The State Doesn't Define What is True or Right

by Will Grigg
Jun. 27, 2013

Two days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act requiring federal supervision of local elections in some southern states. Because it was seen as outdated and unnecessary, that provision was considered an unwarranted intrusion by the Feds in an area of state responsibility. That ruling prompted universal lamentation and outrage on the Left.

This morning, the same Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited states from recognizing the novel social arrangement called “same-sex marriage.” As a result, the same Leftists who assailed the Court as a citadel of oppression are now celebrating it as the vanguard of progress.

Marriage is a covenantal institution, rather than a political artifact. The Feds have no authority to define it, any more than a government can decree that a triangle can have four sides or be round.

Whiplash is an affliction to which statists must be uniquely susceptible. For people of that persuasion, the only moral absolute is the belief that the State is the ultimate arbiter of all truth. This is why their moods will oscillate wildly from one day to the next, depending on whether or not a government institution has validated their political prejudices and granted a temporary victory to their faction.