ENOUGH ALREADY: Jonah Goldberg on SSM and federalism and not-federalism

...I also suspect that millions of Americans share my attitude toward the subject of gay marriage: Enough already. Whether you're for it or against it, many of us just don't want to hear about it anymore -- like those commercials featuring mothers and daughters walking on the beach having conversations nobody ever wanted to overhear. ...

But while I would normally applaud such bipartisan do-nothing-ism as the height of statesmanship, gay marriage seems to be the 10th problem in Coolidge's axiom, because the facts on the ground are changing fast.

In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, defying a state law (and presumably his own mayoral oath), passed by referendum in 2000, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. And in Massachusetts, judges have told the legislature that the state constitution requires gay marriage whether the people want it or not.

Fortunately, I have another tool in my utility belt for just such occasions: federalism. This is the brilliant system conceived by our founders that guarantees more happiness than any other political system. ...

But the events of San Francisco have made things worse. First, Mayor Newsom is giving marriage licenses not only to San Franciscans -- which, again, is illegal -- but out-of-state couples as well. So much for each community minding its own business. ...

The trouble with all of this is that a federalism-based compromise only works if you trust that the other side is acting in good faith. If Frank & Co. have no respect for the law of California, why should we expect them to respect the laws anywhere?

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posted by Eve at 4:48 PM | link

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