Saturday, October 1, 2011

North Carolina News

This story won't make it to national news, but I know some of you will be interested.

The Republicans who were ushered into the state legislature as a result of the 2010 midterm elections lost no time reviving the same-sex marriage issue. They have scheduled a state-wide referendum on a constitutional amendment which declares marriage to be a union between one man and one woman. A majority of North Carolinians, 56%, are against such an amendment; this number has held steady over the past several years. More Republicans than Democrats are in favor of the amendment, however, as might be expected.

The Republican sponsors of the amendment scheduled the vote on this referendum to take place during the May primaries.  Obama is running unopposed.  Guess who will not be showing up at the polls in droves to vote in the primaries?

The majority of the citizens of North Carolina are against this marriage amendment, but the majority will not vote.  The Republicans know this and have cynically rigged the outcome, the will of the majority be damned.

And my Republican friends wonder why I don't join them.....

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I´m pretty sure that will turn up in our news, they usually do. I think it is news publishers way to show that many republicans have just the same values as the Talibans in Afghanistan.

Ralph said...

So far no Republican-led beheadings, Christer, but the sentiment can feel the same. North Carolina is the only state in the American Southeast without such an amendment in its constitution. The Republicans have always felt a need to remedy that.

Jeff said...

Ralph - what bothers me most is where are the Democrats? It's not hard to believe that the Republicans would aggressively support and maneuver this amendment thru your legislature - but how could they move this thru the cover of darkness so-to-speak without the complicit agreement of the Dems?

Politics is not necessarily about intelligent debate - not anymore at least. It's all about the tactics to win. The new Republicans also are not reluctant to burn down the house to achieve their goals - a bluff that the Dems are too frightened to call. But no matter - where is the resistance? Any resistance?

Unfortunately, we're not talking constitutional amendments but rather religious doctrine. Republicans are now clearly identified with the fundamentalist religious right. And policy - especially social policy - is now driven by that same fundamentalism.

This is a fight that will never end Ralph. There should be as much outrage directed towards the left side of the aisle as towards the right.

Getting off soapbox now...

Ralph said...

You're right, of course, Jeff. I can't answer for sure where the senate democrats were on this move, but the way it was presented, as a fait accompli, made me believe that they were powerless to do anything about it, their minority (31 Rs to 19 Ds) is so small now. The kind of anger I feel over this just seethes. This issue hits me personally, of course, but the bigger political picture, which you so well describe, is a never-ending source of frustration to me.

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