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Tuesday, February 07, 2012
The will of the people?
As many of you know, the Unconstitutionality of Prop 8 (banning gay marriage) in California was upheld today by a 3-person panel of the 9th Circuit.
A leading proponent of Prop 8 said this:
“We are not surprised that this Hollywood-orchestrated attack on marriage – tried in San Francisco – turned out this way. But we are confident that the expressed will of the American people in favor of marriage will be upheld at the Supreme Court,” he said.
California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman.
Putting aside the (important) issue of a majority being able to dictate the rights or lack thereof of a minority, it really rankles me when any group uses the “will or mandate of the people” argument when 50-something percent vote for against something or someone. I mean, isn’t 52/48 essentially a split? That is almost as far from “a mandate” or “will of the people” as you can get!
And the person quoted above says, “the American people.” Of course this was a California vote, not a national one. However, let’s talk about “Americans” since this guy did in fact say, “the will of the American people.”
According to this Gallup poll:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147662/first-time-majority-americans-favor-legal-gay-marriage.aspx
53% versus 45% of Americans favors gay marriage! So this guy, in addition to incorrectly (and irrelevantly, since Prop 8 is a state issue) talking about the “will of the American people,” is full of crap as far as his facts are concerned, at least according to the poll I referenced.
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