Last week, my great state of Washington affirmed the constitutional right of association by legalizing marriage between same sex couples. Washington often gets a bad reputation as some bastion of the far left.
In reality, Washington is one of the most libertarian of all states.
Consider the following:
1.) We have rejected every attempt to create an income tax by huge margins.
2.) We have constantly voted to cut government spending by huge margins.
3.) We were the second state (after California) to eliminate Affirmative Action by a huge margin.
4.) We were one of the first states to pass medical marijuana by a huge margin.
5.) We were the second state (after Texas) to pass "hard time for armed crime" and "three strikes and you're out" by huge margins.
We have now legalized homosexual marriage.
America used to be a common law country. If you said that you were married, you were married. That was the law. It was a good law.
Then government got their grubby little fingers all over marriage.
Government marriage licenses didn't start becoming the norm in America until the Progressive Era. In the early 20th century, state governments started nullifying common law marriages. By the 1920s, 38 states required government licenses to legally recognize a marriage. Most of these marriage licenses were originally created to prevent whites from marrying people of other races.
Ideally, America should allow free people to enter into whatever contractual arrangements they desire, including marriage.
Unfortunately, government insists on controlling marriage, like they insist on controlling everything else.
Since government insists on issuing marriage licenses, then the government has no business whatsoever in dictating who can and cannot be married.
Bravo to Washington on moving personal freedom forward.
