abe smith

Interestingly enough, minor (pg A1) article today's Boston GLOBE points out that a core "issue" (Encore!) of the Massachusetts Same-Sex Marriage hullabaloo is, that probably ( as opposing candidates a few years down the road) both Republican Governor the anti-gay-marriage Mormon (carpetbagger from Utah) Mitt Romney, and the Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly who is a Democrat, and a practising Roman Catholic, and *nominally* anti-gay-marriage --- both these fellows probably intend to run for GOVERNOR.

This supposition (which smells to me like a strong likelihood) throws a bright beam across the presently-enlarging struggle here, in Massachusetts.
Evidently Romney believes that his PERSONAL goals will be best served by aligning himself w/ conservative Republican anti-S.S. marriage = hence his grasping for any legal straws he can find (= now the 1913 Mass Jim Crow anti-miscegenation law) in order to prevent or bugger legalization of same-sex marriage here. (It is of course presently LEGAL here, as of last Monday 17 May 2004.)

And forsooth , the Democrat AG Reilly, a hometown boy here in a traditionally largely Irish-Catholic Democrat state is blandly hewing to the line but evidently intending to balk Romney's efforts to make political profit.
Hey-hey! Keep in watching how this struggle develops.

The media haven't been making too-overt noise, yet, about Romney's status as an Outsider; but my Impression is that as the matters begin to heat up, Romney will find that his Conservative, Republican (minority), religious-fundamentalist base will erode, as GWB's similar base is eroding; and Pretty-Boy Romney will lose out in his political aspirations, because he has chosen to align himself with the Wrong constituency...

This whole thing is local, for me; and hence of considerable interest; but the issues indeed are at least national and moderately longer-term.

crazyfingers

Interesting observations abe. I'd only add that I suspect that Romney has his long term sights on a future outside of massachusetts and so he is positioning himself, though his actions, in a way that alligns himself more with the national right wing to middle right republican christain base and those with republican money rather than with the more liberal mainstram citizens of massachusetts.

Anyway, that's my guess because I think that his hard line stance here in massachusetts will eventually lead to his decline in the eyes of the massachusetts citizenry as they become accustomed to gay marriage and eventually refuse to take it away from people should the Mass constitutonal amdendment go to the vote on 2006.

abe smith

... wait & see. Got to live another decade or so, to see how it all shakes-out! Cha knoW.... The citizens of Massachusetts, the old colonial teeps who VOTE, have a sense of those 4 centuries of the Commonwealth's history and are perhaps not-much-moved by movie-actor teeps from Western staties-come-later.

Must've been also in the Thursday? or Friday papers (GLOBE, and my local) an AP interesting general article about USA voting patterns as related to (can't remember the well-turned phrase they use) something-like "multi-factored culture" = education, religious affiliation, ethnic origins et tutti cuanti. I have to get back to that & absorb the article more thoroughly.

The article-ators graded the various (50) states on the basis of their VOTING records ( = percent of eligibles who actually do vote). I'll go find a link for that for here; unless some kindly and well-connected here-member will do us that service! :notworthy

Stephen_BostonMA

It's a wonder that Romney has chosen to align himself with fundamentalist/evangelical Christians. As I understand it, they are greatly at odds with Mormonism, which they consider to be a dangerous non-Christian cult. Conservative Catholics also have issues with Mormonism, but they are perhaps not so outspoken about it as the fundamentalists. Maybe fundamentalists somehow see the Mormons as competitors in trying to win converts.

simian

Perhaps the goal is to instill a Christian theocracy first, then weed out all but the "true Christians".

Simian

hezekiah jones

And that one died on a cross.

PopeInTheWoods

Heh, just how the "Churches United for Decency" did it Robert Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice.

Andy