to be a-okay in their Book. Never forget that.

FYI: North Carolina

Being a guy who's generally apathetic about politics (yes, it's true) I didn't even hear about this until the same time I heard about Obama's declaration.

N. Carolina's state legislature voted to amend their state constitution, banning gay marriage. Here's are some layouts of the precinct voting totals.

So, what do the precincts that stood against bigotry have in common?

Yep, that's right. Those are all places where institutions of higher learning are located. Fancy that correlation!

And I'm sure all the rednecks are thinking, "Daggum liberal yuppies. All dat fancy learnin's twisted dey heads with all kinds'a foolish, high-falootin' nonsense like logic and science til' they don't know what's what."

"All these years, momma was right. School is the devil!"

High Five, Mr. Prez (O____O)/

He promised change. You got it. The first president brave enough to publicly support gay marriage.

OH YEAAAH!! FUCK ALL YOU HOMOPHOBIC FAGGOTS!

The irony does not escape me. \(>ワ<)/

The response from the Republican Party has been generally along these lines:

-"How dare he play this card during an election year! It isn't fair. He's trying to pander for votes."
-"Supportive of gay rights? Whatever, it's not like it was an important issue anyway. Not like the economy."
-"While polls show that most Americans support gay marriage, take a look at this map of America. Voters in almost every state have already told their legislatures they don't support gay marriage."

So some of them are saying that Obama's just saying this as a political play for votes. Then, on the other hand, they claim that most people don't support gay marriage. Well, in that case, how is this a play for votes? I really want to know how these two contradicting claims reconcile with each other.