Distracter in Chief

Eugene Robinson gets it right in the Post (Washington, not National). As does Froomkin.

Iraq is a mess. Iran wants a bomb. North Korea has one. The deficit is skyrocketing. New Orleans is gone. The world hates us.

And the singular most pressing thing is the definition of marriage. More important than anything else - it's time to talk Constitutional Amendment.

The arguments as to why this is a solution in search of a problem are so old that I'll not repeat them. But I was incensed at the CNN headline today. I don't remember specifics but it spoke of the "fight against gay marriage."

What FIGHT? I mean, to say there's a fight against gay marriage implies that gay marriage actually exists or might exist, and really, this country's going the OPPOSITE direction. We've LOST. How many states have amendments to their constitution?

[Aside: this is why referenda are so flawed: The point of constitutional bills of rights are to protect the minority from the will of the majority. If you allow a constitutional amendment by ballot, you hand the protection of rights back to the majority, and the constitution becomes nothing more than a statute.]

And to all those who think this is a state-by-state issue, I say this: BULLSHIT. Fine, I accept that I have to be pragmatic, that the coastal states and those that border Canada will have gay marriage and the rest of the country won't. California Republic, baby. But I don't like it, conceptually. When have we in the US ever accepted that civil rights stop at the border between one state and another? Didn't we fight a fucking civil war about that?

I love it: the country that brags to the world about how great it is, is currently debating enshrining discrimination into its constitution, and who it is exactly that can be tortured.

Well fucking done. I hope the fools who voted for this monster are proud of themselves.