Election eve

So tomorrow, if you are alive, awake, lucid, a human being, and can get to a polling place, go vote. Once only please.

Michelle Malkin is following some of the hottest contests. And I see Texas made the list.

The biggest fight going on here in the Lone Star State--since the mayor of Houston is essentially running uncontested--is called Proposition 2, and it would place an amendment to the Texas constitution providing that marriage in Texas is solely the union of one man and one woman, and that anything outside of this, and from outside Texas, would not be recognized.

As predicted, every major newspaper in Texas has come out against the Proposition, which in my book is enough of a reason to vote for it then. Here is how the *pulls a paper at random* Waco Tribune-Herald describes the issue:

Proposition 2 would amend the constitution to declare that marriage in Texas consists only of the union of one man and one woman. It also would prohibit the state or any political subdivision of the state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

This proposed constitutional amendment is redundant and unneeded. The Tribune-Herald editorial board recommends that voters reject Proposition 2.

Texas already has a law that prohibits marriage between persons of the same sex. It also prohibits civil unions between persons of the same sex.
....

The rationale behind this duplication of effort both in legislation and in the constitution was that a lawsuit might come along and successfully overturn the state's Defense of Marriage Act if it were found to unlawfully discriminate against some citizens.

Opponents of same-sex marriages want to erect as many roadblocks as possible to prevent gay couples from joining the institution of marriage. A constitutional amendment would be harder to change if attitudes in Texas about gay citizens also changed in the future.

Actually, the reason pro-marriage citizens want to put their will into the constitution is to show exactly how strongly they object to anything other than the union of one man to one woman being called a marriage, and how serious they are about protecting their votes and their marriages from activist judges and states who have given up on respecting marriage altogether.

Now the opponents of Prop 2 have pulled a few well-timed dirty tricks, the most notable being a recent phone campaign.

On Monday, the political action group Save Texas Marriage made more than 2 million autodial phone calls to Texas voters claiming the amendment, which defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman, was worded incorrectly and would somehow dissolve heterosexual marriages in the state.

Seems rather ridiculous, but these are Democrats we're talking about, and they have spent a considerable amount of money on this. It's doubtful it'll make a difference, but many of the Proposition 2 opponents seem to be testing the waters for a "moral victory".

I was never one to subscribe to the idea that losing was a moral victory, but I'm not as enlightened as I should be, I suppose. So I'll leave the posturing to others more qualified to understand the nuance of a loss at the polls.