People like me will tell you that marriage amendments like this one are a cynical maneuver by Republicans, exploiting hot-button issues with the real agenda of getting more right-wing voters to the polls to elect conservative politicians to office. This is interesting:
Previous versions of the legislation called for a referendum on the November 2012 ballot, but Republican bill sponsors changed the date [to the May primary] in response to criticisms that the amendment was being pushed to attract conservatives to the polls in an important presidential and gubernatorial election year.
I won’t say that’s uncommon, but I haven’t seen it before. Of course, by my usual reasoning, this should cause a rightward shift in the electoral primaries, giving left-leaning voters in North Carolina a worse field to choose from in November. This kind of pretzel politics makes me tired. Anyway, it’s nice when people respond to criticisms. Although it would be nicer if they stopped trying to prevent people from marrying people they love.
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erikostrom posted this
