Prop 8 overturned, conservatives mad at liberal republicanism.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20012759-503544.html

Hm... conservatives are complaining that liberals have "toss[ed] out a public referendum" in favor of lifting the ban on gay marriage.

One of the basic tenants of republicanism (the philosophy) is the idea the people have certain "inalienable" rights, meaning that even if the majority of the population votes against them, these rights still cannot be taken away. It also emphasizes individual liberties. Now, which rights are inalienable I suppose is a matter of opinion, but I don't think I'm alone in wondering why so many conservatives are trying so hard to get the government to tell people what to do, when it is against their basic principles.

Chalk it up to a political philosophy that directly contradicts the mainstream religion, I guess. It's just surprising that more of these folks aren't smashing their heads against the wall in the face of the contradictions-- like supporting an economic philosophy that favors the wealthy while believing in Jesus, who hated the wealthy. Maybe the lack of cognitive dissonance is due to a general lack of cognition? Cheap shots aside, it seems that the blue/red divide is no longer a more government/less government battle (which I think can be constructive, believe it or not), but an evangelical vs. progressive one.

The "conservative" evangelicals aren't really in favor of limited government. They're in favor of a government that serves their religious beliefs. Illegalizing abortion, dry counties, requiring Christian prayer in public schools, and banning gay marriage, to name a few, are all things that a fiscal conservative or a libertarian should (according to their philosophies) balk at! These things limit our rights and/or reduce economic livelihood. Yet here they are, the conservative Christian "movement," demanding religion-based special favors from the government that usually acquiesces because... well, because there are a lot of them, and they're loud, and they're quite a bother, and at the same time, demanding a smaller government.

The evangelicals are hiding behind a veil of conservatism, and most representatives, who I believe to be in fact largely moderate, pander to this large voting base. Regardless of your actual beliefs, to say that you're not a Christian is not an easy road to take as a politician. It was thought that JFK didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of election because he wasn't a protestant-- he was Catholic. Mitt Romney, in our most recent election, was distrusted for his Mormanism. If it's this hard to be a non-Protestant Christian in politics, imagine how hard being a non-Christian would be. No wonder Joe Lieberman is so cranky. Or maybe it's that his approval rate is 25%. Maybe a combo.

Here's a little side note: one of my favorite quotes from this article is, "our Founding Fathers... would be shocked." Yeah, I agree. I think that they would be shocked that we're giving homosexuals civil rights, though they probably would have been much, much more shocked at the Emancipation Proclamation, since most of them were slave owners. Or women's rights. Or most other civil rights. I think that the Founding Father invocation is never very good in an argument, but especially not in a civil rights debate. They weren't exactly pioneers in that field. And anyway, not even the most educated of historians would claim to know what the founding fathers would have thought about any of these modern matters-- they could only offer their best guess. And even then, circumstances are much different now than they were at the turn of the 19th century in almost every conceivable way. We've come quite a long way in terms of philosophy, economic thought, etc. AND EVEN THEN! America is "The Great Experiment!" The whole country was based on the idea that we can amend our past mistakes, including those of our Founding Fathers. It's a nation built on the idea of dynamic change. Now, if you are a conservative-- in the literal sense of the word: you resist fast change for the sake of keeping things the way they are for -- then your beliefs are not aligned with those of our founders, whose opinions are irrelevant anyway, so STFU.