“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.” – Winston Churchill.
I love that quote. After reading about the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, I was both excited and a bit miffed. Excited
because it’s clearly the right thing to do — gays obviously deserve the same rights as the rest of us. Miffed because it’s amazing to me how much money, time and energy gets wasted on social issues like marijuana, gay rights, civil rights and all the rest of the silly things social conservatives fight tooth and nail until they inevitably lose.
But, then again, progress is progress, and one of the great things about the USA is that inevitably, even if it takes many years and billions of dollars, the forces for smart, logical laws inevitably win out.
I can still remember the goofy fight over flag burning when the President George H.W. Bush was in office. Many of those who objected to flag burning were veterans. I’m a U.S. Navy veteran myself, and understood why combat vets might find burning the flag distasteful. For the life of me, what I couldn’t understand was how those same folks couldn’t grasp the idea that the freedom to burn the flag was the very thing they fought for — or at least what they thought fought for.
I have not tried to hide the fact that I’m not much of a marijuana smoker myself. At the end of the day, my preference when I want to relax is for a glass of wine or a scotch rocks (preferably a nice, amber, 18-year-old Glenlivet or MacCallan, with a Montecristo #4 thrown in for good measure). But that doesn’t change the fact that I believe strongly in the idea that those of us who prefer a toke should have the same rights as those who prefer a whiskey sour or a glass of cabernet. Same thing, right?
The good news for the long term is that younger people as a whole are much more open to things like gay marriage, legal marijuana, women’s rights, and all the rest of the issues that seem to drive social conservatives into a frenzy.
Logic Will Prevail, as it Always Does
The following is an op-ed written by Greg James more than 10 years ago and was published by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer following the 2004 election
Washington, DC — The official portrait of President G.W. Bush – the 43rd president of the United States. White House Photo, digital copy of printed photograph
The aftermath of the Nov. 2 election has been interesting to follow. I’ve had conservative friends tell me that the obvious message to emerge is that we liberal Democrats are simply out of touch with mainstream America.
Ditto to the right-wing mouths on the radio. In fact, they seem to be positively giddy in their assessment of what the election means and where the country is heading.
Sorry, but I’m not buying. While you can make a fair case that more Americans are voting conservative (or did so in this election), the idea that people like me will suddenly change our thinking and make a big radical move to embrace ideas that are demonstrably illogical is itself illogical.
According to those who follow such things, gay marriage was a big wedge issue that got the Christian right and helped motivate people to vote for President Bush.
Without getting into the obvious demographics of the vote, education levels and where Bush gets his core support, it is clear there will always be a point at which rational people will go no further. In my mind, gay marriage falls squarely into that category and is a prime example why religion and government should never mix, and why the United States would be far better off if it stuck to its secular roots )as obviously intended by our Founding Fathers).
Further, I have absolutely no doubt that gay marriage will eventually become a reality in this country. Why? Because like a lot of history’s controversial issues and ideas (evolution, women voting), conservatives fought tooth and nail what eventually became mainstream thinking. The theory of evolution and the right of women to vote ultimately became accepted because science and logic always prevail in the long run, and especially in secular countries that value creative thought and education.
Gay marriage as an issue is no different. Thirty years ago, it was still widely accepted that being gay was a mental disorder and/or a lifestyle choice. Today we know from extensive research that gays are a statistically predictable part of the population and that the predisposition to being gay is something you’re born with. In other words, it is no different than being born dyslexic or albino: different from the “rest of us” but something gays have no control over. It makes no sense to deny gays the exact same rights as everyone else. Period.
Conservatives may be happy about the shift to the right in this country and may even see it as a major victory. But I doubt it will last. History has shown us time and again that when it comes to big social issues, conservatives invariably get it wrong and eventually get left behind as society evolves. One-time hot-button subjects such as civil rights, evolution, the Earth being round and many others are now viewed as silly fights fought by those who refused to acknowledge reality and/or science. Gay rights, the right of a woman to choose an abortion and global warming are just contemporary versions of the same thing.
In the end, we have to choose. Are we to be a country dominated by religion and those who say something is just because they say so (Iran) or a country that makes decisions based on science and rational thinking? If history is a good indicator, we’ll eventually choose the latter.