Okay, I have a had a few days to calm down over this whole Federal Marriage Amendment. At first, I was trying to cast firaga every time I saw a FMA supporter on TV. Well, I still do, I guess.
But:
with Hastert saying that he doesn't think the amendment will pass and the president's support merely symbolic, and with Delay saying he doesn't think the amendment is a good idea yet, this is looking more and more like the partisan ploy it is, and luckily more and more people are seeing it that way.
I think this issue might be a good test to weed out the true conservatives apart from the nuts. I don't think a conservative could support an amendment to the constitution telling states how to legislate on this issue. Especially since there is already the Defense of Marriage Act.
In essence we have the President calling for an amendment because he fears the decision of a state court. While the president is securing his religious right base, I wonder how much of his small-federal-government political right base he is loosing. Perhaps he lost that base long ago.
Of course, This is all looking at the issue in a political sense. I think this cartoon sums up the moral issue rather succinctly.
and this is a good summation of the constitutional and legal issues.
Posted by brad at February 26, 2004 11:20 AM