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June 05, 2006

What Really Matters

"Suppose I were a member of Congress. And suppose I was an idiot. But, I repeat myself."

Mark Twain

Mr. Twain was insufficiently cynical about our nominal servants in Washington. At a time when federal spending appears to be the proverbial unstoppable force, when we are fighting a war on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan while negotiating to prevent the eruption of war on a third front in Iran, when the nation is concerned about how to deal with the millions of individuals seeking to gain entry to the United States, while our military forces are trying to scrimp and save every penny they can because Congress has yet to pass a continuing resolution, our government has stepped up to take on the most important issue of the day: a constitutional amendment to prevent the horrors of gay marriage from wreaking havoc on our shores.

It is a tough thing. My brother lives in Massachusetts, and while he doesn't come right out and say it, when we talk I can hear the strain in his voice from the knowledge his marriage was devalued by the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage. And we all know that the mainstream media, dominated as it is by effete liberal snobs, is not permitting news of the riots against gay marriage that are tearing through the streets of places like Provincetown to reach our ears. I have it on good authority that straight couples are divorcing at record rates since the gay marriage law went into effect, but you'd never hear that in the papers. Anarchy and mass hysteria are not news if they stand in opposition to progressive goals.

I suppose I'm being too harsh. I have some sympathy for those who oppose gay marriage. I don't agree with their beliefs, but I think I can understand them. Marriage is a tool societies use to encourage monogamy, which in turn helps societies produce reasonably trouble-free children. (Obviously there are plenty of children from single parents who turn out just fine, and there are children of happily married couples who turn out disasters, but overall the odds favor children with two parents.) And gay marriage is a big break with the past. I respect those who prefer to take their time when deciding to change societal institutions. And I have nothing but sympathy for those who are outraged by courts that decide that after two-plus centuries, suddenly the law means that gay marriages are now not only can be allowed, but must be allowed.

Still, while I can sympathize with them, I find it difficult to believe that gay marriage is an issue that ought to be occupying very much time in our elected representatives' schedule, given the other issues we have on our plate. I don't know if this is just a desperate attempt by the Republican party to try and hold onto the Congress or if President Bush and the Republican leadership honestly believe this is a vital national issue. In either case, they continue to make an excellent case for throwing them all out on their ear. If they are cynically hoping that a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage will keep the Congress in Republican hands, then they deserve to be thrown out because they're not sent to Washington to waste our time and money on political stunt. (Yes, I know that they do that all the time, but that doesn't mean we should encourage them.) If they honestly think this is an issue that merits more attention than the war or the budget, then their priorities are severely out of order and they need to be thrown out in the hopes that perhaps their replacements will have a somewhat more appropriate set of priorities. In any case, it's time for a sea change in Washington.