THE BARR POSE: Maggie responds

When I say that marriage in general is not an ideological or partisan issue, I would offer Bob Barr as exhibit A. Bob is clearly representative of a species of conservative that views "family values" as a convenient code word for getting more voters into the GOP coalition so they can obtain power to deal with really important, manly issues, such as money and war.

Anyone who views marriage as a truly critical social institution could not say both that they oppose gay marriage and are indifferent to whether or not the judiciary imposes it on people in a given state.

The trick here is in saying that "states can have gay marriage if they want," and posing as a champion of state's rights.

There is not a single state legislature that is going to pass gay marriage in the conceivable future unless ordered to by courts. Bob knows this. His position is not that people in states can legislate as they want, but the courts can remake marrriage as they choose and it is not the people's business to intervene. The only way the will of the majority can make itself heard when courts take on these social re-engineering roles, is through constitutional amendments.

posted by maggie at 10:55 AM VOTE

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