the Supreme Court’s handling of Lawrence v Texas shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s a regular reader, least of all, me. So I’ve been more fascinated by the various media pundits’ response. I’ll admit, I found William Safire’s take surprisingly refreshing, given that I gave up reading him during the Clinton administration because he’d grown quite rabid.
I’m equally surprised by George Will, not because he’s bemoaning the ruling, but he links private sodomy to public lapdancing. I mean, really, can’t Will see the difference between a private act and the free market at work? Walking into a public strip club where anybody’s money and presence is welcomed represents a public venue and capitalism, not a private act. Sex as a marketplace commodity is not the same as sex the one’s home and I’m surprised Will put forth such a tenuous (and spurious) argument.
Interesting. When I started this blog almost four years ago, one of the first gay marriage considerations I made wasn’t about its legitimacy but about whether marriage itself should be abolished. I didn’t (and haven’t) come to any conclusion, but it’s interesting to see Michael Kinsley consider its privatization.
Molly Ivins is often a little too Texas for me, but she sure gets the bigotry posing as legal argument right.
And Maureen Dowd’s anectdotal observations are priceless. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when Bush schmoozed with a post-op trannie! But you know what? If that encounter’s one reason why he hasn’t signed onto the constitutional amendment backlash, good.
I’m not convinced, however, that refraining from “wedge politics” is going to hold. Seems social conservatives are more than willing to wedge themselves into the Republican party in a Lawrence backlash. Just look at David Limbaugh’s two-part rationalization and WorldNetDaily’s commentary page, starting with America Going Gay.
If that’s not a troubling sign of rabid backlash, I don’t what is. The media seems willing to poo-poo the strength of this divisive response, but I’m not. Seeing a call to impeach Supreme Court justices over Lawrence v Texas scares me, and I’m not going to minimize it because then I’ll become complacent about it. For the present, I can only hope the present administration is sincere about diversity and inclusion, but if it means becoming an active participant in the opposite camp, where do I sign up?
