The Right really exhibits a nasty authoritarian streak that lets them, whenever they see fit, offer up selective interpretations of what is and isn't "legitimate" in a democracy - and conservatives are most willing to do this on divisive issues like gay marriage.

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Published on OurFuture.org (http://www.ourfuture.org) />Created 04/13/2009 - 10:26pm

The Right really exhibits a nasty authoritarian streak that lets them, whenever they see fit, offer up selective interpretations of what is and isn't "legitimate" in a democracy - and conservatives are most willing to do this on divisive issues like gay marriage.

I appeared on CNN this weekend to discuss a bunch of different topics, including - most interestingly - gay marriage. You can watch the clip here [1].

I say "most interestingly," because you'll see in the debate that the conservative du jour - a guy named Ben Ferguson - pulls the Right's now-standard tactic of blaming the process for any policy outcome the Right does not like. In this case, Ferguson insists that state legislatures and courts - major branches of our democracy - have no right to pass bills legalizing/issue court rulings legalizing gay marriage in a democracy. According to Ferguson, the only legitimate way to legalize gay marriage is through voter referenda.

This is, of course, idiotic to the point of silly. Courts and legislatures are all, in some way, accountable to voters. In many states, court justices are elected, and even in the ones where they aren't, an elected official appoints them. Even more obvious is the fact that legislatures are elected every two years. The idea that these organs of government have no right to do what they are elected to do - ie. make laws - is preposterous.

I'm not, of course, saying that voter referenda are inherently bad or illegitimate - if I was saying that, I'd be resorting to the same moronishness of Ferguson. Referenda are also a legitimate form of democratic power in a democracy, and I believe that even if they don't go the way I want them to.

The point here is that the Right really exhibits a nasty authoritarian streak that lets them, whenever they see fit, offer up selective interpretations of what is and isn't "legitimate" in a democracy - and conservatives are most willing to do this on divisive issues like gay marriage.

As I told CNN, I really believe anyone gay or straight who says their marriage is threatened by someone else's gay or straight marriage needs to seek marriage counseling. But an even bigger point than that is the fact that anyone who selectively indicts the legitimacy of different legitimate branches of our democracy isn't interested in democracy - they are interested in authoritarianism.

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Links:
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnJwhGSbpFA

Authors Bio:

David Sirota is a full-time political journalist, best-selling author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist living in Denver, Colorado. He blogs for Working Assets and the Denver Post's PoliticsWest website. He is a Senior Editor at In These Times magazine, which in 2006 received the Utne Independent Press Award for political coverage. His 2006 book, Hostile Takeover, was a New York Times bestseller, and is now out in paperback. He has been a guest on, among others, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and NPR. His writing, which draws on his extensive experience as a progressive political strategist, has appeared in, among others, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Baltimore Sun, the Nation magazine, the Washington Monthly and the American Prospect. Sirota was a twice-a-week guest on the Al Franken Show. He currently serves in a volunteer capacity as the co-chairperson of the Progressive States Network - a 501c3 nonpartisan organization.

In the years before becoming a full-time writer, Sirota worked as the press secretary for Vermont Independent Congressman Bernard Sanders, the chief spokesman for Democrats on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, the Director of Strategic Communications for the Center for American Progress, a campaign consultant for Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and a media strategist for Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont. He also previously contributed writing to the website of the California Democratic Party. For more on Sirota, see these profiles of him in Newsweek or the Rocky Mountain News. Feel free to email him at lists [at] davidsirota.com Note: this online publication represents Sirota's personal views, and not the official views of the organizations he works with.