BlogWood: MT Archives

Bush divides

NYT:

President Bush said today he supported a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, declaring that such a measure was the only way to protect the status of marriage between man and woman, which he called "the most fundamental institution of civilization."

In an announcement fraught with social, legal and political implications, Mr. Bush urged Congress to act on the amendment quickly and send it on to the state legislatures. Quick action is essential, he said, to bring clarity to the law and protect husband-and-wife marriages from a few "activist judges."

"The voice of the people must be heard," Mr. Bush said in a brief White House speech that Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, called an attempt to find "a wedge issue to divide the American people."

Jack Sparks:

For me, same-sex marriage has less to do with antiquated notions of whether Adam should take Steve instead of Eve. Rather, the true issue is that fully half of these unions are doomed to fail, just like any other rotten, suburban, two car, two kid, one dog nightmare. There's a mountain of printed wisdom on the damages of divorce, but the titles should all be altered to read the damages of marriage; somewhere along the way, society forgot to plug in laws, rituals, and social pressures that prevent uncompatible people from agreeing to spend the rest of their lives together, when it's blatantly obvious to their mothers, friends, and the mouthpiece of God committing the unholy act of joining them that the whole thing will be an absolute disaster some day.

All that stuff that Karl Rove is telling the press secretary for the dumbest President in the history of America to quote the boss as saying about "sacred unions" and "enduring institutions" is just patently absurd. Marriage in America is a fucking joke, so there is absolutely no reason why people shouldn't line up to marry someone of the same sex, their goldfish, or a 1978 Trans Am with a broken stereo. Take a coin out of your pocket, flip it in the air...it's the same thing.

Billmon:

... if the Rovians insist on giving battle here, on this issue, then so be it. I'm prepared to oblige them, especially if they're going to make this a struggle to keep their filthy paws -- and those of their proto-fascist supporters -- off the U.S. Constitution. The day will never come when I'll turn away from that fight. And I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone who's willing to stand with me, even if it is Andrew Sullivan:

Rather than keep the Constitution out of the culture wars, this president wants to drag the very founding document into his re-election campaign. He is proposing to remove civil rights from one group of American citizens - and do so in the Constitution itself. The message could not be plainer: these citizens do not fully belong in America. Their relationships must be stigmatized in the very Constitution itself. The document that should be uniting the country will now be used to divide it, to single out a group of people for discrimination itself, and to do so for narrow electoral purposes. Not since the horrifying legacy of Constitutional racial discrimination in this country has such a goal been even thought of, let alone pursued. Those of us who supported this president in 2000, who have backed him whole-heartedly during the war, who have endured scorn from our peers as a result, who trusted that this president was indeed a uniter rather than a divider, now know the truth.

You're awfully late, Andrew. But better late than never. Welcome to the Popular Front.

Obviously, Rove thinks there are political risks and vulnerabilities in engaging on this issue. Our job as progressives is to figure out what those risks and vulnerabilities are, and exploit them as effectively as possible -- while not losing sight of the larger goal, which is to win back the country. If we're going to fight on this issue, let's fight smart. Let's fight to win.

An Immokalee worker:

"We have to fight," Hernandez said. "If we don't fight for ourselves, nobody else will."

Make no mistake: whether you’re straight or gay, married or single, this is your fight. aWol is talking about amending the constitution to explicitly brand an entire group of people as less than equal. You could be next.