Consider Me Energized

The knock on bringing the Defense of Marriage Amendment up for another vote is that it's a cynical stunt to energize conservative voters:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing a defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hoped to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

Is it really a defeat for that purpose? They knew the vote would probably fail, but they wanted to remind people who are talking about "sending a message" to the Republicans by sitting out this election that we need to keep working to build majorities in Congress that will put a stop to policy-making by federal judges. It's too early to tell whether conservatives in general were energized, but I was. It made me see more clearly, what's at stake in politics. Not just the war, or the judges, or the deficit, or immigration, but democracy itself. What good are our votes when judges can overrule them in the name of judicial review?

There is nothing in the Constitution that mandates gay marriage and vote after vote has shown that Americans oppose giving that kind of validation to a lifestyle that disturbs them.

Gay activists are desperate to have their relationships validated by the rest of society, but legalizing gay marriage won't be the end of it, because the difference will remain, and more demands will follow until they control what is considered normal. It's true Americans have degraded marriage and accepted the widespread pornography and coarsening of society, including "sexual" behavior that gratifies lust, but serves no other purpose. But marriage and family life are still the basis of society, where new citizens are born and raised and civilized. We should be seriously alarmed by trends toward more sex outside of marriage, more abortions, fewer children born into stable families, more divorce, homes where both parents leave the home to work, etc.

Yes, we have freedom, but freedom of action doesn't equal freedom from consequences, and we have very little consciousness in modern society of the ultimate implications for society of the innovations in lifestyles of the past 60 years. The information is out there, but it is ignored in our media and attacked by advocates of more freedom with less accountability.

We are now seeing the claim made implicity that criticism or opposition to practices like gay "sex," abortion and increasingly easy divorce is somehow a denial of one's freedom. The modern world is dividing along the lines of libertinism and responsibility, and if conservatives don't keep up the fight, the drift will continue to the point where society outside our homes is hostile to what we want in our own lives and those of our children.

Notice that I have not called anyone names, impugned character, or compared anyone to some heinous figures or movements in history. I support civil discourse. If I forget, I hope someone will remind me.