Conservativism and a California Afternoon

Last night over dinner, my friend (subtly goading me into talking about it after I said that I had lost much of my fire for politics) and I got to talking about the forum and politics and policy.  We talked for a while, slipping back and forth between all sorts of issues and policies - environment, drugs, taxes, health care, big and small government, LGBT rights - we ran the gamut.  And while I pretty much came down on the liberal side of things on most issues, there were times I shocked myself when I would hear the espousal of conservative positions coming from thine lips.

Conservative.  Not Republican.

And one of the things we spent a lot of time on was how things change, but that it takes time.  It's not that what people hold as true is wrong or right, good or evil - but it takes time to convince people that what they believe is either right or wrong.  I'm not going to hold it against people if they have a certain view of the world and can justify it truthfully to themselves and others.  And instead of having some high and mighty government official tell you that "this" is the law of the land like a monarch, people need to be shown that there is a better way of doing things.  Convince me that I'm wrong, show me that there is a better way, that it will make my life, my people, my country better.  And then we'll tell friends, we'll show others.  And they'll show others.  And then there comes a tipping point, where all it takes is a little push from government to realign the law.

And we've seen it work and fail countless times throughout our country's history.  LBJ and civil rights - worked.  Clinton's health care reform - failed.  Women's suffrage - worked.  Alcohol prohibition - EPIC fail.  Pre-Civil War emancipation - fail.  Lincoln's Union-only emancipation - worked.  Government responds to the people.  Convince the people, and things change.  And maybe I'm alone in this, but that's not a liberal, big government concept - I think that's a very conservative one.

Which brings us to today's news out of California - after nearly two years a judge has overturned the Prop 8 ban on gay marriage.  I can remember how disappointed some were in 2008 - an African American had finally been elected President, but Prop 8 was a very bitter aftertaste to such a momentous occasion.  But while it has taken some time, some very courageous lawyers in California have shown, SHOWN that there is no rational, reasonable basis for prejudice.  This isn't "judicial activism," it's exactly what the justice system of our country is supposed to do - look at facts, not opinions, and make a decision.

It's the process occurring as the process is meant to, and that's not big government in my book.  Today's ruling was a very conservative one in my opinion, and will undoubtedly show how un-conservative the current state of affairs in the Republican and right wing of America's political system actually is.  And the process isn't over - there will be appeals, and the decision today could be overturned again, but if brought to the Supreme Court I think the arguments made in this case and this decision will be incredibly hard to rule against.  But the process will take its course.

I've seen this a few time spread across the web this afternoon, and is one of my favorite quotes.  The words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

Honorable reaction from the gallery: Andrew Sullivan and all his readers, Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.  More to come as there is more...

UPDATE: As usual, Sully is much better at actual round-ups than I am.  Yeah I'm lazy.