Nation-Building >> Bush "comes out" against equal rights under the law | return to front page

It's official. President Bush supports a Constitutional amendment which would deny equal rights to many of our fellow Americans. In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, he said of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, "It was a very activist court in making the decision it made. As you know, I'm a person who believes in judicial restraint, as opposed to judicial activism that takes the place of the Legislative Branch." (note: He doesn't seem to have a problem with activist courts when they rule in his favor) He then goes on to explain that a Constitutional amendment might be needed if "judicial rulings undermine the sanctity of marriage."
It is unclear whether the President supports a consitutional ban in order to overturn the Mass. court decision, or whether he opposes a state's right to make laws which are respected across the land, or whether he's simply throwing a bone to the 4 million fundamentalists who didn't vote in 2000. Probably a bit of all three, I suppose.
Fortunately, all of the Democratic contenders have stated their support for equal rights for all Americans. No matter who gets the nomination, the Bushies will use this as a wedge issue. Only Gov Dean has the record to back up his support for equal rights (not to belittle Lieberman's great work during the civil rights movement, but he wasn't making laws). Let's remember what he said in his speech in South Carolina:

The politics of the 21st century is going to begin with our common interests.
If the President tries to divide us by race, we're going to talk about health care for every American.
If Karl Rove tries to divide us by gender, we're going to talk about better schools for all of our children.
If large corporate interests try to divide us by income, we're going to talk about better jobs and higher wages for every American.
If any politician tries to win an election by turning America into a battle of us versus them, we're going to respond with a politics that says that we're all in this together - that we want to raise our children in a world in which they are not taught to hate one another, because our children are not born to hate one another....
The politics of race and the politics of fear will be answered with the promise of community and a message of hope.
And that's how we're going to win in 2004.