On marriage-equality: Time to take the governor up on his challenge

I think we would call this doubling down. We’d also call it hypocrisy — which is what he accuses (perhaps accurately) New Jersey Democrats of.

Gov. Chris Christie accused the court of overstepping its bounds on the gay-marriage issue and Justice Kennedy of being unduly harsh in his criticism of the Defense of Marriage Act. Forget for a second some of the names the governor has called his opponents or the way he often substitutes bluster and vitriol for reasoned argument. The Kennedy ruling was a rather measured and legitimate critique of a discriminatory federal law that needed to be relegated to the dustbins of history — unlike the Voting Rights Act, which the conservative justices, including Kennedy, eviscerated and about which the governor has yet to comment.

Christie again challenged the Democrats to go to the ballot box on the issue and, while I generally do not believe that rights should have to be won through referendum or even through legislative or executive fiat, it may be time to take him up on the challenge. Given the polling — two thirds of New Jerseyans support marriage equality in recent polls, which is the highest figure among states that have not explicitly legalized or banned gay marriage — and Christie’s continued opposition, maybe it’s time for the Democratic leadership to put it on the ballot and let voters do an end-around the governor.

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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet