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Yes - we are not a direct democracy - we are a Republic. However, certain states (like California) have enacted direct democracy protocols(such as initiative, referendum, and recall).
California has a unique legislation process that allows the people to pass laws over the legislature. However, it's still bound by scrutiny by the Court system. The United States, and most individual states, does not have California's proposition system.
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State law trumps federal law unless the Constitution specifically provides for otherwise. Sorry if you don't like our system of government. You are free to amend it.
No, actually Federal law trumps state law. State law only gets deference if it's something not addressed in any Federal law (which includes more than the Us Constitution).
As an example, voting is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the Constitution and Supreme Court have stated there are certain conditions of who the states may ban from voting and who they may not. So long as the States don't violate the Constitution or Supreme Courts ruling, they may set the requirements for their voting systems.
you are trying to dramatically fundamentally alter marriage and telling everyone they must except it, or be insulted, maligned, fired from their job, etc... all because gays want to force everyone to endorse their lifestyle choice.
I can't rep you again before spreading love(not homosexual love) around.
Originally Posted by Wapasha The morals and ethics of religion have always influenced legislators.
Correct, but if you check your history you will find that it was almost always in a negative way...
We have all heard preachers and politicians referring to the time when the United States was founded. They describe this era as a type of golden age when ethics, morality, family values etc were at their peak. The next time that you hear this, we urge you to remember five terms: "racism, sexism, religism (religious intolerance), homophobia, and transphobia".
In those early years:
1 Racism abounded. Persons of African-American descent were considered by many to be less than human. So were Native Americans. Slavery was legal; people were owned as property. The Bible was extensively used to sanction the continuation of slavery. It was a particularly brutal form of slavery, much worse then regulated and accepted in the Bible.
2 Sexism abounded. Women were denied the vote; it took a 70 year effort during the 19th and 20th centuries to achieve universal suffrage. Women were not allowed to enter many professions. They were given very few basic options: typically marriage, nursing, spinsterhood or teaching. Again, verses from the Bible were quoted to justify the oppression of women.
3 Religism or religious intolerance Clergy were prohibited from running for office in some states. At the other extreme, Roman Catholics and members of non-Christian religions were heavily discriminated against in other states.
4 Homophobia: "Crimes against nature" could result in a life sentence in some states. Such crimes included all gay and lesbian sex, and many practices common to heterosexuals.
5 Transphobia: This is discrimination against transgender persons. They experience a conflict between their perceived gender and their genetic gender. This is not a topic that we have research yet, so we don't know the degree of transphobia in the 18th century.. "Principles on which the U.S. was founded" myth
. Why are you even participating in this discussion? It's obvious you have no intention of your views even slightly budging, and it's obvious you're not interested in educating yourself on why your views are wrong.
i wasn't born here in NC but decided to retire here. in the five plus years i have been here, i am not surprised by the way they voted. some of these people are so backward. i truly appreciate the President's decison on gay marriages. i was proud to be an American that day and was very proud of our President for standing up for what he beleived in. i agree with the people on this post who beleive people should stay the hell out of folk business.
Because the Supreme Court said marriage is a fundamental civil right, and cannot be denied on the basis of a protected class.
Sex is a protected class. Allowing a man to marry a woman, but not a man, solely because he's a man, is discrimination under US law.
Why is this so hard for you all to grasp. Why are you even participating in this discussion? It's obvious you have no intention of your views even slightly budging, and it's obvious you're not interested in educating yourself on why your views are wrong.
Can you cite polls that show that any current majority supports any of the extreme positions you just cited?
That isn't the point. If it's an option, it can happen unless the laws in place prevent it from happening.
Everyone is worried about Mexicans and illegal immigration. Would you have a problem if Mexicans became the majority and banned speaking English in this country, or made Catholicism the required religion to follow?
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And would you care to deny that you would be in favor of a direct democratic vote that decided homosexual marriage is legal?
I most certainly would. Direct democracies are evil.
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