WTF, Debra Saunders?

02.08.12 - 5:03 pm | Tim Redmond |

(12)

I really, really can't figure out what the Chron's only local editorial page columnist, the conservative Debra Saunders, is trying to say. If I read her Feb. 8 column right, she's opposing the Appeals Court ruling on same-sex marriage -- and she seems to be saying that Mayor Gavin Newsom was wrong to allow gay marriages and that the whole matter ought to be decided by a statewide vote:

When the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, Newsom stood on the steps of City Hall crowing, "It's going to happen - whether you like it or not." Newsom didn't bother trying to win Californians over to his cause. He figured the courts would impose same-sex marriage on them. And then voters don't have to like it.

Again -- I don't get it. By the tone of her column, you could almost get the impression that she's against same-sex marriage. At the very least, she doesn't seem to fathom that some basic civil and human rights aren't and never have been subject to the will of the voters. If you asked the voters in Topeka, Kansas in 1954 whether the local schools should be forcibly desegregated, I think it's a good bet that segregation and racism would have won at the ballot box. Is she trying to argue against Brown v. Board of Education?

I wrote her an email and asked her to explain -- really, Debra, I want to understand, but I'm baffled -- and I gave her all day to get back to me, but I haven't heard.

Comments

I call her "Non-sequitur Sanders"

I call her "Non-sequitur Sanders" and that's probably why I stopped reading her a long time ago.

Posted by Guest on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 5:30 pm

Ultimately, voters do decide such things since they elect

those who appoint the judges who rule on constitutionality. So, in the long term, events unfold only because the people want it. We didn't have equal rights for blacks until the people were ready for it.

Nationwide, we're still not there for gays - probably we will get there but you never know.

And some "minorities" will never have equal rights e.g. felons, trans-sexuals, and so on.

Life is a compromise. And we get the society that most people want.

Posted by Guest on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 5:52 pm

Never say never

Transgender people will have equal rights. It will take time. Younger generations are much more open to equal rights. We need to push to make it happen sooner... the sooner the better. But ultimately it's just a matter of time. When enough older folks die and get replaced by people who think differently, things will change.

Felons too. Frankly this notion that felons should be denied their rights for ever and ever is almost uniquely American among the world's developed democracies. In most countries, your rights are restored when you've served your time. We'll get there too. This country always seems to be behind the times.

Posted by Greg on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 6:31 pm

You assume things are "linear" rather than "cyclical"

But rights, insofar as they are even a measure of prgoress, don't "progress" inevitably and inexorable. Rather they come and go, in ebb and flux. Were rights advanced when Reagan was in power? Bush?

While the rise in the Tea Party has taught us all that many people care about things other than the medicritisation that an undue emphasis on "rights" confers on our society.

Do I worry that gays can't marry? No. Do I worry that straight white liberals and their guilt will make us a second rate nation? Yes.

Posted by Guest on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 6:42 pm

I'm an optimist

Some things really are linear, if you take a longer view than a couple of American election cycles.

There are ebbs and flows along the way, but as a whole, humanity is moving in a direction of more equal rights for different people, less religiosity, less economic inequality, more democracy, less tolerance for the use of force as a way of resolving conflicts, etc.

Sure, we may encounter some catastrophy that'll wipe out civilization and set us back a few hundred years, and then we'll have to go through it all again... slavery, totalitarian rule, divine right of kings, constant wars for religion, and total repression of any dissent -you know, all the stuff from the "good old days" that some people want to go back to.

But barring something like that, social evolution is more linear than cyclical, and what's more, with increasingly rapid technological advances, social evolution is accelerating and will continue to accelerate. The world is a smaller place than it ever was now. These days, people who live in misery and oppression know that another way is possible, and they won't tolerate it for as long as they used to.

If you don't believe that ex-felons and transgender people should have full rights, and you believe that America should dominate the world simply because it has the might to do so, I hope you're old. If you're young, I feel sorry for you, because you'll live to see the day in your lifetime when none of these things will be true.

Posted by Greg on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 7:05 pm

Hideous visage.

Hideous visage.

Posted by marcos on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 8:39 pm

The reason you have trouble

The reason you have trouble figuring her out is because you are a principled person who speaks your views plainly and honestly based on a set of ethics and values that are solid and stable, while she is a writer of the capital-p Politician type trying to position her views in a way she believes most captures the esprit of the moment for her side of the political table. You've supported marriage equality from the beginning without swaying, while she doesn't have any real belief on the issue, she's only coming at it from the "activist judges defying the will of the people!" angle. To expect consistency from a person like her will always be frustrating and baffling.

Posted by Tony Longshanks LeTigre on Feb. 08, 2012 @ 8:41 pm

Something seems to be missing here

I think there used to be a post after this one that mysteriously went up in smoke.

Yes, of course, Tim Redmond is a paragon of on going political coherency.

Opportunism has never been a staple of progressive self righteousness. I hear and obey.

Posted by matlock on Feb. 10, 2012 @ 3:41 am

I'm for gay marriage but I

I'm for gay marriage but I don't think that the courts should overrule the will of the people, which is what they did. It's going to backfire in the next election.

Posted by Guest on Feb. 09, 2012 @ 2:00 am

I'm for integration but I

I'm for integration but I don't think that the courts should overrule the will of the people. which is what they did in Brown vs. Board of Ed. It's going to backfire in the next election.

Same thing with interracial marriage. Let those laws saying black and white people can't marry each other stay on the books till the southern people decide they should be changed.

Posted by Mirror Image on Feb. 09, 2012 @ 9:03 am

...and some of your best friends are 'negroes'?.

Posted by Patrick Monk. RN on Feb. 09, 2012 @ 1:27 pm

The evil writings in

The evil writings in Leviticus 18:22 against gays depict; rules for temple rituals or “P” … Priestly Rules & expanded by the pope; homophobes and religious frauds to attack the gay community and never meant to apply to the public but to priests. Leviticus exists in the old testament & torah & were written long after Moses; 600BC. Being left-handed or being gay is just as natural. Bibles and the torah which includes leviticus 18:22 should be immediately banned for promoting hatred against minorities; namely the gay community and the crosses removed from all schools and churches.

"It is written; so therefore it shall be? We are the chosen people? Such a wicked fantasy." To see the religious lunatics manipulate government and our lives is shameful.

There is no scientific evidence to prove any of the cross related bogus elements of christianity. Man goes back 6,000,000 years; 5,996,000 years before the Greeks, Romans and the Jews and 5,998,000 years pre-dating the myth of christianity which is a mere 2012 year old cult.

In the year 325 AD; Emperor Constantine -- who to some was the first pope; went on to fabricate & market Christianity with the creative historian Eusebius; a fiction which turned out to be one of the most hateful & evil concoctions ever perpetrated on the world.

Einstein stated in a letter recently auctioned that the bible was a collection of primitive legends. He said believing in God was childish and he as a Jew is no different than another person and not chosen by God. Many theologians state quite correctly that the birth; crucifixion; resurrection and other elements of christianity actually didn’t even happen!

Posted by MACDONALDBANK1 on Feb. 09, 2012 @ 7:43 am