Rick Santorum has just managed to offend me on almost every possible level simultaneously.  Not only does he want to impose his hateful theocratic nonsense on the entire country, he wants to do it via constitutional amendment.  Because, to quote him, “We can’t have 50 different marriage laws in this country, you have to have one marriage law.”  And the fact that most people support marriage equality isn’t sufficient cause to, at the very least, not get in its way because “Just because public opinion says something doesn’t mean it’s right.  I’m sure there were times in areas of this country when people said blacks were less than human.”  Also, in further douchebaggery, Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said “If you were to have some sort of sweeping decision … which would essentially impose same-sex marriage on every state in the country, I think that would perhaps create a huge backlash.”

So, to sum up…

• The party of states’ rights, the GOP, has at least one candidate who supports a constitutional amendment to take away the states’ power to decide their own marriage laws.
• The fact that blacks were once seen as subhuman is proof that public opinion can be wrong.  Ergo, public opinion can’t be used to support marriage equality.  Makes sense until you realize that you have to see dehumanization of Black people and support for marriage equality as morally equivalent, therefore nullifying the importance of public support for them. There is no end to the blind fury with which that argument fills me.
• Rick Santorum is (or his handlers are) very good at making arguments, peppered with hidden appeals to emotion, that are logically valid (on first inspection) but wildly unsound.
• When the GOP say states’ rights they’re talking more about the right to pollute and discriminate, not so much about the right to elevate an entire group of people out of second class citizenry.
• Allowing people the freedom to do something that will affect no one else is “imposing” it on the country.  Yes, because we’ll ALL have to attend the next same-sex wedding in our neighborhood if it becomes legal.  We won’t have a choice.  We’ll be marched to the church/temple/yurt-on-an-organic-farm to pay grudging respects to the benighted couple, who will probably have butt sex right in front of all the guests.
• Distilling the GOP/Santorum position on homosexuality: Ewww, gross, I’m scared, make it go away.

Give it up, guys, the train of freedom is rolling on through.  You can get on board or you can get run over.  Me, I’m buying a tux for the next yurt wedding I’m forced to go to.