One last, desperate grasp for a straw . . . any straw

Time magazine's cover this week declared "Gay marriage already won."    That is, regardless of what the Supreme Court decides on the two cases, public opinion has shifted and the tipping point has toppled.

Even opponents have conceded.  Rush Limbaugh now says:  "It's inevitable.  Conservatives lost."  Bill O'Reilly wants to join the good guys, saying everybody ought to be able to marry the person they love.

But . . . wait.    There's got to be one more straw out there somewhere to grasp, isn't there?   Anything?

Well . . . maybe.   Sue Everhart, Chair of the Georgia Republicans, found one, she thought.  Here's the scenario she came up with:

Straight same-sex friends might use the decision to allow same-sex marriages to fradulently claim to be married so they can get the federal benefits of marriage.   Say, two good guy friends.   They could claim to be married and get the spousal health benefits, marital tax breaks, and the 1,098 other advantages our government gives to encourage marriage.

Clever?   Yes, clever enough to have been the premise of a 2007 Adam Sandler movie called "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry."   Two straight-arrow guys try marriage fraud for gain.

Besides the fact that it's already been tried in fiction, there's a problem with this that Everhart doesn't mention:  It happens all the time already with  man-woman couples who get married for non-love, non-procreative reasons with the traditional marriage laws we already have.

You know, like the waiter from South America who talked the kind-hearted waitress into marrying him (temporarily) so he could get a green card.  Or the two old folks in the assisted living home who got married to she could get survivor benefits from his Social Security after he died.

From the dawn of marriage, it has been used for financial gain, to control property, or to obtain social position.   Love and children are the idealistic reasons for marriage;   but the reality has often been somewhat more practical -- throughout history.  In the old days, marriage was primarily a financial or political arrangement.

So, dear Sue, I'm afraid your final straw turned out to be broken, your magic bullet just a misfire.    It's merely an old trick.  You've lost, dear.   Time to give up the fight.

Ralph