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EDITORIAL
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LESSON FROM CALIFORNIA
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Elections provide the only instrument and platform through which the average
citizen can make known his or her opinion about an issue. It has been a
foundational principle established by our founding fathers and practiced in
democracies the world over. But a recent event in California leaves many
wondering whether elections will mean anything in America in a few years
because this is a country that is increasingly divided between the left and the
right.
As we went to press last month, a California judge overturned the people’s vote
on the popular subject known in that state as Proposition 8. Proposition 8
prohibited same-sex marriage in California, defining marriage as being between
one man and one woman.
In overturning the majority vote of the people, the judge wrote that Proposition 8
was not giving gays and lesbians the equal opportunity that exists for
heterosexuals to marry. Whether he is right or wrong isn’t the point here. The
contention at hand is about a judge’s unilateral decision to deny the majority of
the people the power of their vote, the only instrument they have to express their
values and view in a debate.
This judge’s verdict is an indictment of the democratic process. It is very
important because of the precedent it sets. What it simply means to that state
and to the country as a whole is that elections don’t matter. Any time a majority of
people vote and agree on an issue, and a judge, by the stroke of his pen,
overturns the results that means the foundational principles of the democratic
process have been violated.
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The California situation is very similar to what is going on in our state. Here in
New Hampshire, where we should be living our motto “Live Free or Die,” the
legislature did something very similar to what the judge did in California.
In June, 2009, state legislators voted to legalize same-sex marriage in NH
without finding out the will of the people through the democratic process of a
vote. As though that wasn’t insulting enough, they crafted the document in a
language that makes it almost criminal for the people to vote on the issue. By
this I mean they made it virtually impossible for the matter to even be placed in
any future ballot.
At the moment, a few legislators are gathering signatures to place the question
of gay marriage in NH on the ballot. There isn’t any doubt that they will succeed
in garnering enough signatures for the initiative. It is only a matter of when.
The lesson from California is obvious and one that opponents of gay marriage in
NH must learn from. The people sponsoring the initiative to ban same-sex
marriage in NH must do their homework so that when the people eventually vote
on the issue, the courts and judges would have no alternative but to support the
expressed will of the people.
If courts and judges are allowed to continue to usurp the power of the vote of
the majority, a time will come when the rule of law and elections in this great
country will mean absolutely nothing.
And if a single judge by the stroke of his pen can overturn the expressed will of
the people, one wonders if America isn’t slowly but surely turning into a
dictatorship. What is the point of spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars to put an
issue on the ballot if its outcome cannot be upheld by Constitutional provisions?
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