More Republican Hypocrisy

There are things that I care about, like balanced budgets and going to war. Those are things that I am extremely conservative about. Then there are things that I don't give a shit about, like abortion and gay marriage. Since those things aren't any concern of mine, I'm inclined to leave them to the individual. I suppose that this makes me a libertarian, at least on those issues.

Republicans and social conservatives generally, are something different. They're what you could charitably call lying motherfuckers. Listen to their rhetoric on, say, Roe v. Wade, for example. They say that there is no constitutional right to privacy unless Rush Limbaugh's pharmacist is somehow involved. Overturning Roe, they continue, would merely return the abortion question to the states for resolution.

When Republicans tell you this, you almost have to struggle to remind yourself that the GOP's platform has explicitly called for a "human life" amendment
to the Constitution, which would decidedly take the issue away from the states. And the human life amendment isn't new, it's been there since 1980.

Their stance on gay marriage is pretty much the same. They go out of their way to say that they don't hate fags, they just wish that gay marriage was decided by the people or their legislatures instead of unelected courts. Y'know, the way President Bush ended up in office!

But it's amazing what happens when the people or their legislatures look like they might be willing to allow gay marriage.

House conservatives say they will pursue legislation that would ban gay marriage in the nation’s capital.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress. The RSC has 175 members.

“I think RSC will push for it, and I’m certainly strongly for it. I don’t know if we’ve made a decision if I’ll do it or let another member do it, but I’m 100 percent for it,” Jordan said.

In the last Congress, Jordan was the lead sponsor on the D.C. Defense of Marriage Act. The bill was introduced after the D.C. City Council and then-Mayor Adrian Fenty indicated they would recognize same-sex marriages.

The last time I checked, Ohio wasn't a part of the District of Columbia and, but for a quirk in the Constitution that gives its residents taxation without representation, Congress isn't usually considered "local control" by anyone.

The fact of the matter is that a duly elected democratic body seems prepared to legalize gay marriage and a shitload of fucking Republicans are poised to overrule that prerogative for no other reason than they can and they think Jesus wants them to or something. But let's not pretend that these people have any principles, okay. I think we can pretty safely say now that they don't.

And it's getting harder to argue that their position is about anything more intellectually sophisticated than being personally creeped out by queers. On the other hand, there might be something else motivating them. Given the conduct of several members of their conference in recent years, Republicans might just want to stop gay marriage because gay promiscuity has been working out pretty well for them.

Link lovingly stolen from FrumForum