Doctor No Says Yes on Proposition 8
There are a lot of Libertarian atheists out there for some bizarre reason. Many worship Congressman Ron Paul the way Christians worship Jesus even though Congressman Paul considers America to be a Christian Nation. I wonder what these Libertarians think about Paul’s position on Proposition 8.
Libertarians always tell me that they want government out of people’s private lives and on the issue of gay marriage… or straight marriage for that matter, Libertarians often take the position that government should not have any involvement at all in issuing marriage licenses. This is a position I actually agree with, but recently the Pope of Libertarianism Congressman Ron Paul came out against same-gender marriage in favor of Proposition 8 which for a short time was a California constitutional ban of same-gender marriage largely funded by the Mormon Church.
I find it interesting that the guy who wears the Constitution on his sleeve seems to have not actually read it. I guess it is a lot like Christians who wear the Bible on their sleeves. I discussed this before when Paul claimed that the Constitution was “replete with references to God.”
Paul’s position is that the people voted to deny gay people the right to marriage and therefore, the State of California should have the state’s rights to deny gay people the right to marry. However, the Constitution (particularly the Bill of Rights) was designed to protect people’s rights from the government (federal and state).
The tenth amendment makes it clear that the states have the power to do whatever they want when it doesn’t conflict with the federal Constitution. It’s a sad day for Ron Paul because the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution provides equal protection under the law for all everyone.
The philosophy behind the Constitution is that we are all born free and that the job of the government is to protect person freedom as much as possible. People can’t simply vote other people’s rights away. That’s not how the Constitution works. Could you imagine if it did? Next election, we could vote away the rights of Republicans to vote.
Filed under: Gay Issues, Law, Politics, Ron Paul