Lately, there has been a fever pitch discussion about what “rights” are under threat now that Justice Kennedy has announced his retirement. Spoiler Alert: Not a single Constitutional right is at risk because President Trump nominates another Justice for the Supreme Court of the United States.
The bulk of the discussion comes from people who are in hysterics that mothers may not have free reign to implement infanticide as birth control. Sorry ladies, abortion is neither healthcare nor a right. In fact, you are freaking out because you may no longer be state-sanctioned to fatally oppress someone smaller and weaker than you. I’m sure slave owners in the 19th century were equally outraged when they were no longer allowed to treat another human being as a piece of property with no inherent rights. You’ll get over it.
The other big topic being discussed in hysterical and panicked tones is “marriage equality.”
Even if you think that a union between same-sex couples is a marriage (it isn’t), I think the bigger discussion is more important: Why are we allowing the government to define and license marriage at all?
If marriage really is a right that is available to all, without limitation, why are we paying the government for a license to enter into this private relationship? The obvious answer is that the government is purely driven by collecting money and exerting control over an intimate aspect of two citizens’ private lives. I think the best solution is to completely eliminate government involvement in the marriage business.
Marriage should be a private arrangement that can be handled completely internally by/at your place of worship. The objection of “child brides” is easily handled by the fact that it is already illegal for an adult to enter into a sexual relationship with an underage partner.
What about the tax benefits of filing as a married person? Should marriage even be a financial benefit? Regardless, there is an easy solution. Take the tax benefits for being married and having children and cut them in half. If everybody gets the same breaks, a couple would still receive tax breaks for being married.
The other supposed benefits of being married (such as when your partner is hospitalized or otherwise incapacitated) should be handled by adults responsible enough to have powers of attorney and other legal documents drafted. There is simply no reason that Washington, D.C. should be making us register our marriages with them. This concept is new in the view of western civilization and serves no benefit for our citizens.
It’s amazing how just a few years ago the more liberal elements of our society were screaming about the government legislating what was going on in the privacy of their bedrooms. Yet, they want the government to legislate who can enter into a marriage and how they do so. This is not something that the government should be wasting time and resources on. A license is a privilege you have to apply for, such as your driver’s license. The government taxes and regulates it, revoking it when necessary. If marriage is a natural right, why does it need to be licensed? I don’t want to have to register my guns with the government, let alone my spouse. Yet, I don’t have a choice when it comes to my wife.
If we stop licensing marriage altogether, the argument for marriage equality becomes an issue that is handled by the religious institutions that the couple attends and will no longer be a part of national discourse. Sounds like a solution to me.
