A sizable number of Republicans have now joined the movement to defeat Prop 8 in California, along with the business community and virtually every newspaper, both large and small, in the state. The only paper so far to editorialize in favor of eliminating marriage rights for some couples is the tiny Paradise Post.
Republican former congressman Tom Campbell made his case yesterday:
Republicans often say that courts should apply the law, not create it. It was really quite a stretch for the California Supreme Court to say that the Constitution of California already contains a right for same-sex marriage, when the Constitution doesn’t say a word about it. The truth is: It’s a new issue. To those who say the Court got it wrong, I say: I agree. It’s for us to decide. Now, let’s make the right decision. And that right decision, in my view, is to allow same-sex marriage in California…
…When my mother was born, women still couldn’t vote in many states. When I entered school, black and white couples couldn’t get married in many states. It’s easy to forget those things, but it wasn’t all that long ago. Someday, we’ll tell our children that, when two adults in our state who wanted to get married were told they couldn’t, we had the chance to change that. I want to be able to tell the next generation that I was part of ending discrimination, not making it a permanent part of the law.
Hat tip to Doug at Below the Beltway, where I left this comment:
Yes, absolutely good for them.
It’s worth remembering, though, that the right to marry the person of one’s choice without regard to race was decided, not by referendum, but by a Supreme Court that found it in the Constitution. If that right were subject to a popular vote, would Campbell be saying that the Supreme Court got it wrong, but that he personally would be voting in favor of marriage equality – or that such a fundamental right should never be left up to the whim of the majority?
Is this what we have come to?
For the love of God.
Hat tip: Think Progress