The Right Takes a Wrong Turn

I was watching a discussion on CNN's NewsNight about the political views of Ben Franklin, the founding father...In particular, the biographer spoke of Franklin's dislike of partisanship, and his belief in compromise. Aaron Brown asked, "Would he have been a Republican or Democrat?", and the answer was "he would have been a centrist". That sounds so foreign in a political discussion, doesn't it? We're so focused on "Left or Right", "Liberal or Conservative", that it almost seems like we've forgotten the vast expanse in between. Sadly, our politics has become so partisan and the center seems so barren.

I get into a lot of politcal arguements, and someone usually accuses me of being on one side or another. I am not on the Left or Right. I'm a Centrist by reason. For example, I take issue with much of the Liberal agenda, such as Affirmative Action, expanding Welfare, and to great an emphesis on environmentalism. I am vocal in my disgust for Marxism, which in my opinion seems all too often to drip into the agenda of the Left.

For that reason, I'm often accused of being a Conservative. But I'm not. How could I associate myself with a movement that could produce this?:

"WASHINGTON - The Senate majority leader said Sunday he supported a proposed constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage in the United States."

That's just plain sick. Two things strike me here the most. First, as a heterosexual male who is free to marry at any time, it deeply saddens me that in this nation built on freedom, where we are supposed to be guaranteed “pursuit of Happiness” that homosexuals are not given the same right. Is not marriage one of our greatest institutions of happiness? Conservatives paint homosexual marriage as a moral issue. No, it is plainly a civil rights issue. Frist wants to alienate a minority in this nation through constitutional amendment. If that minority was black, Asian, Jewish, or anything other then homosexual, there would be riots in the streets.

Secondly, how could Bill Frist, one of our nation's top legislators, even think of trying to legislate morality through constituional amendment? Didn't his predeccessors early in the 20th Century learn how poor a choice that was with the 18th Amendment? That "noble experiment" failed.