Hate Amendment goes down, the stupidity goes on

Doomed from the start, the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment failed in the senate today.

A constitutional ban on same-sex marriage failed to pass the Senate on Wednesday but Republican leaders planned to take it up in the House, keeping a national spotlight on the divisive issue.

The 49 to 48 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to end debate, thwarting President George W. Bush and the mostly Republican senators who argued that the Constitution must be amended to prevent judges from striking down existing state-level bans on gay marriage.

Aside from arguably more hysterical rhetoric from the haters, the result will be the same in the house. So, here we are in June, five months before the November elections, and the big issue that was supposed to move social conservatives to the polls is already off the table. That's some strategy. Way to go, guys.

The dirty little secret is that aside from a handful of true believers like Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback, the Republican Party had no illusions about the potential or the propriety of this debate. They knew that the majority of Americans would find it pointless, at best. And, pointless it was. The GOP knew the amendment wouldn't pass, but going through the motions was worth it if it would passify demagogues like James Dobson and Tony Perkins and their faithful followers.

The Marriage Protection Amendment was a breathtaking exercise in cynicism, designed to make the religious right think that their party was finally, at long last, keeping its oft-repeated campaign promise to turn back the tide of gay rights. In the end, they were offered nothing and received nothing.

Meanwhile, the suckering of the Republican base chugs along at full steam.

Some outfit called the Free Enterprise Institute is running issue ads against the "Death Tax." Pretty music plays over soft-focus stock video of an elderly man and a little boy. The man is wearing a fishing hat and one of those canvas vests. He and the boy are walking hand-in-hand down a dirt road. Grandpa and grandson, one hopes. You can never be too sure.

Anyhoo, the voice-over starts:

You work hard your entire life. You take care of your family. You pay your taxes.

Then, when you die, the government taxes you again. They take as much as 55% of what you leave to your family.

It's called the "death tax," and it's wrong.

Call Senator __________ and tell him/her to vote "no" on the

"death tax."

The ad conspicuously fails to mention that the families of the vast, vast, vast majority of the people watching the spot during Maury's bottom-of-the-hour break will not - ever - have to deal with the Estate Tax. Most of their heirs will inherit their credit card debt, or, at best, an under-funded 401k.

The Estate Tax applies only to estates worth a lot money.

Most relatively simple estates (cash, publicly-traded securities, small amounts of other easily-valued assets, and no special deductions or elections, or jointly-held property) with a total value under $1,000,000 do not require the filing of an estate tax return. The amount was $1,500,000 in 2004 and 2005. For 2006 through 2008, the amount is raised to $2,000,000.

In fact the tax applies only to 2% of all estates. The tax applies to the inheritance of Paris Hilton. It does not apply to what a man supporting his family on $30 thousand a year manages to leave behind for his wife and kids.

Yet, the GOP is trying to convince working families that they have a stake in the debate over repealing the Estate Tax. The contempt that Republican politicians have for their constituents is simply astonishing. They really do believe that working-class Republicans are stupid. Sadly, Republican voters help to reinforce that perception election after election, by basing their votes on false issues such as gay marriage and the "death tax."

The only question is, how long will GOP voters allow these wretched politicians to hold them in such low regard. We'll get our answer in November.