March 3, 2011
Column #1,540
Obama Dismisses Marriage At His Peril
By Mike McManus
Has President Obama made a major political mistake in refusing
to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) because he thinks it is
unconstitutional?
Does he have the authority to declare a law unconstitutional?
No, a seventh grader could explain that is the job of the Supreme Court. As
President, he swore an oath to “uphold” laws enacted by Congress.
DOMA defines “marriage” as “only a legal union between one man
and one woman as husband and wife.”
Is that an unpopular idea? Yes, with gays, but they are about
2% of voters.
DOMA passed Congress by overwhelming margins: 342-67 in the
House and 85-14 in the Senate. Though initiated by Republicans, Democratic
Bill Clinton signed it.
Ah, but that was in 1996, long before Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington D.C. legalized
same-sex marriages.
Polls show an increasing public support for gay marriage. In
2009, it was opposed by 54% of Americans, and supported by 37%. By 2010 the
margin dropped to 48% opposed to 42% in favor.
However, blacks remain adamantly opposed, by a 2-1 margin, 59%
to 30%.
A coalition of 34,000 black churches blasted Obama’s decision to
stop defending the federal law that bans recognition of gay marriage.
Pastor Tony Evans, who heads the National Black Church
Initiative, charges Obama “has violated the Christian faith” by failing to
uphold Jesus’ teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.
The Justice Department announced last week that, at Obama’s
direction, it would no longer defend DOMA in court cases where it is being
challenged.
Consequently, Evans says black churches must “reassess their
extraordinary support of him.” In the 2008 election, African American voters
split their votes in California, voting overwhelmingly for Obama – but also
by 70% for Proposition 8, the California measure banning gay marriage.
The result? Obama beat McCain in California by 24%, but Prop 8
squeaked through 52-48,with that black support.
This week the black storm cloud became more visible in the blue state of
Maryland, a traditionally Democratic bastion. A gay marriage bill that
sailed through the MD Senate ran into a snag in the House Judiciary
Committee, expected to rubber-stamp it.
First, Melvin Stukes, a black co-sponsor of the same-sex bill,
switched to oppose it. Then two black Democrats, who were expected “Yes”
votes, failed to show up for a House committee vote, and the bill was yanked
from the floor.
Even if the bill is passed, and signed by the governor, as he
promised, opponents have pledged to gather signatures to put the issue on
the 2012 ballot.
All 31 states who have voted on it, have supported traditional
marriage.
One of those votes overturned a gay marriage law in Maine, and
so many Democrats who had backed it were defeated in 2010, the Legislature
turned Republican.
Similarly, in Rhode Island, a same-sex bill was expected to zip
through with support by the governor and an openly gay House Speaker.
However, opposition by the Catholic Church and the National Organization for
Marriage was so potent, that the bill was pulled back from consideration.
Its future is uncertain. Why?
Congress explained the societal interest it sought to advance:
“At bottom, civil society has an interest in maintaining and protecting the
institution of heterosexual marriage because it has a deep and abiding
interest in encouraging responsible procreation and child-rearing. Simply
put, government has an interest in marriage because it has an interest in
children.”
In his 1828 American Dictionary, Noah Webster defined marriage
as the “act of uniting a man and woman for life,” because marriage “was
instituted …for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the
sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and
education of children.”
Only marriage can connect fathers to their children. As Obama
himself declared in 2008, “Children who grow up without a father are five
times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime, nine times more
likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in
prison.”
Sadly, only 45% of American teenagers are growing up in homes
with their married parents, while 55% live where parents “rejected each
other,” as the Family Research Council put it.
The American people are realizing this is a profound error.
They do not want to support one more way to weaken marriage. That’s why
every state has opposed gay marriage.
Opposition to Obama will mount as a result of his refusal to
defend U.S. law supporting traditional marriage.
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