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Opinion
 

Staff Editorial

                Chris Elliott                        Robyn Morrow                  Johnny Peña
                                      Fabian Sifuentes              Kristen Young

A wolf in sheep's clothing can terrorize the flock 

And a big-government lapdog in Republican's clothing can do the same thing to voters this election year -- at least that seems to be what someone in Washington thinks.

On Wednesday, the Senate's vote on a bill to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage was aimed at scaring the Republican Party's conservative base into showing up in larger numbers this November -- even though the bill never had a real chance to pass.

In the recent past however, many such bills have been turned into constitutional amendments by state legislatures -- often by Republican majorities. Those people with short attention spans hardly notice the trend, but those who have a deeper knowledge of the history of politics are well aware that the idea of "small government" is vital to the Republican Party.

Many Republicans have long opposed the Roe v. Wade decision, for example, because they have argued that states -- not the federal government -- should be able to decide the abortion issue for themselves. Along the same lines, Republicans are often opposed to increases in gun control because they argue that individual citizens, not the government, should have the power to choose.

For some reason, the Republican Party doesn't think states should be able to choose their own stance on gay marriage -- though 11 states have banned it in their constitutions and almost 30 others have made it illegal. 

That sort of preposterous inefficiency is the same thing that Democrats have been notorious for.

In the immediate future, the Senate's vote has failed in one way, but succeeded in another: Its high-profile newsworthiness will most likely have the effect of fooling many voters to vote for a party on the issue of gay marriage while ignoring the ballooning power of the federal government.

Any student of politics is well aware that the Democrats are far from innocent in the game of political scheming, but as a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles, we should have learned in Sunday School that two wrongs don't make a right.