Marriage Amendment

[richlevy]

It official, the GOP will now happily mess over gay people to shore up flagging poll numbers.

From here.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush will promote a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on Monday, the eve of a scheduled Senate vote on the cause that is dear to his conservative backers.

The amendment would prohibit states from recognizing same-sex marriages. To become law, the proposal would need two-thirds support in the Senate and House, and then be ratified by at least 38 state legislatures.

It stands little chance of passing the 100-member Senate, where proponents are struggling to get even 50 votes. Several Republicans oppose the measure, and so far only one Democrat -- Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska -- says he will vote for it.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the amendment on May 18 along party lines after a shouting match between a Democrat and the chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania. He bid Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, "good riddance" after Feingold declared his opposition to the amendment and his intention to leave the meeting.

Bush aides said he would be making his remarks on the subject Monday.

A slim majority of Americans oppose gay marriage, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press from March. But the poll also showed attitudes are changing: 63 percent opposed gay marriage in February 2004.

Those poll results don't reflect how people might feel about amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage.

People often wonder about how the Holocaust happened. How did people let fear seize them to the point that they would surrender common sense and dignity to anyone who promised to keep order, no matter how brutal or irrational their methods? Well, now we know. I was very young when the Civil Rights Act was passed. Up until now, I have lived in relatively liberal society, one that usually left people alone but occasionally offended conservatives on issues like gun control.

I am now presented with a President and Congress who want to federalize marriage in order to deny the benefit of marriage to gays, not trusting the states to make their own decisions.

I sometimes wonder if the Nazis really hated Jews and gays when they put them in concentration and later death camps, or were they just expedient scapegoats to focus public anger away from the party's many shortcomings. Since WWII, most ethnic and religious groups are on notice about any attempt to marginalize them in society. Even Muslims do not have to fear internment camps like the Japanese did in WWII, because at least society has learned it's lesson about religious and racial intolerance.

So it comes as no suprise that the one group that can still be safely marginalized has nothing to do with religion or race.

MaggieL, I can offer you 30 cents on the dollar now for your house and possessions, or would you rather wait for whatever the resettlement officer offers? I know you were very grateful to the Republicans for respecting your second amendmant rights. This was of course not much of a concession on their part since anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns are still prohibited and that is probably what it would take to even out the odds if they come for you.

This is what happens when people are scared. The party in power sucks up to the radicals who have the discipline to vote as a bloc and wield their power, the great middle fails to meet their obligation to support the Constitution, and some small group gets flattened.

Let me know where I can send the CARE package. I might even be able to slip some wirecutters in a granola bar.