Holy crap, Batman! I agree with Bob Barr, the arch-right-wing conservative former congressman from Georgia whose name in English I always understood to stand for "Pure Evil."
OK, so that might be exaggerating, but I am usually flumoxed by absolutely everything that I hear coming out of the man's mouth. And I don't agree with him 100%, but apparently the man who helped write the Defense of Marriage act is against any Constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage. He and I part ways on whether it should be legal at all, but still, I have to respect him for standing by his convictions (conservative as they may be) rather than simply looking at the issue politically and agreeing with his team. He tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Does it bother me that we have some states that recognize homosexual marriages? No. That's our federal system of government. If you don't like the policies of one state, you can move. That's freedom."
Any amendment on this issue would be "premature," he says. "I just don't think the federal government should use the Constitution to start defining social relationships. And I say that as a very strong opponent of same-sex marriage. But to me, just because you have a problem -- that's not a reason to amend the Constitution."
Maybe the end really is nigh.
(Thanks Andrew Sullivan)
Bob Barr sure loves to play with the loaded weapons, no?
Boy, do I wish the end was nigh in that sense. But I definitely see it more of a pride of authorship/don't mess with the constitution/states' rights sort of thing. I suspect he'd be making the same argument about desegregation or suffrage or some such pesky thing.
My main concern is that it's really much more of a federal issue than a state one, since if Uncle Sam doesn't recognize your marriage, you're pretty much hosed anyway. And what about when it finally goes to the Supreme Court and they, too, say it's perfectly legally to discriminate in a particular state as long as the state next to it has the right to decide the issue on their own?
Now since I've gone on the soapbox and tangents-o-plenty, here's my main problem. I see the day in the not-so-distant future when the only way to even the playing field for gay marriage, job discrimination, etc. is going to be a constitutional amendment, ERA-style. And then all of the conservatives on our side about not touching the constitution and "leave the states be" are going to making the exact same argument. And it won't sound as grand, then.
Sheesh, I kind of suck for being such a killjoy this morning, and I do apologize.
Posted by: drew | Tuesday, March 09, 2004 at 07:09 AM