So President Bush has addressed the nation about a Constitutional Amendment which would define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Regardless of how we feel about the issue, we can all agree that it's funny listening to the Republicans try to justify their previous statements with their current ones. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), for example, who talked about states deciding the issue beforehand, has backtracked and now claims that a federal amendment will actually help the state amendments, which does not even make sense.

But the bigger issue here is the Republicans shameless attempt to appeal to their radical right-wing base. Nobody believes the Republicans when they say that this is something they feel strongly about. Sure they feel strongly about it when it comes to appealing to the far right, but I've noticed that this usually only comes up in even numbered years.

When we think about the Republican Party's justification for this Amendment, we usually think of some uptight right-wing blowhard claiming that his Party's Amendment represents the will of the people. Maybe now, he may be correct to say that most people would agree with him. While I personally think that same-sex couples should have the right to get married, the Republicans may be correct in saying that most people disagree with me. However, is a marriage Amendment really what matters to Americans now? Think about it: Gas prices are hovering around three dollars a gallon, currently the nation is buried deep in a mountain of debt, and we are still involved in Iraq with no exit strategy in sight. All of these factors will combine for a big pickup nationally, statewide, and locally for the Democrats in November.

While the Republicans may be correct in saying that most Americans would want marriage to be defined as a union between one man and one woman, that majority is transitive. That is, that majority will switch in time, since people are progressive by nature. Today the majority is 50% who agree with Republicans and 47% who disagree. A couple years ago, it was only about 34% who favored same-sex marriage, which is a tremendous increase in just a couple years. My instinct is that in a matter of five to ten years, the majority will change and we won't hear anything else about a federal Amendment.

-Brian Murphy