{"id":5612,"date":"2004-02-11T07:23:31","date_gmt":"2004-02-11T14:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/02\/11\/sacramental.html"},"modified":"2014-11-06T07:44:42","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T14:44:42","slug":"sacramental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/11\/sacramental.html","title":{"rendered":"Sacramental"},"content":{"rendered":"

Word is that Bush will today back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual-only institution<\/a>, at least so far as the Federal Government is concerned (and as it impacts the states if\/when other states make it legal).<\/p>\n

Stupid, stupid, stupid …<\/p>\n

Not necessarily politically stupid. Middle America is still pretty conflicted over the issue, and the idea that the courts are (rightfully, but impolitically) forcing the issue before they’re ready for it. By staking out this position, Bush forces Kerry to either “me too” (alienating some liberal activists) or run against such an amendment (alienating some moderates) — or try to weasel around with separate-but-sorta-equal civil unions (alienating both liberals and moderates).<\/p>\n

No, it’s stupid because … well, because I think it’s an awful idea.<\/p>\n

Bush signaled the direction of his thinking in last month’s State of the Union address, where he stopped just short of endorsing an amendment but said the nation “must defend the sacrament of marriage.”<\/p>\n

If the President had said that the nation “must defend the sacrament of communion” or “must defend the sacrament of baptism” or “must defend the sacrament of holy orders,” he’d have been hooted off the stage. We don’t write constitutional amendments to defend religious institutions — except from <\/i>governmental interference.<\/p>\n

I’ve nattered on about this subject at length, so no need to repeat myself. But … hrm. For all the uncertainty over this issue in the electorate, a lot of it is, I think, due to it being new and unfamiliar. If it becomes a national debate, it’s altogether likely that the shock of having to address it may give way to reasoned and familiar acceptance. In which case, it could backfire on Bush.<\/p>\n

And, for what it’s worth, there are a lot of folks who disagree with Bush on a number of social issues, but have been willing to put them aside because of geopolitical issues (ahem). By bringing the focus back to social stuff, the Bush team may make that compromise a lot more difficult to maintain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word is that Bush will today back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual-only institution, at least so far as the Federal Government is concerned (and as it impacts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,25,718],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2004","category-gay-stuff","category-marriage-equality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5539,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/24\/line_in_the_san.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":0},"title":"Line in the sand?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Feb-04 11:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Pressed, inadvertently or intentionally, by his supporters on the Right and events in Massachussetts and San Francisco, Bush has declared his support for a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. Today,...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12385,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/16\/more_on_the_california_ga.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":1},"title":"More on the California gay marriage ruling","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-May-08 8:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Couple of good articles in the LA Times about the state supreme court decision yesterday that overturned the legal ban on gay marriage. It's an instant presidential campaign issue, for...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3152,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/31\/just_lie_back_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":2},"title":"“Just lie back and enjoy it”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 31-Jul-02 5:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bernard Cardinal Law, not satisfied in alienating Catholics here in the States by his shenanigans in the Church Abuse Cover-Up, is busy offending Catholics in Canada. On female priesthood? The...","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/26\/splitting_hairs.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":3},"title":"Splitting hairs","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Feb-04 6:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's see. George W. Bush backs an amendment to the Federal constitution that would ban recognition of gay marriage on a federal level, but would allow states to define other...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5821,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/13\/yeesh_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":4},"title":"Yeesh","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jul-04 9:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A correspondent writes me, regarding today's Federal Marriage Amendment shenanigans: It\u2019s a fun day at work today\u2026 The real \u2018muricans are in an up-roar today over the stupid amendment. First...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135542,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/05\/gop-party-may-alienating-biggest-supporters.html","url_meta":{"origin":5612,"position":5},"title":"GOP Party May Be Alienating Their Biggest Supporters","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Dec-17 11:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, it's Andy Borowitz satire. But it's damned biting. Dorrinson warned that, in their frenzy to woo the child-molester vote, Republicans were playing a dangerous game by taking the Nazi vote for granted. \u201cPresident Trump needs to remember who put him in the White House,\u201d Dorrinson said. \u201cNazis have feelings,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/unnamed-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46819,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5612\/revisions\/46819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}