Nancy Pelosi says that voters must not have understood what they were voting for in regard to Proposition 8. The San Franciso Chronicle reports that the Democratic Speaker of the House recently displayed an almost John Murtha-like condescension toward California voters after they voted to ban gay marriages in the state. What does this mean, if anything, for hopes of a moderate Obama presidency?
The Chronicle:
Pelosi said she believes some voters might not have fully understood the initiative, which overturned a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
…
“Unfortunately, I think people thought they were making a statement about what their view of same-sex marriage was,” the San Francisco Democrat said. “I don’t know if it was clear that this meant that we are amending the Constitution to diminish freedom in our state.”
That’s highly unlikely, to the point of being delusional. Pelosi has evidently forgotten the sequence of events – California voters’ definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman and the state Supreme Court’s ruling that rejected that definition – that led up to the passing of Proposition 8.
Contrary to Pelosi’s statements, California voters have made their position clear. It’s also clear that Nancy Pelosi is more liberal than voters in the most left-leaning state in the union.
That’s why it’s so important for Barack Obama to bring Ms. Pelosi to heel and control the Democrats’ political agenda during his presidency.
John Fund says that Rahm Emanuel will help make sure that Obama’s Congress won’t make the same blunder of lurching to the left as was done during Bill Clinton’s first term:
Mr. Emanuel has a reputation as a tough partisan, but he has also exhibited impatience with left-wing members of his party who have overly ambitious ideological agendas. A likely first assignment for Mr. Emanuel will be reminding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that, after only two years of Democratic control, Congress already has a lower approval rating than even President Bush’s.
Indeed, Nancy Pelosi herself has gone on record as saying that the nation must be governed from the center.
“The country must be governed from the middle,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Wednesday. “You have to bring people together to reach consensus on solutions that are sustainable and acceptable to the American people.”
That’s certainly true. Unfortunately, her subsequent statements, like the one insulting voters for approving Prop. 8, indicate that she doesn’t realize where the center actually is.
On one hand, that will be a constant problem for Mr. Obama if allowed to go unchecked. On the other, perhaps his relationship with Pelosi will serve as a sort of litmus test about his strength and governing style.
You cannot argue that legal definitions of marriage discriminate against religious or spiritual beliefs in alternatives, and then try to pass laws that impose a bias one way or the other. Clearly, for a spiritual issue held as sacred as marriage, the government should not be involved at all, but should leave such matters to the church of the couple’s choice. The government should only be in charge of the civil side of the contract involving property and legal responsibilities. Thus, both heterosexual and homosexual couples should have equal rights under civil unions governed by the state, while reserving marriage for the church without definitions or restrictions imposed by the government.
“You cannot argue that legal definitions of marriage discriminate against religious or spiritual beliefs in alternatives, and then try to pass laws that impose a bias one way or the other.”
Of course I can. Law is the act of discriminating the good from the bad. I agree that disallowing homosexual marriages is discriminatory; however, that should not be the deciding factor. What’s primarily at issue is the right of society to define its standards, encourage acts that meet or improve on them, and discourage those that do not.
While I certainly do not view homosexuality as a crime, it’s certainly not desirable from any logical social perspective.