Goading The (Bush)Flock


As more and more Americans see the reality of this "War On Terror" with the details of the Haiditha incidents, Bush once again turns to an attempt to reach out to another element of his "base".

With his support for an Ammendment to the Constitution to define marriage, he is trying to show the "Taliban Wing" of the GOP, that is the fundamentalist Christians that he's still with them.

But I see another thing possibly at play here. Should this reach the states, it would put a huge drain on the coffers of groups like the Human Rights Campaign, FLAG, and other organizations working for tolerance and equality for homosexuals. A solution to this would be to reach out to MoveOn and see if their memebers would help fuel this fight.

But there are a few questions that progressives of any stripe could raise to really show this act as the "bone" that it is. For one, the Constitution does not have any ammendments regarding marriage, that's an issue for each state to deal with. Now I understand the "full faith and credit clause", this is what allows me to use my PA Driver's Licence to buy beer in Ohio. But wouldn't a law work just as well, and require a simple majority in Congress.

Of course, it would also be interesting to see what would happen if a few of the remaining "True Democrats" in Congress (Lee, Feingold, Kucinich, etc) were to propose an ammendment mandating a living minimum wage, indexed for inflation, etc. It would have two effects, one to rally the base of the Democratic party and the other to show how closely the GOP and elements of the Democratic party are allied with corporations and their CEOs.

I'm sure the Flag Burning Ammendment will be next, and perhaps something to define life beginning at conception. I just hope progressives are as willing to call Bush and the GOP on this as they were for immigration.