The Burning Question
The Commonwealth Coalition has unveiled its first television commercial in its campaign against the Marshall/Newman Amendment (Question #1 on the November 7 ballot in Virginia.) Here's the ad as it appears on YouTube:
Comments about this TV commercial are welcome, of course. Readers, what do you think?
One comment I would make is that George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights was not so much an inspiration for Mr. Jefferson in writing the Declaration of Independence as it was in regard to Mr. Madison's drafting of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. But this is a political commercial, not a history lesson, so I'll let it pass.
6 comments:
Actually, Rick, the history of this is right....
Jefferson drew heavily on the declaration of rights in writing the declaration of independence.
"Drawing on documents, such as the Virginia Declaration of Rights, state and local calls for independence, and his own draft of a Virginia constitution, Jefferson wrote a stunning statement of the colonists' right to rebel against the British government and establish their own based on the premise that all men are created equal and have the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffdec.html
Claire
I stand corrected. I just figured since the Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence were more-or-less contemporaneous, one could not have influenced the other.
Of course, the 1770s were a turgid time for political ideas. A lot of pamphleteering was going on -- sort of like blogs without the Internet -- and the Founders were busily corresponding with each other, sharing news, views, and information. They were all influencing each other as they bounced ideas off one another in a salon-like fashion.
What a wonderful time that must have been!
LOL @ "turgid"
Perhaps "turgid" wasn't the word I was looking for. I was trying to express a combination of "turbulent" and "fecund."
I just need to be more alert when posting comments, even on my own blog.
If history is an indicator, people don't or won't believe that these amendments "go too far" and will vote for the certainty of denying same-sex couples rights rather than against the uncertainty of losing some of theirs.
Given that most courts have also concluded that commonlaw marriages are not endangered by these amendments (usually by using tortured logic), I'm not sure they would be wrong in their assumption that this amendment only takes aim at the queers.
A better anti-amendment ad (from Wisconsin) is here http://www.getthefactswi.com/lynn/ads/lynn1.wmv .
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