W. just did something I thought he'd never do. He's now pushing morals in a formal capacity at a federal level, and has brought up the idea of an US Constitutional Amendment to ban gay marriage. Despite all the demonizations of W., he's always respected and understood the separations of federal and state laws -- especially on abortion, religion and sexual orientation. To date, the only time W. has done anything, he's done it not as President, but only to file a brief on behalf of a private lawsuit. Until now.
What does this mean?
Well, it's really what seems to happen to every 2-term President in their last 2 years. Although some Presidents indulge it throughout their career, some don't until those last 2 years.
Yes, it seems every President succums to pushing legislation or Amendments that have zero chance of passing, just to make political overtures and seem like they are "making a difference." I got sick of that under Clinton, things like the Kyoto Treaty (shot down 0-98 under the Clinton administration) among other things. But now it seems W. is going the other way, extreme right for the first time in a formal capacity as the President of the United States, and not just a private citizen.
I haven't liked most of W.'s decisions, and I thought many of them are flawed, but I had to give him credit for making many statements as a private citizen, and knowing when the federal office of President was not to try to make policy and laws that are clearly state/local issues. But it's now his last 2 years, and just like Reagan and Nixon (who luckily had his time cut short), there's now a lot of stupid laws in-the-pipe as W. tries to appease Religious-Right voters for 2008 and not merely those of conservative federal view and federal policy.
He knows it doesn't have a chance in hell of passing. And even then the Supreme Court would have fun with it. But he's doing it for 100% political rhetoric -- the first time I've seen him ever do something like this in formal action. It really takes away the only respectable quality I saw in W. out of any recent Presidents, which is a big mistake because not much else is going for him. Really, he could at least fall back on his responsibility in his federal role -- mistakes and all -- because he always kept the separation of W.'s private views separate from those as the President of the United States (despite demonizations to the contrary).
But now's he's merged the Religious-Right agenda into a formal role, and that's not tolerable in my view. I know many of you will want to point out that he's a Religious-Right, but I don't know 1 single other legislation he's pushed for the Religious-Right as the Federal Executive. And the US TV media seems to be "missing the signficance" of it too -- although I guess they are rather ignorant of civics, hence that reason. But every single comment, brief and other move he's made on several views have been made as only his personal, private view, and not in legislation from the Federal Executive -- again, until now.
So while I'm shocked, I'm also not completely surprised. It seems this hits all 2-term Presidents in their last 2 years. I'm just kinda surprised how far he's taking it off-the-bat. This is clearly something that will not pass -- not in Congress, not by the People and definitely not by the Supreme court. It only takes 1 strike to strike out and W.'s got 3 right there! Which means he knows, full well, he shouldn't even bother -- much less he knows it's not his place at the federal level to make this argument as the President of the United States.
Now I'm really wishing 2008 was here! Hopefully Bednarik is running again. And hopefully he'll wins some lawsuits that says whoever is on the ballot in all districts of these 50 states gets to participate in the debate. Otherwise, he'll just get arrested yet again for trying to walk on to the debate.
What does this mean?
Well, it's really what seems to happen to every 2-term President in their last 2 years. Although some Presidents indulge it throughout their career, some don't until those last 2 years.
Yes, it seems every President succums to pushing legislation or Amendments that have zero chance of passing, just to make political overtures and seem like they are "making a difference." I got sick of that under Clinton, things like the Kyoto Treaty (shot down 0-98 under the Clinton administration) among other things. But now it seems W. is going the other way, extreme right for the first time in a formal capacity as the President of the United States, and not just a private citizen.
I haven't liked most of W.'s decisions, and I thought many of them are flawed, but I had to give him credit for making many statements as a private citizen, and knowing when the federal office of President was not to try to make policy and laws that are clearly state/local issues. But it's now his last 2 years, and just like Reagan and Nixon (who luckily had his time cut short), there's now a lot of stupid laws in-the-pipe as W. tries to appease Religious-Right voters for 2008 and not merely those of conservative federal view and federal policy.
He knows it doesn't have a chance in hell of passing. And even then the Supreme Court would have fun with it. But he's doing it for 100% political rhetoric -- the first time I've seen him ever do something like this in formal action. It really takes away the only respectable quality I saw in W. out of any recent Presidents, which is a big mistake because not much else is going for him. Really, he could at least fall back on his responsibility in his federal role -- mistakes and all -- because he always kept the separation of W.'s private views separate from those as the President of the United States (despite demonizations to the contrary).
But now's he's merged the Religious-Right agenda into a formal role, and that's not tolerable in my view. I know many of you will want to point out that he's a Religious-Right, but I don't know 1 single other legislation he's pushed for the Religious-Right as the Federal Executive. And the US TV media seems to be "missing the signficance" of it too -- although I guess they are rather ignorant of civics, hence that reason. But every single comment, brief and other move he's made on several views have been made as only his personal, private view, and not in legislation from the Federal Executive -- again, until now.
So while I'm shocked, I'm also not completely surprised. It seems this hits all 2-term Presidents in their last 2 years. I'm just kinda surprised how far he's taking it off-the-bat. This is clearly something that will not pass -- not in Congress, not by the People and definitely not by the Supreme court. It only takes 1 strike to strike out and W.'s got 3 right there! Which means he knows, full well, he shouldn't even bother -- much less he knows it's not his place at the federal level to make this argument as the President of the United States.
Now I'm really wishing 2008 was here! Hopefully Bednarik is running again. And hopefully he'll wins some lawsuits that says whoever is on the ballot in all districts of these 50 states gets to participate in the debate. Otherwise, he'll just get arrested yet again for trying to walk on to the debate.
