“Bush calls for gay marriage
Bush calls for gay marriage ban
Just who the hell does he think he is?
I shall tell him. He’s the President of what is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, the pinnacle of freedom and democracy, a state which is independent of religion yet allows its members to practise what religions they see fit, within such secular laws as are generally applicable to a functioning society.
So now they want to embed values which, it has to be said, are clearly coming from Mr. Bush’s own Christian beliefs, into this non-religious constitution. Incidentally, the proposed amendment also outlaws polygamy, which might irritate some Christian groups just a little.
But then Mr. Bush is no stranger to irritating people, is he? He’s quite irritating all by himself. Please American citizens, vote for someone else next time. They can hardly be any worse.
We want him to carry on with this! In order to ban something like this will require amending the constitution, which has only been done about 30 times in 230 years, and to do it you need to get 2/3rds majority in both houses of congress, and get 75% of states to sign it. There is no chance he’ll get it through, he’ll look stupid, and lose. Which is pretty much exactly what happened to daddy Bush…
Comment by Alex — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 9:40
But what if he doesn’t lose?
Comment by MaW — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 11:26
Well, it wouldn’t be the first time a stupid constitutional amendment had been passed.
“After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.” - section 1 of the 18th amendment.
Of course the prohibition didn’t last, and the amendment was repealed. But it did pass, in a screwed up political climate.
What irritates me about Bush here is his characterisation of these actions as somehow reflecting the will of the people, when only about 40% of the population supports the amendment (and the gay marriage issue itself has split the population 50/50, making the ‘will of the people’ excuse completely unreasonable), and characterising judges as ‘activists’ when they’re upholding constitutional law and trying not to create a new group of second class citizens. I wish he’d just come out and say he didn’t like gay people. At least he wouldn’t be insulting us with specious rhetoric.
Comment by clc — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 13:06
No, he’d be insulting us by assuming we’re all operating on his level. But at least he’d be being mildly honest.
Comment by MaW — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 13:10
He won’t win, because although there are lot of backwards people in the states, there aren’t enough to amend the constitution.
Comment by Alex — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 13:47
May that prove to be true!
Incidentally, the discussion on this subject on today’s UserFriendly strip comments is rather interesting.
Comment by MaW — Wednesday, 25th February 2004 @ 14:24