On “Verdict” last night, former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura made the perfect case as to why same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue and that the federal government has no right to tell you “who you can fall in love with.” I was just waiting for Buchanan’s head to explode.
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VENTURA: “Well, first of all, I made a statement when I was governor and stand by it today. Love is bigger than government. Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with? I think it‘s absurd that fact it‘s even being debated. “
I couldn’t have put it better myself, Governor.
Full transcript below the fold:
ABRAMS: Pat Buchanan does this become an issue in 2008?
BUCHANAN: Yes, I think it will because of the California Supreme Court decision which was a foolish decision, frankly, from the standpoint of the Democrats. The Massachusetts Supreme Court decision in 2003-2004 put the thing on the ballot in 13 states and homosexual marriage lost by 58 percent to 85 percent in Mississippi in all 13 and it killed Kerry. It won‘t be as big but it‘s an issue Barack Obama will say, “Marriage should be between a man and woman.” He will run away from it.
ABRAMS: Jesse, you‘re shaking your head.
VENTURA: Well, first of all, I made a statement when I was governor and stand by it today. Love is bigger than government. Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with? I think it‘s absurd that fact it‘s even being debated.
We can solve the problem simply. Government only acknowledges civil unions then you don‘t have to put your sex down. Let the churches acknowledge marriage. They are the private sectors. If they don‘t want to acknowledge it, they have every right to do so. How on earth can we even entertain the fact that government should have the ability to tell you as an individual who you can fall in love with? Ridiculous.
ABRAMS: Jonathan, real quick. Is this going to be an issue?
ALTER: Let me disagree with Jesse.
ABRAMS: I want to - Let me say, get Jonathan, because I want to move on. I mean in 2008, this is going to become an issue.
ALTER: I think it‘s not going to be like 2004 because it‘s not going to be on the ballot in nearly as many states and in California where obviously it‘s going to get very hot.
ABRAMS: Because there‘s an economy to worry about and -
ALTER: There are a lot of more important things. But I did think it was interesting that, you know, John McCain looked here like he had taken a trip to Ellen the orthodontist - very, very uncomfortable. Even though his position is the same as Obama and Clinton‘s, but they are just more fluent in discussing it in ways that sort of bridge the gaps on this.
ABRAMS: Pat, final thought?
BUCHANAN: Well, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) marriage is a cinderblock of society. Historically, it‘s between a man and a woman. It ought to be set aside for a man and a woman. If government wants to set up civil unions and benefits for people like that, it ought to be done by elected legislators and not by un-anointed judges who are behaving more like tyrants imposing their values on us.
VENTURA: Let me throw something out. You can‘t take a civil rights issue and put it up to a vote. If you did that, we might still have slavery if it was allowed to be voted on.
BUCHANAN: Jesse what about -
(CROSS TALK)
VENTURA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) civil rights and let people vote on it.
BUCHANAN: Well, Jesse, what are you talking about? The Civil Rights Act 1964 was voted on. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 voted on by congress.
The Open Housing Act of 1968 was done by LBJ, first went to demonstrations
by Martin Luther King. These were done by representatives -
VENTURA: Exactly.
BUCHANAN: Not by these un-elected judges.
VENTURA: Well, and not by populace itself, Pat. If the elected officials stand up for what‘s right and do what‘s right for civil rights like they did back then, I fully agree with you. But you can‘t put a civil rights issue on the general ballot in a state and let people vote on it because if do you that, in the southern states before you can bet, they would have voted to continue slavery.
Filed Under: Gay Rights
Tags: Civil Rights, Dan Abrams, Gay marriage, Jesse Ventura, pat buchanan
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Pat Buchanan fell in love with Dick Nixon and orange hair dye.
Love vs Gov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GSKdC05hpA
Paul/Ventura 08
Gee Pat, are you not “behaving like a tyrant and imposing your values” on… us?
Pot, meet kettle.
Let’s get the government out of the marriage business, period.
Pat still thinks gays are about nothing more than blow-jobs. He never got that they love each other.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
“Who the hell are we as a government to tell people who you can fall in love with?”
Who the hell is Pat Buchanan to discuss anything. He is a feckless twit!
The government couldn’t care less about the real issue. They just want it to be in play every time there’s an election so they can avoid real issues and draw the simple-minded together on a lightning rod issue.
Would somebody please remind Buchanan that the US Supreme Court held up slavery and Jim Crow, too, before it finally came around and did the moral thing.
warsaw @ 7:
He needs a B.J.
Victorian Squid @ 10:
How else can they keep screwing us. Distraction!~
Marriage is an archaic practice of property transfer. The Repubs are only against gay marriage because it leaves less men for them to cruise in restrooms.
Underground Pirate @ 13:
I can see the plotters now: “If gay marriage won’t do the job, American Idol will”.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
I apologise to Governor Ventura for judging him harshly. That’s a very humanist way to think. well done.
HELL YEAH! Ventura got it right!
I wish they’d let Ventura finish his thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Because I think what he meant to say was that MLK protested the Vietnam war, and the government smeared him and said it was un-American. But they cut him off before he could finish the thought. If that was what he was saying, it’s something I’ve thought for a long time - most of these hawkish conservatives would have HATED one of the greatest civil rights leaders back in the day because he dared to stand up against their war!
If our federal government (regardless of party) has the effect of stealing our jobs, our money and our children for their wars, why does it exist?
Can we not just go to 50 independent self regulating states?
Why do we trade with the rest of the world anyway? Simply to create economic pressure on employees to keep labor cost minimized.
somebody needs to tell Pat that the judges in California ARE elected.
Gay marriage is ruining the USA. It is not the Bush administration that destroyed our way of life, it is gay marriage.
buchanan doesn’t know love all
he knows is there’s a hand up his butt
telling him what to think and say…..bastard pundit.
Attila the Appeaser @ 21:
no, it’s miscreants like you that are destroying America.
Excellent job by the very eloquent former Governor of Minny-SO-TA. Good leadership on this subject by the current Governor of KGALEE-fornia. They’re wrong on a lot of things. They’re incapable of properly pronouncing the names of their own states. But at least they’re secure enough in their sexuality to do the right thing on gay marriage.
I like how Buchanan tries to paint the decision of a Republican court as somehow something done by Democrats.
The one time a Republican does something right, they are painted as Democrats.
what happened to VERDICT tonight? anyone know?
they ran david gregory’s show again, instead…
Attila the Appeaser @ 21:
Gay Marriage — took my job.
Gay Marriage drives down the value of the dollar.
Gay Marriage causes mortgage rates to spiral out of control.
Gay Marriage is keeping us in Iraq.
Gay Marriage brought Katrina to New Orleans (actually, that’s not snark — they said that shit).
Gay Marriage is listening to your phone conversations. Without a warrant (or a Gay Marriage license, I might add)!
Gay Marriage made Mark Foley . . . hit on Congressional pages.
Terri Schiavo would have recovered completely if it hadn’t been for Gay Marriage.
Gay Marriage causes abortions.
Gay Marriage is responsible for stem cell research.
Gay Marriage made Iran start its nuclear programs.
Gay Marriage detonated a nuclear bomb underground in North Korea.
Gay Marriage is charging $4 for a gallon of gas.
Gay Marriage outsourced your high-tech jobs to India.
Gay Marriage is why they had to close factories in Detroit.
These have been Gay Marriage facts.
so when the courts vote to allow greater rights to individuals…that is when they behave like tyrants
when the courts vote to remove rights from individuals (ie, upholding voter id laws) then they are doing what is right
and come on pat, you cant use examples of congress voting to provide rights to people on the same footing as states taking away rights from others
ventura is truly a liberatarian…i just wish he would shut up when it comes to 9/11
Attila the Appeaser @ 21:
The US must be uniquely vulnerable to the ruinous effects of gay marriage. Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa all have it and many other countries accept some equivalent of civil union. The skies over those countries appear not to have fallen. It would have been nice to see the U.S. lead the world for once on a matter of civil rights in this century. Perhaps in the next one?
This politically liberal, theologically conservative evangelical is in total agreement with Ventura. Christians don’t need the government to enforce belief. Pat’s assumption that we do is insulting, frankly.
I thought these people were about shrinking government? And didn’t Prohibition teach these numbnuts anything????!!!!
I will never understand how granting someone the same civil right that I enjoy somehow diminishes my right. It’s not a zero sum game.
I didn’t always agree with the Guv here in MN (I rolled my eyes many times), but he makes sense in this case.
whenever i get to the comment page of the hillary thread, my browser freezes up…
anyone else?
would really like to read the reactions to her major “gaffe” today…
and, no one knows why VERDICT didn’t air tonight?
katy @ 34:
Comments on that thread are mercifully closed.
Jesse the body……..
where’s mean gene okerlin?
i’m sorry that jonathan alter suffers from only a slightly less distasteful form of the disease that afflicts buchanan and his pals.
jesse ventura got it absolutely right. it has long been my feeling that the real solution to the question of “marriage” is to let the religionists have that but only civil licenses recognized as legally binding. of course there is the question of “common law marriage” in many states. that could (and i suppose, should) be left to states to decide, as is the case currently. not to decide that one pairing is eligible or ineligible but to decide whether common law marriage should be recognized at all. what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say.
Peter G @ 35:
can’t even READ them? and where’s the NOTICE or WARNING?
i mean it freezes up… i have to quit firefox and start over… very weird!
gop wedge issue to feed the hatred of the radical right.
Charlotte @ 18:
dear charlotte: many of these hawkish conservatives in fact DID hate mlk in the day. borrow rick perlstein’s “nixonland” from your local library. knowledge is the most powerful tool we have.
slippy hussein toad @ 27:
Yes, this is all true according to the President, the Vice-President and FOX NEWS….
Jesse ,
Go man Go , right again ! .
Ron / Jesse , ah truth speakers , to few understand till its to late .
slippy hussein toad @ 27:
ROFLMAO!!!
You’re a funny sumbitch!
Yes, teh ghey has ruined EVERYTHING!
*contemplates never wearing purple, pink, or any off-shade of red again*
The more I see of Ventura the more I like him.
You may have a problem with your browser Katy. I can read the comments just fine. You aren’t missing much though. I think the site monitors got tired of tensely hovering over the delete button and closed the thread down. The open thread will doubtless make fascinating reading tonight.
Pat Buchanan looks like every woman’s ex-husband.
I don’t think gay marriage will be a huge issue this year. We have these on our minds: wars, gas prices, food prices, jobs, foreclosures, paying for college tuition, incredible national debt, the falling dollar, stock market, commodity prices, home equity crashing, bridges falling apart (kudos by the way to the contractor for the state of MN for being ahead of schedule on opening the new 35W bridge this coming early Fall, just put our minds to it and people can do it)
My arguement for years. Marriage is a religious institution. Government has no place in it. To do so is to step on everyone’s civil rights. One of the best ways of promoting unwanted behavior is to ban it, eg. prohibiton and the “war on drugs”.
Best arguement I’ve heard from a pro-polygamy person was that if you let us alone these cases of abuse would be fewer.
No Keith Special Comment today. First time ever.