I'm a communist (and so is SF, Boo; not a socialist).
I believe in a communist economic system with a democratic political system. I'm going to present an example so Lebell can see how close his libertarian view is to my communist view on this issue:
My wife explained that she is discovering herself moving to the left (she grew up Christian Right [literally--daughter of a pastor in an ultra-conservative denomination] along with her entire family). She explained that she was starting to agree with "same sex civil unions--even marriage, maybe." This was evidence of her liberalized views.
I explained that a radical leftist, like me, doesn't even conceive of how marriage is an issue to the government. There shouldn't be civil unions, except in the context of everyone going through a bureaucratic process of registering as a pair of citizens (that's what we do now--even if one gets married in a church). If churches want to marry people, go ahead--any church can do what it wants in terms of marrying people. Marriage is a religious institution--that's why it shouldn't be an issue with the federal government.
I just thought Lebell would likely agree with that perspective. I wouldn't have gone off on a tangent otherwise (or if I wasn't stoned).
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