Not my America

According to this article, the “New Mexico Republican Central Committee has voted to censure the Sandoval County clerk, who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples.” Here are a few details of the censure:

Dunlap issued 66 same-sex marriage licenses on February 20th before the sheriff, acting on instructions from the state attorney general stepped in and shut down her office.

At the time, Dunlap said she feared a lawsuit if she did not grant the licenses to gay couples. The county attorney in a legal opinion to Dunlap after San Francisco began allowing gays to marry said that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples in New Mexico was against the state constitution.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order to prevent Dunlap from issuing any more same-sex licenses and the case is currently before the courts.

Not everyone agreed with the censure. I’m not willing to shout Barry Bitzer’s name from the roof of my building, announcing him to be the savior of the Republican Party, but he deserves some credit for common sense. This is his reasoning for being the lone dissenter against the censure:

“I’m afraid this will be played as a gay issue and not a good government issue,” he told the committee.

I’m not trying to play party politics for the ultimate point I’m going to make here. I’m not a fan of the rhetoric of the Democratic Party. I only “support” them because I disagree with them less. That’s an unfortunate reflection on the state of American politics. But I must point this out… from the party of “inclusion”, there’s this gem:

“We need to make clear we don’t support her actions, we don’t support her now and we will never support her in the future,” said former Rio Rancho City Councilor Lonnie Clayton. “The perception is that our silence is consent.”

No need to remain open-minded. What good would that do?

As everyone knows, I’ve written extensively on the same-sex marriage debate. Obviously, I want to persuade people to agree with me. I feel I’ve represented my side well. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. If I’ve made you think about the debate in something other than just a knee-jerk “I don’t support it,” that’s great. Differing opinions makes this world an interesting place.

With that in mind, I hope that I don’t need to persuade anyone to the correct opinion about this rationale for the censure:

“Other than assassination, all we can do is censure her,” said committee chairman Richard Gibbs.

Assassination? Assassination? Assassination! I’m at a loss, but that quote speaks for itself. Which country is this?