[Cerek]

Originally posted by John D Harris: T.L. you are correct that a ban on civil unions will most likely be ruled Unconstituitonal, States that went so far as to ban civil Unions will be in for a rude awaking. But not all the States did so some did some didn't. Should there be a legal statis for same sex unions or non married heto. unions? Legaly speaking there probibly should, and probibly WILL be, but the unions won't be called marriage. Now for all you folks down on the religious right thinking they are to blame and that the marriage issue was what gave President Bush his victory. Do the Math in the vast majority of States that had marriage proposals on the ballots the proposal passed in the nieghborhood of 65-70% while President Bush won the state in the nieghborhood ot 51-60%, that means 20-40% of Kerry voters/Dem/Non Religious Right crossed over. Now I shouldn't do this but I'll help the Dems/Libs out here, not that they will listen anyways, the Dems better abandon the Hollywood/NYC crowd and understand they are not the end all be all of this nation. If the Dems don't change they're out of power for a generation or more.

Thanks for the stats, J.D. This the point I've been trying to make throughout this thread - that it wasn't just the Republicans and their "moral mammys" that voted in favor of the amendments. Each of these amendments passed by an overwhelming majority - which means that Democrats had to vote for it too and probably even some NON-religious voters cast their vote in favor of banning the marriages.

And you're also right about the Dems needing to abandon the Hollywood/NYC crowd. Kerry won those states, but he lost every one of the Southern states. And the last 2 Democrats that won the office of President came from the South (Carter and Clinton). One of my college buddies put it very well. The Dem's need to regroup and figure out WHY they keep losing the South. President Bush just proved that - even though our electoral votes are small for each state - they add up quickly. I think the Dems DID make an attempt to gain the Southern vote by choosing Edwards as their VP - but now they see that gesture wasn't enough. So they need to actually give a serious look at WHY they keep losing down here. THEN they can come up with a strategy and a candidate that can win the office for them.