Dangerous Things are happening in America these days, we are told, and the once-innocent citizens of Iowa and Vermont have already been exposed to the hazard...and now it looks as though the contagion might spread to States across New England.
But lucky for us, our friends on the Right are here again to save to save us from...(insert horror film music here)...
...The Gay.
The Gay, it turns out, want the opportunity to marry.
Among other complaints, our friends on the Right feel this will destroy religious tradition, which will ultimately destroy first Christianity, then the Nation. Therefore, religious tradition must be protected at all costs.
Well as it turns out, there are some people from our past who know a few things about religious traditions and how they distort reality-and today, we'll examine the lessons they have to teach us.
Within the past few days, democracy with a small d made important, even historic, gains in New York, New Jersey, and Alaska.
An important part of the New York State story covered by Chris Bowers is that the Senate Majority Leader is, in effect, an unelected position. In the nearly 50 years since the Republicans grabbed control of the chamber, governors have come and gone and the Republicans clearly lost much of their popular support. But the position was seen as politically untouchable, certainly by any Democrat or any mere voters. After Elliott Spitzer amassed an incredible 69% of the vote for governor, Bruno basically stuc his thumb out and said so what. And with the backing of the city's tabloids, the Post and the Daily News, derailed the will of the voters and seemed to put Spitzer's career into deep jeopardy by abusing the investigative power of the state senate. It was old Albany saying to Spitzer what entrenched DC said to Bill Clinton in 1993: we don't care who elected you, we run this place and you are a temporary outsider and parvenu.
Spitzer, unlike the previous governors, refused to play the game as Albany dictated it. He realized that concentrating on the Senate one seat at a time coukld change the game and put the voters instead of the bosses in charge. And he did more. By appointing a Republican to a state post he opened up a Democratic leaning district on Long Island and took one huge bite out of the apple. Last night, he surprisingly found another. And all of a sudden the corrupt and corrupting tone that elections don't matter and can be easily overturned by a boss like Bruno suddenly vanishes. (Bruno's swipe at stae driver's licenses was a huge dent in Hillary Clinton's campaign, the swift boat of 2008, so far; he's a national level time bomb).
STATE BLOGS
