I must be misreading the OP. It seems to me that the topic is about the current political debate in Ireland about whether the state should recognize same-sex marriages. The quoted article, by my interpretation, is saying that there are several parties, who presumably represent a certain portion of the Irish public, is not in favor of such recognition in the Irish constitution, and is refusing to send the issue to the public in a referendum. There are several parties, presumably representing another portion of the Irish population, who are in favor of such constitutional recognition, and who have pledged to continue their efforts to bring this issue before the public as a referendum.
I interpreted your initial remarks (and I now have doubts that I have interpreted them correctly) to imply that you do not feel that these are the proper procedures to handle this issue.
I am responding that, in my view, this is the only way that such an issue can be handled in a society that claims to be democratic.
I don't see how our exchanges could be any more
on topic.
At any rate, I don't believe I have anything more to say on this matter, and I certainly don't think I have an entire thread's worth of discussion on this, so I don't think a new thread would be in order. Especially since no one else has indicated much interest in this.
Added by edit:
Oops. I see that Funkaloyd has just responded, so there may be some interest after all. Since his last sentence is completely and utterly wrong, for reasons involving fundamental political and philosophical reasons (and possibly due to a complete misunderstanding of the history and real-life workings of the US system), a new thread might be in order. I'll leave it to your judgement. But I will say no more in this thread, since, as I now see your point, this will veer in general political philosophy instead of the OP topic.
This message has been edited by Chiroptera, 27-Jan-2006 12:14 AM
"Intellectually, scientifically, even artistically, fundamentalism -- biblical literalism -- is a road to nowhere, because it insists on fidelity to revealed truths that are not true." -- Katha Pollitt