Wishes

I really wish i lived in a time and a place where who you got married to was your own damn business, but since i don't, i'm glad to hear that the California Supreme Court has now said that laws preventing same sex marriages are unconstitutional there.

But what is this all about?

Thursday's ruling could alter the dynamics of the presidential race, as well as state and congressional contests in California and beyond, by causing a backlash among conservatives and drawing them to the polls in large numbers.

Are there people who are really that fucked up that they were gonna sit the election out until they heard that California's gonna let teh gay get married and now John "We'll be out of Iraq in four years if we're not there for a hundred" McCain is the last thing preserving western civilization? Are there really people that stupid?

Adding - what i really mean by that is 1) are people so stupid that this is what's going to motivate them to vote, and 2) are people so stupid as to think that John "League of Nations, League of Democracies, League of Whatever" McCain is going to make one bit of difference on this issue?

We've got record high foreclosures, record high gas prices, a tanking economy, a useless, expensive war of choice for which the best solution we can find is to build a "Berlin Wall" that will of course have to come down eventually, a buckling military, and the issue that's going to get McCain supporters to the polls is whether or not some people they've never met can get married? This is a fucking joke, right?

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald points out that in recent elections, where the same prediction was made, nothing of the sort happened.

Each time there is a court decision recognizing the constitutional rights of gay couples, all sorts of hysterical political commentary ensues. In October, 2006 -- right before the midterm elections -- the New Jersey State Supreme Court unanimously ruled that its Constitution requires same-sex couples to be given the same set of marital rights and privileges granted to opposite-sex married couples (though it ruled, by a 4-3 vote, that it need not be called "marriage").

As I noted at the time, all sorts of pundits and right-wing hacks shrilly predicted that the New Jersey gay rights ruling would lead to a major voter backlash that would mobilize social conservatives and destroy the Democrats' chances for victory in the midterm elections. Needless to say, for reasons I pointed to at the time, nothing of the sort happened. Our national elections are simply not determined by a decision by the state of California -- or New Jersey, Vermont or Massachusetts -- to extend equal rights to their gay citizens.