SSM -- Users Using Users

In a pathetic attempt to manipulate potential voters outside of Massachusetts, Cap'n Brylcreem, our on-and-off governor, Willard M. Romney, will slither to the State House on his sabbath. He'll join a shame rally hosted by the Mass Family Institute/VoteonMarriage.

The sponsoring group of the anti-SSM, anti-gay amendment will demand a vote on it when the Constitutional Convention comes out of recess on January 2nd, the last possible day to vote to advance the amendment toward its goal of a 2008 general-election vote.

Bay Window Background: There's great color and detail on how the recess vote came about in the current Bay Windows.

According to the Boston Globe, Romney's office is helping plan the rally. The Cap'n's spokes-whatever Eric Fehrnstrom said,"Look, this issue is not going to go away, not until the people get a chance to vote. Legislators took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and the Constitution requires that they take a vote on the marriage amendment. They cannot put themselves above the people they represent. No matter how anyone feels about the . . . issue, we should all be able to agree that democracy must have its day."

That is the same position as Kris Mineau, the sponsor's executive director, and the highly politicized Archbishop Sean O'Malley have struck. Considering their disdain and disregard for democracy, fairness, legality, and honesty throughout this amendment drive, it is to laugh a cynical laugh.

And for the cynics, consider the players and whom they are using:

• Cap'n Brylcreem, the weasel who would be President, is pretending that not only is he a protector of democracy, but that he was against SSM all along. People with the sense God gave lettuce know better.
• Mineau manipulated the voters and the Roman Catholic hierarchy here to try to disguise taking existing rights from homosexuals as well as overturning a court decision mandating marriage equality.
• O'Malley ordered his bishops, who ordered his priests to have petitions circulated in a legally dubious skirting of church next to politics.
• Blue Mass Group and a few other bloggers have hopped into bed with Mineau to overlook the anti-democratic, anti-civil-rights aspects of this amendment drive. They are clearly used and confused, but adamant in their let-the-people-vote position.

There are others, but those are typical of the key players. Each is willing, nay eager, to use voters, readers and others. The incestuous interplay amongst these forces has muddied the previously clear waters on this issue.

We have long and even recently held that this drive proves incontrovertibly that here, as in many states, the ballot initiative process has developed serious flaws. What we should all be screaming for is a fine-tuning of this to return it to its constitutional reason to exist. This should be at the top of incoming governor Deval Patrick's agenda. There is no justification for jerking the voters around for three to six years in such processes that have malicious and illegal intent.

In this case, a competent and gutsy attorney general would have stopped this illegal effort to overturn a court decision. We didn't have one of those.

However, even if that had happened, we see how the process has been perverted. We are exhausted by that bunch of users using each other and the voters for their nefarious purposes. We certainly don't need two more years of this.

Enough.

Let the haters scream, but let's get on with the business at hand. Patrick has much to repair before he can get the General Court to the work of the people. Then let that work start with fixing the ballot initiative petition process.

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Tags: massmarrier, Massachusetts, amendment, same sex marriage, ConCon