Ireland Does What U.S. Can't Seem to Do

[Nasty Jack]

Ireland has voted "resoundingly" to allow gay marriage, the first national vote on this issue in the world. They amended their Constitution to permit marriage equality and they did it with a popular mandate, stated Leo Varadkar, a gay Cabinet minister. In the county of Dublin the Irish capital looks to have voted around 70 percent in favor of gay marriage with no districts outside the capital reporting a no majority. The vote nationally was 62.1% in favor. Ireland is certainly as religious a country as is America so how do we equate that with the fact that it is religious conservatives in this country that are holding back gay marriage equality here? Constitutional scholars debate whether or not the U.S. Constitution should reflect the legal values of foreign nations. The Supreme Court looked abroad in "deciding who – such as juveniles — should be exempt from the death penalty." The big question now is whether SCOTUS will let Ireland's landmark decision affect its verdict on gay marriage in the U.S. coming soon.

Nasty Jack

[chapdrum]

1. It's more like "won't do"

Can you imagine Americans being given the chance to vote yes or no on any number of issues that we are presently NOT allowed to do?
My perception is that we are treated like teenagers, relative to other (far older) countries' populations.
These countries have a history of civilization that we do not have and, by definition, we will never catch up.

[Nasty Jack]

2. Right on

I have often described the U.S. as uncivilized in my blog posts because of issues just like this. And we never will catch up until our level of sophistication improves markedly. Thanks!

[Joe Magarac]

3. We don't do referrenda on a national level but ...

I am very optimistic about the next time it gets to the Supreme Court.