Same Sex Marriage Now Legal in the Empire State (by ContraSuggest):

Several years ago, this author wrote the following: “The dismal economic conditions in New York State (evident in a $3 billion deficit in 2009 and a projected deficit of $6-8 billion in 2010) will never improve until the bipartisan, institutional corruption that has plagued Albany for decades is rooted out, and the stranglehold that the powerful public employee unions have on taxpayers is broken.  Structural education, Medicaid and pension reform are essential to straightening out New York’s fiscal disaster.  Unless excessive state spending is seriously curtailed, New York taxpayers (individuals and businesses) will continue to suffer under onerous taxation, regulation and hemorrhaging population loss, while the state races toward fiscal insolvency, and eventual bankruptcy.”

During his gubernatorial run, Democrat Andrew Cuomo addressed these vexing problems with a lot of tough talk about disciplined spending cuts, holding the line on taxes, and reforming Albany’s corrupt culture.  Naturally conservatives were more than a bit skeptical.  Looking at Cuomo’s biography and resume didn’t inspire much confidence:  his ideology was forged in the fires of big-spending nanny state liberalism, the son of a big spending former liberal governor; he was a former Clinton administration HUD secretary, and a former activist state attorney general. Was this the guy likely to navigate New York out of the economic wasteland?  Surprisingly, so far, Governor Cuomo has been as good as his word.  He actually offered up a balanced budget that included cuts in funding to local school districts, no real tax increases (even letting a tax surcharge on the wealthy expire), a 2% property tax cap, and state pension reform.  Anyone who hires a good numbers cruncher can propose a balanced budget, but Cuomo also followed through with the politically liable work required to push these needed reforms through the do-nothing legislature, against the resistance of the powerful public employee unions.  He deserves a lot of credit for his vision and efforts in these areas. 

But bad always seems to come with the good.  Cuomo was equally vocal in vowing to sign a Same Sex Marriage bill into law.  Late last Friday, 6/24/2011, the New York State Senate debated, voted on, and passed by a vote of 33 to 29, the so-called Marriage Equality Act (A8354-2011), that was previously passed by the Assembly, and has already been signed into law by the Governor.                   

The following Republican New York State Senators will consider themselves to have been put on notice:  

Ø      Mark J. Grisanti (Buffalo)

Ø      James S. Alesi (Rochester)

Ø      Stephen M. Saland (Hudson Valley)

Ø      Roy J. McDonald (Albany)

 

We here at the OTPE vow to do everything in our power to see that you are defeated in your next reelection attempts.  The only thing that stood between the families of New York State and the abomination of legalized Same Sex Marriage was the Republican controlled State Senate.  Since Republicans hold only a razor-thin majority in that chamber, it was understood from the beginning that just a few gutless turncoats (like you four) would be enough to turn the tide and secure passage of this putrid bill.  We knew what to expect from Sheldon Silver’s hopelessly left-wing New York State Assembly, and from Governor Cuomo, (henceforth to be referred to in these pages as “Cuomo the Homo”).  But senators, like the four of you, were supposed to balance out the fanatic nuttiness coming from the other two branches of the state government.  Well thanks a lot for nothing; you’ve earned the enmity of traditionalists all over the state and will be hearing from us in the next election.  We’re calling on true conservatives to mount primary challenges in order to remove these four RINOs from office.  Your craven flip-flop on this issue is unforgivable, and in the coming weeks we will be putting the rest of your voting records under a microscope, for if you could sell us out on an issue as crucial as this one, what other reprehensible votes are you capable of casting, and what have you gotten in return?

What the hell is wrong with so many elected New York State Republicans?  What is it that makes them go along to get along; makes them feel all tingly inside when the New York Times editorial page praises them for having “grown?”  Why is it considered to be the height of sophistication to sheepishly cave-in to the demands of the chattering classes and the liberal shibboleths that they continuously spew?  Is it really worth endlessly violating everything you claim to believe and bartering pieces of your souls just to get reelected?  This disgraceful behavior has got to end, and quite soon you’re going to find out that some political betrayals come at too high a price.           

This Just In!

Lib OTPE Reader, Phil McCracken asks:  But ContraSuggest, how could you be against SSM; doesn’t that make you an ignorant, knuckle-dragging homophobic, religious zealot?  Shouldn’t any two people who love one another have the same right to get married like you and your exceptionally beautiful and brilliant wife? 

When deliberating on the prospect of legalizing same sex marriage, let’s consider a few basic factual concepts about the relationships between men, women, marriage, and families, before we turn into a bunch of blubbering morons:

• Sexual interaction between men and women results in the procreation of children and the continuance of human society (sexual interaction between men and men or women and women, can never result in the birth of children and so contributes nothing to the continuance of society)
• In order to create a stable functional  atmosphere in which babies can grow up and become stable functional adults, men and women enter into the bond of marriage (although marriage serves other legitimate functions, it always served to nurture the procreative function between men and women; no such procreative function exists between men and men or women and women)
• Marriage reinforces and extends the life-creating relationship between man and woman (a relationship that cannot possibly exist between men and men or women and women)
• Western Society has recognized marriage as a union between men and women for thousands of years, which has been an indispensible element in all successful cultures (it has never recognized marriage as unions between men and men or women and women, which have never been a positive element in successful cultures; historically, same sex relationships have been associated with countercultural debauchery, because it was always properly viewed as a procreative dead-end and an abnormality)
• The best statistical chance that children have to become properly socialized, is to be raised by married, committed, mutually respectful, functional mothers and fathers (the statistical chances are lower for children to become properly socialized when raised by single parents of either gender, or two men, or two women)

It’s perfectly acceptable for duly elected governments to enact laws that benefit or protect kids.  Apparently a majority of New York’s senators just don’t get it.  In America we should be reinforcing the legitimacy of traditional marriage as a time-tested pillar of western civilization, not denigrating it, redefining it, attacking it and watering down its meaning and importance.  When marriage is no longer accepted as a serious institution (a union between one man and one woman), that requires intense commitment on the part of both parties to provide a stabilizing force in children’s lives, then children and our society as a whole suffer.  Legally recognizing the institution of marriage to include anyone other than one man and one woman is already having the effect of trivializing it to the point of irrelevancy.  Once marriage becomes irrelevant, the dissolution of the already embattled American family is not far behind, and by default, the intrusive hand of Big Brother will fill that vacuum.  Same Sex Marriage is not a family value.  Statewide polling data is inconclusive as to whether a majority of New Yorkers support SSM.  In the coming months we will be investigating the possibility of getting a referendum on the statewide ballot in an upcoming election, in an effort to nullify the actions of our clueless legislators and Governor.