The trend toward same sex marriage shouldn’t surprise us

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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Yesterday, I wrote a column explaining why we shouldn’t be surprised that opinions on same sex marriage have shifted in favor of the practice. After all, the trend in our society has clearly been to err on the side of (what liberals and libertarians define as) liberty, versus (what social conservatives define as) virtue.

Over at the American Conservative, Daniel McCarthy penned a smart column echoing this point. Based on the growing cultural and political trends in America, McCarthy concludes:

Can it be any surprise, then, that a mass-democratic, individualistic, consumerist society in which men and women are interchangeable in all other public aspects finds them interchangeable in marriage as well?

 The case against gay marriage is as hard to make in a liberal-democratic society as the case for gay marriage is to make in a Christian society. In each instance, the playing field is not level: the architecture of the public order embodies certain assumptions about what a human being is and who may enforce what rules—including who may marry whom.

As McCarthy notes, when it comes to making law, “The fundamental question of politics is ‘who ultimately governs?’”

Read the whole thing here.

Matt K. Lewis