I wish conservatives would just understand that this is something they're going to be remembered for 50...100 years down the road. When gay people are allowed to marry and when we're raising healthy, productive families and are full members of society, we'll look back to the early part of this century and wonder how anyone could have done what conservatives tried to do.
I actually fancy myself something of a conservative. Actually, what I consider myself was what
used to be called conservative. Historically, conservatism was predicated on the idea that the government shouldn't get involved in most areas of private behaviour. While this has occassionally been taken to sad, ridiculous extremes - such as Barry Goldwater's opposition to the
1964 Civil Rights Act - it is a philosophy that has, generally speaking, served me pretty well. It should be noted that everyone who was willing to support segregation was, in fact, a Democrat.
Until about 1970, liberals were the idealogical busy-bodies. It's almost never pointed put that that prohibiton was brought about by the suffragettes. Then came the insanely stupid War on Drugs. It was then that "conservatives" shifted and decided that the government, which the claim should be off your back, should be making the making the most intimate decisions possible, those that involve what an adult should or should not be putting their bodies.
It seems to me that what you ingest, be it heroin or another man, is none of my business. This is because I'm inherently a conservative. It continually makes me crazy that a movement that would give the gay pornography industry giant tax breaks won't the people who work in it the right to marry. It appears that the only honorable conservatives these days are libertarians, a good example of which can be found
here.
Up until 1964, Ronald Reagan was a self-described Democrat. He was a hearty liberal on almost every issue. in explaining his break with thr party, he said that "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me."
The same can be said of my relationship with the conservative movement.
