Poor Jennifer Rubin. You can almost hear her stamping her feet and holding her breath until she turns blue:
The Supreme Court argument on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act was rather predictable. So-called liberal justices can’t get their minds around recognizing heterosexual marriage as deserving of special status. At the other end of the spectrum, Justice Antonin Scalia can’t fathom anyone questioning a couple thousand years of social convention.
All she really needs here is “And your pretty dog, too!” and the picture really takes shape.
Apparently, she’s obtuse enough to miss the fact that she wrote “special status” in a nation that nominally believes in equal rights for all.
Strike one.
Strike two comes in her characterization of marriage as a “couple thousand [sic] years” old social convention.
So was slavery, dear Jen. So was the subjugation of women such that, right now, you ought to be sitting in a tent with your husband.
And his slaves. Whom he regularly impregnates. You, of all folks, a member of The Chosen People and one who is rightly proud of that heritage, ought to know this intimately, if you paid any attention in schul.
But I digress…
Social conventions are just that: agreements within a society that this is how we will behave in order to keep a just and peaceful society. But when those customs and mores run smack dab into denying elements of that society the full rights and membership that they should rightly expect, then they simply must change. Getting all butthurt about it isn’t doing anyone any good, least of all yourself.
Now, to her credit, Rubin does take a stance against DoMA, which is an important step forward in her maturation process. Perhaps there’s hope for her to reach high school level debate before the decade is out, even if her writing is still rather atrocious.
By the way, dear Jen, you might want to fix this metaphor:
Here the administration is trying to have its cake (side with pro-gay marriage advocates) and get the court to declare gay marriage protected by the 14th Amendment.
It’s “have their cake and eat it too.”
Posts
