Get the State Out of Marriage

Steve Greenhut reports:

How often do you have knock-down, drag-out fights with your neighbors about what church to attend or what car to buy? Never, right? The reason: You are free to attend any church you choose or buy any car that you prefer. So is your neighbor. In a world of free choice, you might have a friendly or even heated argument at the picket fence (or concrete wall, this being California!) over systematic theology or the virtues of Hondas vs. Mazdas. But, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who wins the argument. Your neighbor can't force you to become Catholic, and you can't force him to choose an S2000 over an RX-8. You each do as you please.

Now compare that situation to the world of government action and politics. For some reason, many folks believe that decisions made in a democratic manner – i.e., by voting – are preferable to those made in the world of private transactions. But political decisions entail one side winning and imposing its will on the other side. When 55 percent of your city's voters choose to float a bond measure to fund a community center, the other 45 percent of the voters also are forced to endure the traffic and pay for the project. It is a winner-takes-all situation.

That win-or-lose nature of the process becomes even more contentious when we're dealing with deeply held social, religious and cultural issues. Religious conservatives like to talk about (and wage) what they call the "culture war." Personally, I have no interest in fighting any type of war with my neighbors. But in their view, they are the guardians of traditional values who are battling it out with leftist elites who want to impose a new set of cultural values on the nation. In the view of their opponents, the conservatives are trying to cram their sectarian values down everybody else's throat. Both sides have a point, as each side does use the government to promote certain values.

The state isn't the answer.