Crisis Overload And The Rise Of Gay Marriage

I'm not so sure that the public has suddenly become overwhelmingly fond of gay marriage. Referendums supporting traditional marriage have still been overwhelmingly successful when put to public vote.

I have a theory that what's really going on is "crisis overload." What I mean by that is that people naturally set priorities, and in a time when the nation is suffering from several major nation-shaking crises and challenges, I think it is possible that gay marriage has simply sunk low enough on peoples' priorities that only those people who are especially motivated about it -- primarily gay activists -- are driving the issue.

If I was listing my priorities for political action right now, I think I'd list my top priorities as

1. Limits on Government Power (this comprises a lot of sub-issues with some overlap):
1. Government Spending
2. Taxes
3. Entitlements
4. Currency Manipulation
5. Over-Regulation
6. Routine Violation of Constitutional Limitations and Routine Violations of Individual Rights and Liberties
7. War on Drugs (really part of 5, but so massive it deserves it's own spot)
2. Immigration
3. Development of a Sensible Foreign Policy
4. ...

Somewhere way down the list, we get to contentious social issues like Gay Marriage and Abortion. I hold strong opinions on both issues, but at the same time I am of the opinion that my life will continue to go on pretty much as usual whether or not gay people marry or people continue to have needless elective abortions.

With a nation in crisis, I'm prepared to say "stop bothering me about gay marriage and abortion. I have more important things to worry about."

This means, of course, that the gay marriage issue is driven by the people that care enough to want to do something about it. Their wheels are squeaking. Mine are not. We know how that works.

If the nation were in such great shape that I had nothing better to worry about, then maybe I'd expend more effort opposing gay marriage. I think its effects will be subtle and take decades to bear ill fruit, and by the time they do, that fruit will be so mixed up with the ill fruit of other poor cultural choices we're making that it will be difficult to say for sure whether gay marriage is responsible. Society is too complicated for such simple causes and effects to often be easily traced.