The Old Federalists expressed their belief that "all men are created equal". But, when the opportunity presented itself at the Constitutional Conventions, the Federalists did not address the issue of slavery, except to prohibit the counting of slaves as citizens. They did not address gender inequality except to affirm that women did not count. And they did not address the inequality in treatment of Native Americans, except to exclude them from representation in Congress as well. From the inception of our nation, liberty was doled out on a selective basis.
The 14th and 19th Amendments were attempts to address this paradox, but the problem is not just one on paper. It is a problem in the moral fabric of these self-professed defenders of liberty.
Fast forward 230 years. The New Federalist movement has modernized the original statement from the Declaration of Independence to say that "all humans are created equal". This is, after all, what Jefferson meant when he penned that statement, and it should be a welcome adjustment in the Federalist platform. Yet, in the same document we are presented with this:
...institutions of government have no legitimate power to redefine marriage as anything beyond the natural covenant of man and woman, or to redefine families as any collection of persons whatsoever.
All other voluntary associations derive from the practices and lessons that come from family life. As the Constitution's 1st Amendment makes plain, these free associations are guaranteed, as Congress is prohibited from "abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble."
In other words, everyone is equally protected under the law EXCEPT when it comes to marriage.
The "new" federalists should be embarrassed to be regurgitating this type of archaic and entirely hypocritical viewpoint.
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