Smart OpEd

on -- yep, you guessed it: the California decision.

Here's an editorial by Harold Meyerson from WaPo that I think has a good take on this whole process:

A similar dynamic, I think, is at work today on issues of sexual orientation. Public opinion on gay and lesbian rights, domestic partnerships, and marriage is changing faster than it is on any other remotely comparable public issue. In 2000, 61 percent of California voters approved an initiative banning gay marriage, but polling last year showed that the gap between the numbers of supporters and opponents of the prohibition had virtually vanished. A constitutional ban on gay marriage will be on California's ballot in November. The odds on its passage, I'd guess, are no better than even money.

This shift is being driven by the young: Overwhelmingly, young people favor gay unions and, increasingly, gay marriage. Opposition rises in direct relation to the age of the poll respondents. In 20 or 30 years, I suspect gay marriage will be legal -- and no big deal -- throughout most, if not all, of the nation.

So was last week's ruling an impetus or impediment to that process? My hunch is that by basing the case for the right to intra-gender marriage so clearly and forcefully on the doctrine of equal rights, the court situated gay marriage not only in an established body of law but also within the essential definition of America. Opposition to gay marriage is most commonly rooted in tradition, religious tradition in particular. But the ideas that all men are created equal and have an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness are the traditions that define our nation, and by basing its decision on those premises the court did gay rights, and American ideals, a huge service.

That's a point I've hit again and again about the far right: their ideals and their goals are fundamentally un-American. It's nice to see someone in the MSM picking up on that, even if it's only by inference.