|
. . .when what K-LO REALLY means is protecting the largest government welfare system in existence. The inflation in the number of special rights/benefits/privileges/rules/regulations for "married" people in the states is astounding. . .what can say "big government" louder than hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these statutes?
This is where I often piss these faux ideological con-artist con-servatives off the most. When it comes to "marriage," they are so quick to crow about the "foundation of society" the "pillar of our civilization" and all that other crap, when they damn well know that it is nothing more than a huge government-regulated welfare system which milks ALL the taxpayers under the guise of "greater social good." That's right - this is the one area of "socialism" that conservatives seem to defend with ferocity - but of course, it is also the biggest area in which they reap the greatest benefits.
Think about it for a moment. I remember an appalling experience I had about 15 years ago, watching one partner of a same-sex couple pass on. What I got to witness (courtesy of those hundreds of special rights laws that our "representatives" spend an inordinate amount of time creating for "married" people) was the fleecing of their joint property by strangers, the outrageous disrespect of their relationship in the damned newspaper obituary, the surviving partner ostracized and eliminated in planning the funeral of his longtime partner, and the pretension of their "government" that they NEVER EXISTED.
Worse, in MY state, who do you think gets the property if there are no legally defined heirs or "natural" defined "family" members? The STATE. Yes - big government at its best.
The MAJORITY of legal adults in this country are NOT MARRIED. Some don't WANT to get married. Some, (like most same-sex couples in various states) CAN'T get married, and some others were fleeced so badly in previous divorces that they want to stay as far away from marriage as possible. And what has their government done for them? Created a small cluster of complicated, expensive, often-ignored regulations and rules governing their basic life and death needs and experiences. Most of the are woefully inadequate. And yet I'll listen to conservatives moan "why don't those gay families just get powers of attorney? Those should work perfectly." Well, if that shit worked so perfectly, then all of those hundreds of special little marriage statutes could be dumped and EVERYONE could be assigned that little complicated file-cabinet-full-of-legal-directives-route.
For all the "sanctity" these people scream about, they sure need an ever-increasing number of special rights laws written and financed by ALL of us in order to support their "pillar of society" scheme. Sure, they have children and start the next generation - but all of us pay for things like health, food, and public education - and yet how many "unmarried" or "single" or "without child" people get to sit on school boards or are admitted to PTAs? So it becomes a welfare system for the greater community - a system, that strangely enough, conservatives insist must NOT be allowed to be extended to families headed by same-sex couples, yet ALL of us should be forced to support the legally "married" "traditional" families that conservatives want to define for us. . .even though they are the MINORITY of families in this country.
To me, it's all an outrage. I'm VERY happy same-sex couple now have access to this buffet or rights and responsibilities in New York. But I also think it is well past time that this country consider how the present array of "marriage" and "family" laws neglect and violate the rights of those who are NOT married - and that we should have an expectation that OUR representatives tend to our basic life/death needs and experiences without forcing everyone to be tied to the "marriage" system.
|