So You Want to Change the Constitution Part 2

Let’s say our federal marriage amendment is the right thing to do, and the language makes sense. Is there a smart way to get it passed? Take a look at your US Constitution. You will find 26 amendments since 1787. Now ten of those are the original bill of rights, so in reality the US Constitution has only been amended 16 times in history. Three of those amendments were the result of the Civil War. Two dealt with prohibition and cancelled each other out, so we are looking at 11 times the nation has made the big move toward a national amendment. So what’s the point? That its hard to do or too hard to try? No. Is it that marriage isn’t worthy of Constitutional protection? No. The point is, if we want to change the Constitution we are looking at a historical process that requires a serious strategy to reach a national consensus. Why? Because to pass an amendment you must first gain the support of 2 out of every 3 members of Congress and then three fifths of the state legislatures. That doesn’t happen very often in history, and it has never happened by accident. Just holding a news conference and writing a few letters just is not going to get the job done. The opponents of traditional marriage know that. So what’s the next step? We’ll talk about it tomorrow.