Who Supports Marriage Equality?

I would add... (0.00 / 0)

Every gay Republican who has come out, like Ken Melman, a few days ago. Plus a whole bunch of Republican operatives who have said they were wrong.....not to mention the kids and grandkids of people like Barry Goldwater and Dick Cheney, who are openly gay....

---

by: DocJess @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 10:16:32 AM UTC

i fear obama will be remembered for three things, obviously (0.00 / 0)

the first black president of the usa, but also the president who saved us from the great depression and gave us "Obamacare."

but there will be lots of things he is on the wrong side of history on, including his corporatist stands, his anti civil liberties/civil rights positions.

i wonder if the pressure will build and create a coalition he will be savvy enough to stand in front of and act like it was his idea, for personal freedom, before the end of his second term....?

---

by: UplandPoet @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 18:07:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't count your chickens before they hatch.... (0.00 / 0)

Let's wait and see...history has an odd way of changing from what appears to be in the present, to what 20/20 hindsight indicates.

---

by: DocJess @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 19:25:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

My guess (0.00 / 0)

My guess is that the Supreme Court will eventually rule in favor of marriage equality and it will become the law of the land. At that point, Obama will fully endorse it.

History will then treat it the way we do the stance of, say, JFK on abortion. Do you have any idea what it was? I don't.

I'll add to the list of things I think he will be remembered for, though:

--clean energy. If much of that stuff in the stimulus plan comes to pass, then he'll be up there with Eisenhower's interstate highway system or FDR's rural electrification.

--Something in foreign policy that hasn't happened yet. Mideast peace? The response to a surprise attack on us or one of our allies? The elimination of nuclear weapons? I bet something big happens if he gets a second term.

--Some scandal that hasn't happened yet. With as hard as the GOP tries, there will be something that gets real traction. And even if it ends up being remembered as a GOP overreach, it will still be included under the description of Obama's tenure in the history books.

---

by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 19:57:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

JFK and abortion (0.00 / 0)

JFK didn't actually HAVE a position on abortion. No one really did back then - abortions were back room, or in England, and "polite people" didn't discuss such things. Not to mention the fact that neither the Democrats NOR the Republicans made an issue of it. It should be noted, however, that in the 60's, Mrs. Barry Goldwater helped to found the Phoenix chapter of Planned Parenthood.

There was a sex related issue then -- birth control pills. They became available in the early 1960's. (Thank you Margaret Sanger who underwrote the development project in the 50's.) I have many Catholic friends whose mothers have mentioned over the years being excommunicated for using them.  

---

by: DocJess @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 22:10:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Marriage is a State's License Issue (0.00 / 0)

The President should stay out of it. Too many people want the President to Speak Out on each and every subject. Not his job.

That is all I'm going to say on this matter.

---

by: MisterEd @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 21:28:43 PM UTC

But he didn't stay out (0.00 / 0)

But he didn't stay out of it. He's tied himself in knots by opposing gay marriage during the campaign, and then opposing Proposition 8.

I wish he'd stay out of many more things. The way he handled the mosque issue was brilliant, in my opinion: explicitly defended the first amendment, gave one statement clarifying that it was the right he was defending and that he would not comment on the merits, and then when asked, confidently said "no regrets." If he had navigated the marriage equality question in a similar way, I'd be much happier.

---

by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 21:41:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Marriage Licenses (0.00 / 0)

It is a state's purview to set marriage age, waiting period, necessity of blood tests, etc. But the commerce clause (I think it's that clause) says that they have to honour other state's (and country's) legal marriages.

Further, what the Supremes will decide will be twofold. The California case will be about whether there is a right under the 14th Amendment for non-discrimination. If so, like Loving v Virginia, to NOT allow gays/lesbians to marry will become illegal, and left to the states to implement fairly with respect to other marriage requirements, like age.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts case will also center on the 14th amendment and relates to Federal law in terms of why legally married couples in Massachusetts are denied equal protection in terms of rights like tax filings.

It will be interesting.  

---

by: DocJess @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 22:15:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Full Faith & Credit Clause (0.00 / 0)

Commerce Clause is one of the enumerated powers of the Feds in Article I.  While it has been interpreted as having a non-economic discrimination aspect, what you are thinking of is the Full Faith and Credit Clause in Article IV which requires states to give effect to the court decisions and other legal acts of the other states.

---

by: tmess2 @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 23:29:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

THANKS!!! (0.00 / 0)

I just couldn't pull it out of my head....

---

by: DocJess @ Fri Aug 27, 2010 at 23:50:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]