Rob Portman and the Arrogance of the GOP

Do We the People govern or do our politicians rule for us, supplanting our views
with their own? This is the question I am asking myself today as I read news that Ohio
Senator Rob Portman has decided to take it upon himself to overturn the will of those
who elected him by declaring (without an election) that HE supports legalizing Gay
Marriage. His decision only serves to underscore the degree to which Republicans
tend to govern according to the Leader principle, that is, allowing our, 'leaders,' to decide
what Republicans stand for instead of Republicans themselves. And allowing the Left
to govern by default rather than giving the American people a democratic choice.

More and more, as I start to see things in Mid-Life terms, I am coming to the conclusion
that the Baby Boom generation (as they have been termed) doesn't know how to lead, except
by reading polls. This, of course, is not leadership, but pandering.

The only polls that should really count are the ones on election day. You know, like the
one where Rob Portman was elected as a Pro-Life, Pro-Marriage Republican. And the
opinions of the American people are pretty decisive on this question. This is not a
Republican vs Democrat issue. Millions of Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters are also
quite traditional in their opinions on Marriage.

Before last years Presidential election, the question of whether marriage was between one
Man and one Woman had been placed before the voters directly as a ballot proposition
Thirty-Two times and every....Single.....TIME the decision was YES. Even in liberal-
leaning states like California a majority voted in favor of Marriage, with the votes of
Black and Asian Americans providing the margin of victory.

Given this decisive unanimity on the question of Marriage it should have been a given that
Republicans would make it a priority to place a Marriage amendment to the Constitution
before the voters to settle this question for the time being and prevent the courts from
misconstruing Civil Rights law contrary to the opinion of the American People.

Opponents of traditional Marriage will point to the Presidential election last year and
votes in Maryland, Minnesota, Maine, and Washington, overturning Marriage in favor
of a Gay Right to marry as an indication that this battle is over and their opinion is final.
In each of these genuinely Blue Democratic states, however, the vote was exceedingly
narrow (with votes between only 51 and 53 percent of the total) and really begs the
question of whether the outcome would have been the same if Barack Obama had not
been on the ballot, and therefore whether the question should not be revisited in 2014.

Which brings me back to the fecklessness of Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and the corruption
of the Republican Party. Why is it that with the overwhelming support for Marriage as
it has always been, EVEN in staunchly Democratic states that Republicans in Washington
feel they have the right to overturn over a decade of democratic votes with only one election?
Again, I sense the weak-knees of the Baby Boom generation deciding that their "cooler,
hipper, cohort,' are right and they still want to be cool and should just give in and go along.

Each of these elections should be revisited in 2014. Voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota
and Washington should be given the opportunity to decide if they they feel the same way
2 years on, and Senator Portman should have to face his Ohio voters immediately in a Recall
election so that the American People's authority is not supplanted by the whims of elitists like
him.

Opponents will say the Constitution does not provide for the immediate recall of U.S. Senators.
But given the arrogant elitism that dominates Washington, D.C. and BOTH major political
parties can We as Americans any longer afford not to have that choice? I think not.

The Constitution should be amended to provide for the Recall of U.S. Senators to ensure it
is THEIR views and not the changing views of ONE man alone that is the Law of this country.
On this and EVERY issue OUR government decides.