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June 03, 2006

Radio Ass Kiss on the Air

Once again demonstrating his states' rights conservative credentials (much like he loves to show off his fiscal restraint conservative creds), Bush, in his weekly radio address, is advocating a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

President Bush on Saturday backed a resolution to amend the Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman even though the idea has little chance of being passed in the Senate.

"Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his Saturday radio address. "Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society."

A few thoughts:

• Not all husbands and wives have children, thus to hold a consistent position, the President should also advocate that only those willing to have children should be allowed to marry, unless he can show through something other than anecdotes that childless couples keep society stable (however one wishes to define that; I doubt we could even agree on the definition).

• Other than so-called "research" by discredited hacks such as Paul Cameron, I've not seen anything to indicate that gay couples, if they have children, actively or indirectly injure the welfare of their kids at a higher rate than irresponsible heterosexual parents might (that is, there are good parents and there are bad parents, and where you like to hide your weiner doesn't indicate squat).

• Marriage has no natural roots, it is a cultural institution, and - as such - varies widely from culture to culture. From arranged marriages to forced marriages to those based on love, from polygamy to polyandry to monogamy, from dowries to bride prices to community property, marriage has a colorful history.

  This is not making a judgment about marriage as experienced in The United States of America, but simply pointing out that Bush is so full of crap on this topic that it's coming out his ears.

• Marriage has no singular religious roots, as it is expressed in a variety of ways in multiple religions (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the super-silly "celestial marriage" of Mormons). Marriage is not so much a solitary institution built on the mighty bedrock of God as it is a crop of cookie-cutter houses in subdivisions with names like Jesus Heights and Dharma Dale.

• Even if we accept Bush's statements as potentially meaningful, which would be rather dumb of us (and, hell, I even voted for the guy), a little thought shows the argument as empty.

  The fact that inane books like Harlequin romances and the Left Behind series are sold by the millions in bookstores does not diminish the worth of the literary classics on the shelf a couple of rows over.

  The fact that a bunch of idiots like to nurse their inner Thetan and reach the state of Clear at Scientology centers around the world probably doesn't make anyone love their own God any less.

  Thus, as I've said before, if two men or two women getting married makes you disrespect your own relationship or love your spouse less, then you have absolutely no business being in a relationship because you have the emotional and moral maturity of a learning disabled child... with a club foot... and really foul body odor to boot.

I'm not sure which is worse... that a President might honestly be such a willfully ignorant bigot as to promote this amendment, or that a President might not mind gay marriage but would sell out so many Americans just to pander to his ever-shrinking base of religious conservatives.

Not that it much matters, as between issues such as this, the War on (Some) Drugs, impotence on Social Security reform, and government spending and pork that would make any Democrat spooge all over a White House intern while on the phone with world leaders, the Republicans continue their march toward irrelevance when it comes to my next vote.

The Democrats have been there for a while, but I might have to make like my privates and hang left for a bit to help teach the GOP a lesson.

Noted: Ed Brayton has more here and here.