Gay Marriage: Don't Like the Politics? Go Around It

Regardless of what the Supreme Court determines its stance on gay marriage should be, my guess is that we've turned that corner as a nation and it's only a matter of time--and not a lot of time--before people are going to be able to marry the ones they love without the government sticking its nose into the equation. Gay marriage is not the only example of this growth of the public's self-awareness and its own power outside the political system.

Already, polls are showing that a majority of Americans believe marriage between homosexual couples is just fine--a dramatic change that happened gradually for several years, then just snapped in the past year. Rush Limbaugh--yes, that Cro-Magnon--admitted just the other day that this battle is done and that those who oppose his position have won.

I see signs all over the place that Americans are going around our government to get desired results in a number of areas because we can no longer count on the government to represent our interests over those of the monied elite. We don't seem to be able to directly affect the political system--unless we're NRA members or the very wealthy--but we can do what we believe is best for ourselves in an individual way and on a daily basis. We can't vote them out, but we can ignore them and get on with our lives.

A few years ago, musicians told the music establishment to go fuck itself and began using the Internet to produce its own collections for purchase by a public that had been required to buy a lot of songs it didn't like in order to get one it did--at exorbitant prices. Musicians shared in little of that wealth. Now, many of them get most of the income. Same with writers who've been humiliated, cheated and generally abused by the publishing industry. We're now publishing online e-books and inexpensive self-pubs and doing our own marketing--which we would have had to do anyway. Some of us (and I say "us" generally, not to include moi) have scored the $1 million bestseller. It's like hitting the lottery to get that big, but the satisfaction is at the lower end, having the book published and sharing it with a few hundred people.

The culture's changing. Politics is changing in that it is completely out of control and contrary to the interests of our country. Our little revolution is quiet, slow and powerful and it could well win.