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Traditional values

So, I just posted a link on my Facebook wall about Romney disrupting a date of a gay couple.  Personally, I think it's rather tacky to go interrupt people's dinners in order to do some campaigning, but this particular one turned out rather unfortunate for Romney because he just happened to choose a gay couple to harass.

But, the point of this post is one quote that Romney said to these men, which is
Actually, I think at the time the Constitution was written marriage was between a man and a woman and I don’t believe the Supreme Court has changed that.
Wow.  Really?  Ok, so let's go by the standard of whatever definitions and standards were back at the time the Constitution was written is what's right and should be adopted today.  So, basically, black people only count as three fifths of a person (Article I Section 2 of the Constitution), women couldn't vote, and black people couldn't marry people of other races.  Maybe I'm just too "progressive", but if you ask me, those don't sound like values we want to be adopting.  So, quite frankly, I don't buy the argument of "That's the way it was back when the Constitution was written, so that's the way it should be now."

I don't think the Framers wanted America and its morals to remain stagnant forever.  I'm pretty sure that's why they allowed provision for amendments to the Constitution.  I don't think they were arrogant enough to think that they had everything figured out and they had achieved perfection in their moral code.  So, I don't see any reason why we should automatically accept the way things were back then as how we should live now.

Sadly, I hear these types of arguments all the time.  People say that the Founders wanted this or believed that.  Well, quite frankly, who cares?  They're all dead.  What matters is what is good for America now, not what was good for it 200 years ago.  What is good for humanity?  How can we progress and become a better species, a better nation, a better society?

What I find most amusing is when people use this argument when it doesn't even apply.  People say the Founders believed this or felt that way, when in fact the opposite was true.  I think we hear all the time how America was founded as a Christian nation.  To people who think that and spread this teaching around, all I have to say is: learn history.

Comments

  1. Keaton12/22/11, 12:18 AM

    2 comments

    Romney use of "EXCLUSION" is very unAmerican

    The Greatest document this Country has is really the first part of the Declaration of Independence. Note how inclusive this document is, but also note, the strong basis of a higher power. That higher power was the basis of all our humanity and our right to fairness and equality.

    ReplyDelete

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