Democrats must confront GOP strategy

Gene Lyons

Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006

So here’s the big Republican agenda for the 2006 elections: Other people’s sex lives (a. k. a. gay marriage ), flag-burning, illegal Mexican immigrants, tax cuts and Chicken Little. There’s no surprise about the first few. A GOP campaign resembles a traveling tent show. White House sideshow barker Karl Rove expects that the rubes who line up every two years to see the twoheaded calf and the bearded lady will fall for flag-burning again. Never mind that Republicans have done nothing about it since President Bush’s father visited a flag factory during his 1988 campaign. Flag burning as a protest all but disappeared after 9 / 11. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N. Y., also has joined this crusade, the surest sign that she’s contemplating running for president in 2008.

Amending the Constitution to forbid gay marriage is another election-year shell game. Finessing it shouldn’t be too hard for Democrats. If your church refuses to solemnize same-sex marriages, that’s its undeniable First Amendment right. Forbidding people to enter into domestic partnership contracts due to sexual orientation, however, would be un-American.