President Bush is declaring war on a new front and showing us just how out of touch he and his party are with the majority of Americans. He recently told Diane Sawyer, "If necessary, I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that." He said that what would make it "necessary" would be if "judicial rulings undermine the sanctity of marriage" but stopped short of mentioning that judges wear black robes, but he did claim that the Massachusetts ruling was "judicial activism" which is neocon-correctness code for "ruled in a way we didn't like". This assertion also flies in the face of the facts: this was not an "activist" court by any stretch of the imagination.

This stance ironically puts Bush in a minority of similar size to the minority he's attacking. A recent Pew Forum poll showed that only 10% of Americans would go so far as to amend the US Constitution to ensure that gays can never marry or achive rights similar to those granted by marriage in any state. Forty-two percent feel that existing legislation is adequate. A slim majority of 59% opposes gay marriage altogether. Another interesting aspect of the poll was that dumber Americans were twice as likely to oppose gay unions than more educated citizens.

In any case, at least it's now obvious where Bush stands on the issue, even though he continues to try to sugar coat his position, claiming he espouses "tolerance" when he says, "I do believe in the sanctity of marriage. But I don't see that as conflict with being a tolerant person or an understanding person." He's tolerant of the gays just so long as they can't have the same rights as everybody else, of course.

Bush also can't decide whether he supports states' rights or whether he's a federalist. He says it's his administration's position that "whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they're allowed to make, so long as it's embraced by the state" however he supports forcing all states to comply with an outright ban on marriage "or incidents thereof"... presumably this would mean that citizens in those states would not be allowed to make those arrangements, regardless of if the state embraced them.

So once again, Bush is a hypocrite and a liar and declaring war on a minority of people to appease his buddies in the religious right. Please try to keep your shock and awe under control.

---Nick

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