Of course it was dismaying to hear Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist casually declare he favors writing permanent discrimination against gays and lesbians into the U.S. Constitution. Tampering with the Constitution as a way to prevent states deciding, as they always have, what constitutes a legal marriage would be an assault on federalism, an assault on gay citizens, and the equation of the meaning of the United States with active discrimination against minorities. But what was remarkable was Frist’s reasoning:
I very much feel that marriage is a sacrament, and that sacrament should extend and can extend to that legal entity of a union between – what is traditionally in our Western values has been defined – as between a man and a woman. So I would support the amendment.
That, of course, is a non-sequitur. You could believe all those things and still think that individual states should decide for themselves on legal civil marriage and that this issue should be dealt with slowly and with democratic deliberation, rather than in one single, polarizing campaign for an amendment. But leave that aside for a moment. I think Frist is also implying that only churches grant true marriage and that the state subsequently merely ratifies or acknowledges that sacred institution. Huh? Cannot atheists have civil marriage and view it as a simple human contract and a mark of citizenship – with no religious connotations whatsoever? Does Frist even acknowledge the full civic rights of non-believers at all, I wonder? The fact that the good doctor cannot apparently see a deep distinction between a religious marriage and a civil one shows, I guess, how close to theocracy today’s Republicans have become.
QUOTE FOR THE DAY: “[Bush’s] fiscal record is appalling – spending is out of control. The fiscal record of the Bush administration makes Clinton look downright responsible.” – Edward H. Crane, president of the Cato Institute, in today’s New York Times. If I were Howard Dean, I would combine my populist rhetoric with a laser-beam message about Bush’s fiscal recklessness: a left-right two-fer. Fiscal conservatives like me are going to be looking in 2004 for someone – anyone – who can control government spending. We know Bush is hopeless and cares not a whit about this country’s future fiscal health. What we need to know is that some Democrat won’t be so bad.
The Dish 