Last week President Barak Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder declared the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional and ordered the Department of Justice to stop defending it. There has been much gnashing of teeth over this action in the blogspshere and on political TV shows. Bill Belew at the Examiner provides some reaction to Newt Gingrich's ridiculous claim that this action will lead to a constitutional crisis. I was stuck watching CNN last Thursday in the gym and heard Elliot Spitzer argue that even if Obama dislikes the law, he still should enforce because DOMA is law of the land. Spitzer then argued that there were laws that he did not like when he was attorney general of New York, but he enforced them anyway. (I guess laws against prostitution are an example of laws that Spitzer did not like, but enforced them anyway against everyone...except, of course, himself.)
The arrogance of our Federal Government has yet to cease amazing me. Every time I think that politicians have reached the zenith of hubris, the clouds dissipate and I realize that there is more mountain to climb. And they climb with zeal and celerity. This is the same administration that is still fighting two unconstitutional wars; that openly violates the Fourth Admendment at almost every airport in the country; that is trying to legalize presidential assassinations of American citizens; that interferes with every aspect of our lives and is even interfering with almost every aspect of lives of people in foreign countries. This is the same administration that told States that legalized medicinal marijuana, essentially nullifying the war on marijuana, that if the States do not continue to enforce marijuana prohibition, the DEA and FBI would. So the emperor king dictator president can declare a law unconstitutional, but its satraps cannot.
I do not believe that this move by the Obama administration has anything to do with the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of DOMA. This is a political move to shore up the Democratic base for the 2012 election. Obama does have some real problems that could lead to a Republican presidency. The economy is still a mess, the wars are still being fought, and the people in the Middle East have grown tired of their dictators. He might face a real challenge in 2012. However, by playing the unconstitutional card for DOMA, he has energized his gay and lesbian supporters. The unconstitutional card also leads to the inevitable debates over the Constitution. People who have only read the Constitution once in high school are now voicing strong opinions over the constitutionality of DOMA. As if any of this matters.
Our federal government does whatever it wants, whenever it wants because the vast majority of people do not resist its depredations. Most people just want to get on with their lives. The minority of us who despise the State will be jailed, beaten, tasered, and killed for resisting. And the majority will not care what happens to us. They will reason that we should have written our congressman or organized a civil protest. We should have worked within the system, but we did not. Thus, they will conclude that we got what we deserved.
Contra Gingrich there will be no constitutional crisis over DOMA. There will only be masters and slaves as there has always been since the State was formed. DOMA and questions about its constitutionality only serve to entertain the slaves. Debate over these questions give the slaves the impression that they actually have decision making power on the plantation. But this is equivalent to giving chattels the power to decide which shovel they can use while tending massa's fields.
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