One under-reported aspect of the issue of equal marriage rights is how divided conservatives are. A number of more moderate and libertarian types – the likes of Jon Rauch, Steve Chapman, Nick Gillespie, Jim Pinkerton, Virginia Postrel, Glenn Reynolds – are not having the conniptions of the fundamentalist right. Rauch will soon unveil a book on the subject, and I know few right-of-center writers who commands as much respect as Jonathan in Washington. Even conservatives with qualms about equal marriage rights, like George Will, nonetheless disdain the idea of a fundamentalist amendment to the constitution. A great deal of the more libertarian blogosphere agrees, especially the younger generation. Here’s Tony Adragna, Left Coast Conservative and Bill Quick. Ditto the growing band of gay conservatives. I’ve noticed in my many visits to college campuses that the young generation tends to find anti-gay screeds dated and discomforting. The arguments for and against should, of course, be judged on their merits. But it is simply untrue that non-lefties and non-liberals all oppose this reform. The religious right may have taken over the institutional Republican Party. They may control the editorial voice of magazines like the Weekly Standard and National Review. But their shrill and deepening hostility to gay citizens and their adamant refusal to extend equal rights to them is not the only conservative voice out there. The president and vice-president have equally not engaged in the demonization of gay people that is becoming the core principle of far right groups like the Family Research Council. There is diversity here – and a rigid attempt to enforce a constitutional amendment will split conservatives just as surely as it will unite liberals. Is that something that’s really in the interests of this administration?
ARREST THE OFFICIALS: Here’s a novel approach to stopping a state deciding to extend marriage rights to all its citizens: arrest the officials that grant the licenses:
Instead of directly forbidding same-sex partners to marry, a federal marriage privilege protection measure would make it a criminal offense for state or local officials acting “under color of law” to issue a marriage license to persons of the same sex. Constitutional authority to pass this measure comes from the Fourteenth Amendment, buttressed by the Republican Guarantee clause (S. 4 of Art. IV) and the Necessary and Proper clause (par. 18, S. 8 of Art. I).
Is he kidding? I fear not.
The Dish 