Posted by
Crescen7(Regis Matejcik) on Saturday, November 29, 2008 2:14:37 PM
Perhaps Dr. William Bennett is the most fond of stating with almost smug conviction, "We are still a center / right country." This phrase has often been repeated in the wake of the most recent election results, usually while citing the vote to constitutionally prohibit gay marriage in California.
Does no one else see the nonsense of using this as as evidence of a "Center / Right" society ?
In order to make sense of this term, one must consider how far left the center has moved. In keeping with the example of homosexuals and there treatment in society, let's review the history of the "Center", so to speak.
In colonial times, homosexual behavior between men was punishable by death. That was the "center" position. In 1682, that liberal bastion of Pennsylvania became the first and only one of the colonies to remove homosexuality from it's capital crimes. Instead, they limited punishment to whipping, forfeiture of 1/3 of one's estate, and six months of hard labor. The law was amended in 1700 to life imprisonment or castration. Oddly, this "liberal" view of homosexuality was inspired by the prevalence of the devoutly religious Quakers in Pennsylvania who favored forgiveness over punishment.
Take heart dear conservatives, in 1718 Pennsylvania revised it's laws to move back to the political center, and re-instituted the death penalty for homosexual behavior.
Of course, during this era, the Colonies were somewhat more progressive than the right leaning homeland of England. In the case of R. v. Jones in 1776, as the defendant was convicted of a capital offense after obtaining money from a victim under the threat of a public allegation that the victim was a homosexual. During that period in England, simple extortion was a misdemeanor, but extortion under threat of public allegation of homosexuality was considered more deadly than to put a gun to ones head - hence it was robbery, and therefore a capital offense. In short, in England one could be hanged for accusing one of being a homosexual - if one demanded payment to silence the allegation.
While these laws are difficult to imagine in modern times, it would seem that approximately 1/3 of the sovereign nations of the world have laws prohibiting homosexual behavior, and about 1/7 of the worlds population consider it an offense punishable by death. Here in the U.S., laws prohibiting homosexual behavior existed until very recently. In 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court in "Lawrence vs. Texas" essentially ruled that States have no authority to prohibit homosexual behavior.
The point here, is that the "center," as it relates to homosexual behavior, has moved from hanging offense, to rarely used hanging offense, to felony offense, to rarely enforced felony offense, to misdemeanor offense, to rarely enforced misdemeanor offense, to legal; and now the push is for parity with traditional marriage. If the fact that 60% of Californians don't believe homosexual relationships are the complete legal, social, and moral equivalent of thousands of years of traditional marriage is evidence that we are a "center right" society - then it's also evidence that the center has moved way to the left.