I watched Ted Cruz last night on Stephen Colbert, talking about gay marriage and "state's rights". Cruz said that the 10th amendment gives state's the authority to rule themselves on things not covered in the Constitution for the federal government.
Yeah, well, maybe....but, here's the thing about that. The federal government has made the call in the past about many issues not specifically covered in the Constitution and that's the way it is. Perhaps now more than ever you have to think of the states as petulant children who drastically (in some cases) need a lot of guidance and ground rules. It's the function of the Supreme Court to decide these things. While they don't make laws, they do interpret them as to how they relate to the Constitution. It was their call that it was illegal to deny same sex couples marital rights in the United States so, effectively, "gay marriage" became legal in the US.
Suddenly, Ted Cruz (and others of his political faith) declared that five lawyers in Washington (of the nine on the USSC) shouldn't decide what they think is a state's right to decide. I guess they'd be agreeable to four making the call if the state's were to decide to rescind math laws and deem 4 to be a greater number than 5.
The thing about any Supreme Court is it's always an "activist court" to the losing side. Republicans think this court- The Robert's Court- is one because not every decision goes their way. The losing team's fans always think the ref's conspired against them. Then next week when they win, the ref's made good calls. That's how that works.
When the USSC rules that you can't deny gay couples marriage licenses that's that. They are the highest court in the land. You can complain and you can even ask them to consider the matter again but, they don't have to. Bitching about them "redefining marriage" is not going to change things. The same arguments were made in 1967 with the case of Loving v. Virginia when the Supremes ruled that the state's who had miscegenation laws could not have them. Blacks and whites could marry, in any state in the Union. If Cruz could overturn this decision, the state's could overturn that decision. And don't you think for a moment that they wouldn't try. They may be a republican president and a couple of more conservative justices away from doing God knows what. We don't want to find out.
But they certainly do. Who marries whom is such a non-issue. Gay marriage doesn't actually effect anyone but the happy couple. Same with inter-racial marriage. If someone you don't know, getting married across the street or across the country impacts your life in a negative way, your life is way too fragile. If you believe the Bible and the way God defined marriage, then you believe the sale of daughters, polygamy and all sorts of weird shit that isn't "...between one man and one woman." Remember- 48 years ago they argued that God didn't want blacks and whites to marry even though there was nothing in his book that said anything against that. It'll be a long time before we hear the last of the gay marriage debate. It's a moneymaker like abortion still is 42 years after Roe v. Wade.
I don't think most Americans really care about gay marriage. It's a republican issue because enough people do care, or are willing to care, that it becomes part of the republican market share of the country and it's a moneymaker. Planned Parenthood has been around for decades and managed to survive republican presidents who have had republican houses of congress. Republicans have never liked it for a variety of stupid reasons but they never try to kill it when they have the numbers. Golly, why is that?
Well, they need it. Not for the contraceptive and health services it offers. They need it for the small number of abortions they provide, with 3% of their whole existence being abortion services, services not paid for with Federal money, by the way. That's a fact. Republicans would have you believe like they have their fan base believe, that all PP does is abortions but, it's just not true. They want you to view nonexistent videos if you don't believe them....
The Greatest Country In The World (tm) and we're still being subjected to grifters and con artists trying to sell us monorails and small government. The last time they shut down the government to punish the president for being president, it cost we the people $29 BILLION. Does anyone remember the "reason" for the shutdown? Look it up. Tell me if it worked. It's unbelievable that so many people still fall for this, every fucking election. I really wonder if the grifters in the GOP really want to govern? I know that they're not very good at it. The big money must be in keeping the con going.
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