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Saturday, May 02, 2009

Another One Bites the Dust
Posted by jurassicpork | 4:38 PM

To paraphrase Rob Zombie, Democrats are less human than human. It's a meme that's been circulated from the 40's up until the present day by not just Republicans but the mainstream media that provides them with huge soapboxes and megaphones the size of Long Beach.



Yet for some reason, we continue letting them get away with it when in fact the charges being leveled against us (not having a will of our own, etc) are doubly true of the Republicans.



They'd also succeeded in doing the same thing to same sex couples who have been trying unsuccessfully for decades to institute the legalization of gay marriage. The lead picture above, an argument between a gay marriage advocate and an opponent to it is a perfect delineation both literally and symbolically of the divide that gay marriage has created in our nation. And for all those decades, proponents of gay marriage had been on the losing end. Just when they'd fought tooth and nail to get same sex marriage into a third state, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory on Election Day in California thanks to Proposition 8.

But now the tide is turning with a vengeance and just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots of July of 1969.

Gay marriage in the past month or so had been legalized in two more states, Vermont and Iowa and more are making strong advances toward adding to the avalanche. NY Gov. David Paterson is introducing legislation that will legalize same sex marriage and this belatedly coming on the hills of the Governor's intention of allowing same sex marriage to be recognized in New York State. Add to the mix the improbable gay marriage contenders New Hampshire and Maine, two of the most staunch conservative Republican of the six New England states.

And, as with the "argument" that Democrats are deranged anarchists, Socialists and even Communists, we've also let unchallenged the meme that homosexuality is both a sin and an immoral lifestyle choice. As long as we continue letting these homophobic blowhards frame the terms of debate thusly, we will always have the appearance of advocating an immoral position.

Homosexuality, as we liberals know and accept, isn't a mere lifestyle choice but an orientation and lifestyle with which one is, typically, born. What it all seems to come down to is discrimination against a perennial segment of human society that differs only from heterosexuals in what they do behind closed doors.

Which is no one's business but the gay couple's.

Yet Republican and Democratic lawmakers and even our "liberal" president and vice president have spoken out against gay marriage. Both sides of the aisle seem loathe to impose the federal government's will on the 50 states by passing a sweeping gay marriage bill that would force them to recognize gay marriage. The unconstitutionality of such a piece of legislation would surely wind up in the Supreme Court is, in my mind, the only legitimate reason why the government shouldn't even introduce such legislation.

Yet one thing is clear: Some of the most reliable barn-burning issues of the GOP these past 8 years and beyond are proving to be both out of vogue and out of touch. The people are weary of war in Iraq and Afghanistan (even though we haven't had to pay or even see the consequences). The rationales for going to war with Iraq have since fallen to the wayside and IED'd into oblivion.

Opposition to gay marriage is now the next to be slated to the ash heap of the GOP's legacy of the closing decade. The GOP will evolve and adopt more conciliatory stances but not because it is the right thing to do but because it is the expedient thing to do in terms of political survival, to retain some semblance of relevance.

And, that, in my opinion, is far from being compassionate or should I say "human."
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2 Comments:
Blogger Bob said...
Gradually, I understood that supporting same sex marriage was not a "liberal" view in the sense of supporting a national health system. It is a legal adjustment of a traditionalist viewpoint to acknowledge de facto cultural changes. I support it as a compromise, since what I really want is for government to get out the "marriage" business & offer instead several types of contractual domestic partnerships; a contract equal to marriage & a lesser contract for people sharing a household for economic reasons only, like siblings or friends. There's only two arguments against gay marriage; one is religious, & the other - which would also apply to civil unions - economic, that it results in additional burden for employers & lower tax revenues. Once we agree to civil unions, the latter is no longer a valid objection. The Iowa court decision is the best legal defense of same sex marriage that I've read, since it pushes aside religious objections as irrelevant in this particular matter of equal rights.
5/2/09, 5:19 PM  
Blogger Jayhawk said...
It has been notable to me that "Christians" who are so freaked out about and opposed to homosexuality always use arguments from the Old Testament and never from the New. I mentioned that during one such discussion (more of a diatribe, really) and he replied, "Well, I'm an Old Testament Christian." I find things like that fascinating, since Christ doesn't even exist in the Old Testament, how can being an "Old Testament Christian" be considered a rational concept? I'm not a bible scholar, so there may be arguments against same-sex relationship in the New Testament, but I have never heard a Christianist quote one.
5/3/09, 10:48 AM  
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