The battle for marriage equality is over. The social conservatives lost and humanity won. Most people in this country have come to accept that two people loving and committing to each other is a good thing, not a bad one–or at least they acknowledge that it’s really none of their business. And with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreeing with that sentiment, the fight in North Carolina is done.
Attorney General Roy Cooper is right to give up the fight. It’s a losing battle and, as he said, with this decision, there’s clearly no argument that’s going uphold the ban on gay marriage. Within a relatively short time, the Supreme Court will end the ban in this country once and for all.
On the Republican side, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger let out half-hearted cries for Cooper to keep up the fight. Really, though, they just want to see the issue go away. Their demands that Cooper “defend the constitution” (Berger) or uphold “the will of the people” (Tillis), are little more than panders to their base. People of all persuasions are coming to acceptance instead of intolerance and a majority of young Republicans could care less whether or not gays marry.
For Cooper, there’s little risk in refusing to defend the law. The only people who are adamantly supporting the ban are never going to vote for him anyway. The gay community and their allies have been calling for Cooper to make this announcement for months. His action assures their enthusiastic support, as opposed to grudging support, of his candidacy for governor.
Republicans will make the case that the Attorney General is ignoring his duty to defend the state’s constitution. Cooper will counter that he’s not wasting taxpayer money on an expensive lawsuit that is a lost cause. The issue will never be a factor in the race for governor in two years.
As a Southern state, North Carolinians have a long history of fighting for costly lost causes. And in each of those cases, history has shown us to be wrong. On this issue, it’s time to move on.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
That he chose to follow his state obligation for a while, and may have considered political gain in doing so doesn’t wash with you? Well, then don’t vote for Cooper come 2016. If there are enough of you out there, that will enable McCrory to have another term, most likely with a GOP House and Senate again. Just what we need, right?
Cooper swore an oath to uphold the US Constitution first as the NC Constitution is subservient to it.
He chose to ignore his oath to the US Constitution for at least a year (post-Windsor), and now his apologists want to say he’s a great guy by suddenly flip-flopping?
The only thing that changed is his political calculus.
Not his duty, not his oath, and certainly not the long-standing unconstitutionality of NC’s marriage laws.
Seems to me that people are forgetting the constitutional and legal obligations that the Attorney General must abide by. I think Cooper handled it the right way. He made clear what his personal stance was, but also stated that his job duties compelled him to defend the state’s constitutional amendment. If he had waived representing/defending NC, his political opponents could say that he wasn’t doing the AG’s job, or that he abandoned his state’s interests, or that he was just playing politics.
You mean like the obligations of the AG under Bush to prosecute him and Cheney that he never did? The idea of a conservative speaking of ‘obligations’ is hilarious at best.
If a conservative is speaking, a conservative is lying.
You wrote: “His action assures their enthusiastic support, as opposed to grudging support, of his candidacy for governor.”
Um… no. Not by a long shot.
Cooper, as always, acted in Cooper’s interest — not in the gay community’s interest.
I expected nothing more than cynically-timed self-interest from Roy Cooper, and I got it.
When the gay community needed him, he wasn’t there. He gets no credit for being the last one on the train.
And to ascribe gay North Carolinians’ fealty to Cooper for this magnanimous foot-dragging?
Ha!
You wrote: “His action assures their enthusiastic support, as opposed to grudging support, of his candidacy for governor.”
Not so here. Grudging is the extent of my support, if that.
In the meantime, I’m supporting Ken Spaulding for governor. Ken has never equivocated in this cause, not for one second.
Amen, Thomas. My exact sentiment and position.