Regardless of your position on the issue of gay marriage itself, there is something more important at stake in the current debate over the proposal to amend the Constitution to ban it. This greater question is whether we are willing to tolerate our leaders in the White House and both houses of congress using the Constitution purely for the purpose of antagonizing a political minority and furthering their own political ambitions.
According to a poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post in late January, 55% of Americans oppose gay marriage. However, only 38% favor amending the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage. For perspective, a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of congress and must be ratified by three fourths of the states in order to become the law of the land. Since this amendment doesn't even have enough support to pass congress, let alone be ratified, it is clear that the far right is proposing this purely to further divide the nation and reinvigorate their base. The question of our position on the specific issue, therefore, is far less important than whether we are willing to tolerate the abuse of the Constitution for the sole purpose of winning elections.
The Constitution is the closest thing we have to a national sacred document. So much of what we believe and why we exist as a nation is contained within it that to use it for a purpose contradictory to those ideals borders on blasphemy. We must never ever allow our Constitution to be used as an instrument of oppression, no matter what the reason. It should only ever be amended with the intent to make the government closer to the people and the people closer to each other. No other purpose is worthy of consideration for inclusion in our single most important document.
I fervently hope that the good people of this country will see through the rhetoric of the right and see this amendment for what it is - a wedge intended to drive us further apart as a nation and increase the power of the radical right. President Bush campaigned in 2000 as a uniter, yet he now uses this issue and many others to divide us. The American people, from the most liberal Green to the most conservative Libertarian need to unite and refuse to allow our Constitution to be misused in this way. Regardless of who you vote for, Bush and the other Republican leaders must not be allowed to defile the one document that constitutes the very essence of what we are and believe as a nation.
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Speaking Freely