Is it important to vote?
So many people say there is no reason to vote; they say it is not worth getting involved in a presidential election.
Think again.
Those who voted for President Barack Obama are, over the past few days, thankful they did, if they support same-sex marriage and need healthcare and are getting insurance through the Affordable Care Act, otherwise called Obamacare.
Because the Supreme Court has made same-sex marriage and Obamacare the law of the land, despite efforts by the Right.
How? Take a look at the composition of the Supreme Court and which president appointed which Justice.
• Chief Justice John Roberts was nominated by George W. Bush.
• Antonin Scalia was nominated by Ronald Reagan.
• Anthony Kennedy was nominated by Ronald Reagan.
• Clarence Thomas was nominated by George H.W. Bush.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated by Bill Clinton.
• Stephen Breyer was nominated by Bill Clinton.
• Samuel Alito was nominated by George W. Bush.
• Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by Barack Obama.
• Elene Kagan was nominated by Barack Obama.
Which justices voted to keep the subsidy in all states for Obamacare, not just in the states that had set up their own healthcare marketplace? John Roberts sided with the four-vote bloc of progressive judges – Ginsburg, Breyer, Sontamayor and Kagan.
The vote for same-sex marriage? Yep, the same core bloc of four, this time with Kennedy joining them.
How different these rulings might have been, had Obama not had the chance to nominated Sotomayor and Kagan.
It is interesting, too that Kennedy swung to the progressive bloc, quoting a man he knew as a boy – then-Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren wrote about basic rights in regards to the 1967 decision of Loving vs. Virginia, which disallowed the law in 16 states which made it a crime for interracial couples to marry.
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents,” he said. “The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
Kennedy noted that Warren declared laws making interracial marriages illegal. Warren said the freedom to marry is one of the basic civil rights and a fundamental freedom.
And, with that, Kennedy, too, said that the “right to marry” is a fundamental freedom.
There is no reason to think that same-sex marriages are any different than interracial marriages.
In fact, the same arguments against this basic right have been used over and over again – against allowing blacks to vote, against allowing women to vote, against allowing interracial marriages.
Against, against, against.
Instead, the Supreme Court has declared that this fundamental right – of marriage – is the same as the right to vote for women and blacks and the right for interracial marriages.
It is our right. There is no “slippery slope” when it comes to fundamental rights. It simply means that everyone in society, not just heterosexuals, not just white men, has the rights.
Thank goodness President Barack Obama was elected to office, so that his nominations to the Supreme Court could finally give us these rights.
Thank you, voters, who got out there and took it upon yourselves to voice your fundamental right by voting.
By taking the time to vote, you allowed more citizens to partake in the freedom to marry.
