The delusion of Maggie Brooks

"I can assure you that our decision to appeal was not based on any moral judgment."
~Maggie Brooks, Monroe County Executive

Now if I were feeling tactless I would accuse Maggie Brooks of being a liar for saying that and a political opportunist (at best) or a bigot (at worst) for actually filing the appeal. But I'm not tactless, just passive aggressive enough to make the implication before the actual argument. This isn't the only quote she gave on the matter but everyone else seems to be focused on the one about the taxpayers so out of sheer contrarianism I'm using that one.

Maggie Brooks is trying to have her cake and eat it too. She expect us to believe that, even though she’s suing to prevent out of state gay marriages from being accepted in New York. (They were recently approved in a 5-0 court decision.) The problem is that her argument isn’t with all out of state marriages, just with some of them. She isn’t trying to say that all Canadian or Massachusetts marriages are invalid in New York, just the gay ones. Legally I’d expect that argument to be on shaky ground. The decision that she’s appealing basically said that to discriminate against gay marriages was unconstitutional. The only counter argument is that discrimination against homosexuals is constitutional and that sets an uncomfortable precedent.

She’s trying to explain this away as a non-moral decision. She’s trying not to alienate too many of the gay voters while appeasing the conservative voters. She can almost get away with it by saying she’s only representing the will of the people. The problem is that “the people” are basing their “will” on moral grounds. Either she genuinely thinks that it doesn’t matter why the people hold an opinion (she’s an empty suit), she doesn’t know what their opinion is based on (she’s an idiot), or she thinks she can weasel her way out of a firm stance (she’s a politician).

I can’t really blame her for being a politician. It is her job after all. I do however think she’s a bit delusional if she thinks a blatant pander to the anti-gay conservatives in the county can be played off so easily. With the whole controversy over the gay bashing and the police scandal that followed the whole issue is a bit touchy lately. If she isn’t careful she could reignite those feelings enough to hurt her in her next election.