Gay Marriage Now Legal In New Jersey

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Gov. Christie withdraws his appeal. Same-sex marriages legal and performed today in New Jersey.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/ ... BA20131021

Great news! However, let's not be too enthousiast about human rights in the US: less than half of the states allows gay marriage ; only about 1/4th of states has abolished capital punishment ; highest percentage of inmates of any country in the world, about 1% of the total population (and not all of them are guilty, remember for example the West Memphis Three, the released Guantanamo prisoners)

This is a step in the right direction, but the States are still far behind Europe in human rights issues (and also behind their Canadian neighbours)

The HUGE problem is the two party system (often third party candidates have good ideas and programs, but don't even get any attention, let alone a proper chance to defend their ideas) and the fact that both Republicans and Democrats are relying on huge financial donations from companies they can afterwards not let down.

As long as this goes on, the US is not a democracy. In a democracy, every person has the right to vote and the right to stand for election. In the US, you basically have to collect money and buy your way into the elections, then facing the huge media focus on ONLY the two established parties. That is not democracy (I am no fan of democracy as a system the way we have it here in Europe, but I do rate it higher than the US system)

The corporate contributions and afterwards covering those corporations that contributed to the winning party, is resulting in a lot of bad things such as the weapon lobby and multinationals having de facto more power than the president himself. What the US needs is some serious cleanup by someone who dares to go against the grain after being elected, and this includes going against hyperconservative institutions who stand in the way of abortion/gay marriage/etc , and going against the weapon industry.

As long as no such person stands up (as far as the system doesn't make it impossible for him to get elected) the US will remain far behind Europe, Canada and most of the industrialised world. We may not be the "land of the free" but I think it is only logical some restrictions are placed on individual liberties, and it is only normal when the government has a refereeing role in things such as economy, ... If the government tries to stay away from most issues and leave it to the people, you're in a semi-anarchy.

To be honest, the fact something like the Tea Party is allowed to exist, is scaring. In my country, we have suspended a political party before for xenophobic and racist agenda. OK, you could say this restricts freedom and freedom of speech. But I much rather live with such restrictions than with politics littered with populism and xenophobic thoughts. If it'd depend on me, a lot more parties would have faced sanctions (as opposed to the one party that indeed was sentenced in court ; I'd say: give the King the power to suspend any party that treatens the functioning of the state or spreads xenophobic and thus illegal propaganda)

I'm a random poster, and I approve this development.