The Empress's Loyal Opposition, Kelly O'Connor, writes into say:
There is good and bad in this in my opinion. It is great that peolpe can no longer lamet the loss of activism and the onset of youth apathy. But the devisiveness in this country currently is shocking. I will openly admit that I much more agree with those in the link than the 52% in my home state (Ohio).But when it skews to the left, it's all good? Bill Clinton claimed he had a mandate in 1992 and he had 43% of the vote at that time.
What distrubs me the most is that Dubya has taken his "largest number of votes ever" as some kind of mandate from the populace, regardless that there were 5 million more people that voted for Kerry than did for Gore. He really needs to look at the country and realize that this country is so divided that he cannot continue to drive the administration further to the right. He needs to come to the middle and try to bring the moderates back into the fold.
Pajama Hedin has more in this excellent post.
The comments on PoliPundit (where I found the above link) mention a CNN discussion between a Priest and a Rabbi on the devisive nature of social issues. The Rabbi laid the blame on the court system for imposing morality when it should be up to the people (either through direct referendum or representative government) to decide.
Just as you might say W should not campaign ban gay marriage, for example. Democrats should not take the case to the courts and force it on an entire state (MA) when the public and the legislature are clearly opposed. If government went back to its original intent and function, we wouldn't be having this discussion. It won't. Reagan said the hardest thing to get rid of was federal bureaucracy. Government is NEVER the solution.
You may cite the civil rights laws of the 1960's. Yes, those were a good thing. They were correcting racist laws already on the books, giving millions of citizens their basic rights as Americans. Marriage should not be and is not a civil right. Seperate marriage completly from the government. They issue civil union certificates to any and everyone - gay or straight. This certificate would carry the benefits attributed to marrige certificates in the past: inheritance, taxes, etc... Marriages take place in a church with a clergyman/priest/rabbi/imam. No legal benefit - it is a religious ceremony, like baptism. Then this allows each church/mosque/synagogue to decide who they will marry.
