Q: Why do you think President Bush is making Constitutional opposition to gay marriage such a priority? I’m much more concerned about lowering taxes further and cutting the role of government in our lives. What gives?
A: I blame it all on religion and supernaturalism. Religion teaches sacrifice of self to the group. The conservatives express this, as Bush does, in the form of sacrificing one’s sexuality to “the morality” of the community; the liberals express this by picking your pocket for the sake of “the morality” of the community. I don’t want my pocketbook OR my sexuality plundered, thank you. Incidentally, you don’t have to be sympathetic to the notion of gay rights or homosexuality in general to dislike President Bush’s opposition to gay marriage.
This Constitutional Amendment is part of a larger package which includes government subsidies to “faith-based” (i.e. religious) programs; government subsidizing of private (including religious) schools in the form of “vouchers;” and opposition to the legality of abortion. You might not be gay or like gays, but if you value the separation of church and state, you could be next.
I refuse to choose between these two alternatives of liberalism and conservatism. I am tired and exhausted by attempting to defend this President any longer. To me, the gay marriage amendment is simply the nail in a coffin that had already been closed.
In his own way, President Bush is just as hopeless as President Clinton was and President Gore would have been. I remain very disturbed by the threat of terrorism but all available evidence at present suggests that Bush will stop the War against Terrorism with Iraq and once the terrorists see this they will strike again. I expect to abstain from voting for President this November.
At this point in time, it seems the best message to send, until better ideas and better candidates emerge. If the Republicans can purge themselves of these Bushes once and for all, then there is at least some hope for real leadership from someone who understands and cares for the concepts of freedom and individual rights–not some hopeless, pathetic watered-down compromise.
The error of liberalism is that it assumes freedom is granted by the majority will. The error of conservatism is that it assumes that freedom is granted by God–a faith-based standard, by definition. Freedom is not based on faith any more than it’s based on the will of the mob. Freedom is based on man’s objective right and need to set the course of his own life, with no restrictions imposed on him except to respect that same right in others. The Founders of the United States grasped this fact. Today’s leaders do not.
