The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Mob Rule and Prop 8

Mob Rule and Prop 8

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Wednesday, December 8 2010, 4:06:43 (UTC)
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...watched the first round of the appeal on proposition 8 in California. Fascinating stuff. Here's where you see the brilliance not in democracy but in the Bill of Rights. Democracy without a Bill of Rights is merely mob rule...you might be lucky and get a good mob, but chances are people in majorities seldom reflect progressive ideologies...usually they are conservative, hide-bound and more than happy to walk all over their minorities.

The Christian Right is yammering about the will of the people, as if that was the linchpin of our particular democracy.,...it isn't, of course....in Nazi Germany it was the will of the German people that got Hitler elected...they made sure to get rid of their version of a bill of rights first, just as they're doing slowly here.

Now that they're in a court of law and not on Fox, or on the street, the Right's emotional appeals to bigotry and Bronze Age, desert tribe values are useless...the issue in court is not how well you appeal to the mob but the rule of law...in this case equal treatment under the Constitution...of course it is unconstitutional to deny Gay people the right to marry, period. There isn't a single, valid reason in favor of it that can be made, under the law, in a court of law....in a street brawl, the Christian Right will win every time, which is why they're set against the Constitution: because it provides remedies to KEEP us from going to the streets and at each others throats.

The only argument the proponents were able to put forth was that society has a vested interest in procreation and marriage is FOR procreation. Though no one has yet explain just how allowing Gays to marry KEEPS straight people from marrying, or wanting to marry and having children.

The argument has to be that straight people will NOT marry and have kids if Gay people are allowed to marry...how you could ever prove such a thing is impossible to imagine. Even if the justices WANTED to outlaw Gay marriage, how could they make the case that Gay marriage will STOP straight marriage...or affect it in any way?

This case is over before it began...there is no "hook" to hang such an argument on...instead it's

1. it has always been the tradition....which means nothing because the issue never came up before in the history of marriage or the world.

2. Any "god" argument is dead on arrival, so calling it a sin and an abomination or "hateful in the eyes of de Lawd" means squat, legally.

...and, of course, the save-the-children argument which also means nothing since Gay people are granted every right of marriage EXCEPT the name "marriage"...they have the same civil rights, hospital visitation, adoption and property rights as straight people, so our children are already handling this very well...I doubt adding the word "marriage" their unions is going to ruin their lives...but it MIGHT teach them tolerance and inclusion, which we all know religious people HATE and FEAR because it's bad for the franchise.

This a delight...the best news we've had about our democracy in a long long time.

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Mob Rule and Prop 8 pancho - Wednesday, December 8 2010, 4:06:43 (UTC)
- Re: Mob Rule and Prop 8 Rashad - 12/08 10:54
  - about Paul... pancho - 12/08 18:29

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