Atila Sinke Guimarães
November 17, 2008
Tradition in Action, original HERE...
'HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE' & DEMOCRACY – The people of California have already said NO twice to homosexual marriage. Nonetheless, a plot by the heads of the executive and judiciary powers of the State insists on legalizing it. After the first ballot in 2004 when voters upheld the ban on same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court of California overturned that public mandate and ruled that an unnatural liaison between two persons of the same sex should be legal in this State. That decision was made by the Court on May 15 of this year and gave rise to a veritable flood of “legal unions” of this kind. Around 18,000 same-sex couples have “married” in California between June and November.
Frontally opposing the Court decision, on November 4, 2008, once again the electorate of California reaffirmed that marriage should be defined only as the union between a man and a woman. As soon as these results were announced, an orchestrated wave of protests started around the State.
No need to say that the Fourth Power - that is, the media - has given full support to these manifestations. Front page newspaper photos and television broadcasts focus on groups of supporters of same-sex marriage who are demonstrating up and down the State giving the impression there is a popular clamor favoring homosexuality. This is an obvious fabrication. The people of the State have already cast their votes and made their decision.
Entering the performance was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor-turned-governor who is championing the anti-democratic protest of the homosexuals. On November 8, 2008, referring to the approval of Proposition 8 banning “gay marriage,” he declared:
"It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end. I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area."
The pronoun “we” Schwarzenegger used means that the State’s First Power, the executive, will pressure the Second Power, the judiciary, to again undo the will of the people.
This confrontation puts us in an interesting political conjuncture. On one side we have two established powers, the government and the courts, supported by the Fourth Power - the general media - all working together to undo the will of the people, which, according to the democratic saga, is the sovereign voice that decides everything. Clearly, something has gone awry.
Demagogy and oligarchy
When St. Thomas describes the legitimate and illegitimate forms of governments, he lists democracy and its corrupted form, demagogy, as the two types of government by the people. He understands democracy as government by the many turned toward the common good of society. It becomes demagogy when the people - instead of seeking the best interests of society - are turned only toward their own pleasures. In this condition they can easily be fooled and elect a demagogue: one who flatters them, a story-teller, a circus performer, etc.
When the Saint studies the government by the best - aristocracy - he also points out its corrupted form - oligarchy. The latter is understood as government by those who are bad but have the means - force, money or influence - to impose their will and govern.
If we apply these theoretical distinctions to today’s political situation in California, we see that its people, in a moment of self-indulgence, elected a movie actor and body-builder as their governor. His unique public merit was to represent a robot-type terminator in a series of films. With the popularity acquired from playing such an unintelligent role, he was elected the political head of the State. It is quite difficult not to think of St. Thomas' designation of a demagogue.
But the indirect democracy in which we live has also some characteristics of an aristocracy. Supposedly only the best are chosen to the House of Representatives and the Senate; supposedly only the best are named judges in Courts of Law. When those men, however, use their delegated powers to promote what is against nature, against the common good and against the expressed will of the people, they become an oppressive oligarchy. Adding to the picture the power of the media - which does all it can to induce the people to follow its leftist agenda – only reinforces a situation of abuse of authority.
The dusk of democracy
After the Muslim riots in Paris in 2006, social scholars and political analysts here and there began to point to the virtual end of democracy in the West. Their reasoning is simple: When, following the coherence of its own principles, a regime assimilates into its bosom a negative force turned toward its destruction, its death is near.
In fact, the excessively liberal immigration laws of many European countries like France give any Muslim born within their borders the status of citizen. Then, so that the parents can raise their child, the father and mother can become citizens. So also the grandparents. Today many countries of Western Europe already have millions of Muslims who cannot be put out. Europe swallowed the force that will destroy it.
The 2006 riots in Paris constituted a landmark test to check the extent of Muslim strength. There have been others such as the world wide protests against a Danish cartoon portraying Mahomet, the general indignation shown over a few lines of Benedict XVI's Regensberg address interpreted as offensive to Islam.
In the United States the problem is not primarily immigration, in my opinion. The Latino immigration is mostly beneficial, turned not toward the destruction of the US, but to its growth. It brings a new blood full of vitality and a more Catholic approach to life to a Protestant-minded United States.
The factor that is producing the destruction of the US is its moral tolerance: free-love, contraception, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc. It is these moral aberrations which, like AIDS, are destroying the immune system of the country and setting the US on its pathway to death.
The recent issue of “homosexual marriage” and the positions taken by the executive and judiciary powers of the State of California seem to confirm that we are living in the last days of Pompeii.
NOTE:
Two points which the author makes in this piece are particularly noteworthy in my opinion. First, homosexual "unions" are contrary to the natural law. Second, such "unions" are not in the interest of the common good irrespective of whether they are desired by the individuals involved. Legitimate forms of government must be dedicated to insuring the genuine interest of the common good rather than a select group of individuals since government exists to assure that the Divine Will as codified in the Natural Law is carried out by the responsible social agents--in a representative democratic republic, the legislature, judiciary and executive.
Any government which--in the name of personal freedom--enacts into positive law that which is contrary to the natural law and the common good is illegitimate by definition. Such "laws" can never be sustained since they directly contribute to the disintegration of society. Any government which attempts to enshrine them will disintegrate sooner rather than later. History demonstrates that moral degradation always precedes disintegration of the governing system--hence the author's reference to Pompeii.
--Dr. J. P. Hubert
