I have no confidence in politicians except as their pressured by the people.
Please tell me what exactly stops the bad guys from using the mechanisms of govt to do bad things now.
It’s not as if they’ll only do so in response to the mechanisms of govt being used to do a good thing.
The founders, who thought the whole “federalism” thing up, authored the means by which the Constitution could be amendment; in fact, they amended it ten times themselves as a condition of its initial adoption (actually, the politicians proposed twelve amendments, but the states only adopted ten of them).
And it would be foolish for us to refrain from using the Constitutionally provided amendment process to protect the very foundation of Western civilization, or of life itself, out of fear that darker forces will then be prompted to use the process for evil.
Nothing stops them from doing that now.
Both the following are true:
I support federalism.
Some issues obviously transcend federalism — free speech, gun rights, worship. Protecting the institution of marriage is one of them, and FAR MORE IMPORTANT than federalism.
Ditto.
“Please tell me what exactly stops the bad guys from using the mechanisms of govt to do bad things now.”
Us.
It just becomes much more difficult to do so if our guys are asking for the same method. Then we’re no longer able to stand on the ground of being the party of less government, but only on saying that male-female marriage is Godly and a cornerstone of civilization.
Of course the other side believes otherwise. Then it’s just a matter of whose opinion prevails. If we say ‘no’ to the whole idea of social dictates through Constitutional amendments, then we can oppose them on both the grounds that they are wrong AND that their very approach is wrong.
Lastly, even Amendments get interpreted by judges, whether circuit court or Supreme Court, and I think that’s just the sort of issue we do not want the Nine to fiddle with. It’s much easier to keep judges from ‘creatively’ interpreting something which merely prevents one state’s idea of marriage from being forced on others.
Anyway I respect your opinion - and likely I won’t change it, nor you mine. Fortunately, unlike lock-step liberal ‘thinking’ it is possible for various opinions to exist within conservatism.