I'm a big fan of political talking points because they reveal a lot about the people who say them.
I've enjoyed watching the fallout surrounding gay marriage in the United States because the whole issue seems to me to be the height of triviality. As usual the religious Right is so deliciously dim-witted that it can't think up any arguments, even Burkean traditionalist ones for traditional marriage. The Left, as usual gloats in a cloud of moral superiority, so happy to have beaten up the retarded kid on the playground, as if it vindicates his own emotionalisms. Either way it's nice to see restrictions on marriage loosened, as if the government should have any say in the matter at all, but I can't allow any party to gloat without cost.
Anyway one of the new (to me) talking points against conservatives is the accusation that they are "on the wrong side of history." It's a quaint statement because it assumes that regardless of what is right or wrong, wise or foolish, it's best to rest in whatever consensus seems to be "trending." Ideological might makes right seems to be the rule of the game: gay marriage (and anything else progressive) will become acceptable out because it is "progress" and it is "progress" because it will become acceptable. It's a clever way of dismissing everything in the past as archaic and thus bad without afterthought.
Of course I doubt many would say that Christianity defeated paganism because it somehow constituted "progress," or that the farcical philosophy of Plato and Aristotle defeated the atomism of Democritus and Epicurus by its superiority. In reality more errors have been committed under the guise of "progress" than successes; our only hope is that the errors are not too disastrous to be weeded out. So limiting ourselves to American progressivism of the past century, let's overview what missteps have been made in the name of progress:
- Prohibition - Prohibition wasn't just one of the first progressive causes, it was one of the first feminist ones as well. The idea was that the suffering of the working classes, domestic abuse and general stupidity were all tied into alcohol, all the state needed to do was ban it and call it a day. Thankfully even progressives acknowledge this to be an enormous failure, so not so much elaboration is necessary.
- Eugenics - Eugenics tied in neatly with the social engineering aspect of early 1900s progressivism. Instead of remaking society with laws and regulations, why not go right to the source and reform man genetically? Of course the name of eugenics was conclusively spoiled with German national socialism, but no massive genocidal crimes were ever pinned to it in America. Regardless, eugenics is still viewed as a misstep, especially by the racially sensitive Left that has evolved out of progressivism.
- Imperialism - Progressives were the original neo-conservatives. Appealing to the glorious causes of democratic imperialism and the White Man's Burden, American isolationism was permanently crushed and replaced by the current norm of tossing over any undesirable government that could be construed as "un-democratic." One of the apparently best kept secrets of American politics is that until 2001, the mainstream American Right had been the doves.
- The Great Society - Until about 1960, American poverty rates had been falling consistently, the American black family was strong, and unemployment rates among the poor were low. All of that changed with the Great Society programs. It helps to realize that intentions don't transfer into policy; effectively, the Great Society programs paid people to not work, they paid people to have more children than they could normally care for and it paid mothers to raise their children alone. Not surprisingly, people responded to incentives. Now in some sectors, the unemployment rates of the poor are near 50% and the portion of black children born fatherless is approaching unity; decreases in the poverty rate have been nil for half a century. Progressives haven't come to terms with this one, but I think it's fair to say that sometime soon they must.
"But come on, those aren't real progressive policies!" Yes they are. The fact that textbook writers (mostly progressives themselves) can bleach the holy name of progress for younger generations doesn't diminish the fact that the were absolutely foundational for the progressive ideology. And in fifty more years, there'll be a whole new set of abysmally failed policies that they'll have to blame on Christians or the Right or someone else.
So what have progressivism's successes been? Precarious at best. Our "progressive" income tax has been happily hole punched with so many deductions that it is no longer progressive, antitrust laws have been burdens somewhere between useless and destructive, alternative energy initiatives have proven to be spectacular failures and the friendly progressive state is our peeping big brother Tom. I wish them well with the Affordable Care Act though!
By the way, since the Right won on Concealed Carry laws in every single state in the union, does that mean that progressives were on the wrong side of history by their own definition?
Well that should shed light on why a firm and merely civil issue like gay marriage is so important to them.