Hidden down at the bottom of a s CNN article (no longer available, try this summary), after all the stuff about the Republican Party convention platform calling for an amendment to ban same-sex civil marriage, is this little tidbit:
On abortion, the proposed platform again calls for a constitutional ban, asserting “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”You got that? The Religious Right now sees Constitutional amendments as the best way to forward their agenda. (Yes, I’m aware that a call for an abortion amendment has been a staple of their platform for several elections, but this time it has company.) They realize that the weight of law and court precedent is increasingly against them on the gay rights front, on abortion, on stem-cell research, on flag burning, and so on, and thus that their best (perhaps only) option is to do an end-run to where the courts can’t touch them. (And then presumably stand there, going “Neener-neener! We win!”)
You want a slippery slope? This is it. If any of these controversial amendments pass — just pass Congress, before they ever get to the states — there will be a rush to push all of them through the channel and burst the dam.
One of the primary purposes of the courts is to protect the individual and the minority against the rule of the majority. This is the right wing’s method of imposing majority rule.
You want something that will destroy our civilization? Don’t look at gay marriage. Look at amendments which restrict the rights of minorities.
Updated on August 31, 2004
Updated on March 31, 2011
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