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12/21/2014
NOM's new conspiracy theory: Census Bureau making changes to hide marriage equality's ill effects
After a well-rounded review of its annual American Community Survey, the US Census Bureau determined that seven non-mandatory questions fell into the "Low Benefit" category. Of these seven questions, five involve questions about marriage. Now the Bureau is asking the public to comment on whether or not they should remove these questions. (full methodology here)
Well that's all the increasingly desperate National Organization For Marriage needs to shape a new conspiracy theory. According to the anti-gay org, the Census Bureau is actually considering this change because "redefining marriage" will soon bring havoc to our nation and our pesky government wants to be able to hide the data when the impending Armageddon really takes hold. Here's how NOM tells it (words attributed to president Brian Brown):
According to the Census Bureau itself, at least five questions about marital status are "slated for removal from the questionnaire" unless the public and other government agencies come up with "revised or additional justification for these questions."
There is something very significant about a federal agency suggesting, for all intents and purposes, that marriage is less important to public policy at the same time as federal judges all over the country are imposing a radical redefinition of this fundamental institution on voters in state after state.
One might almost wonder if this isn't part of an effort to put marriage "out of sight and out of mind" in order to avoid addressing tough questions about the consequences of redefining marriage.
A few years hence, if marriage remains redefined in as many states as it is today, and people begin raising concerns about the effects of this new marriage policy on things like economic growth or the welfare of children, politicians and government agencies will have an easy evasive maneuver if these changes to the Census are implemented: "We don't have any data on that."
It is ironic that the same federal administration that has made it a priority to redefine marriage and family, saying it was important for—among other things—economics and public welfare, is now moving to drop data-gathering mechanisms related precisely to the economic and public welfare implications of marriage and family!
Or maybe it isn't ironic or mere coincidence at all, but part of a strategy? It does seem significant, after all, that this news should only begin to draw attention the week before Christmas, when the public is distracted and government activity is in sort of a lull. Late December is famously a time for government "taking out the trash" — dropping news stories about which they don't want too much public notice.
FULL: Important Questions Need to be Asked [NOM]
Let's consider the levels of desperation at play here. First you have to accept, as fact, that same-sex couples are going to destroy marriage. You can't even just fear that this will happen or strongly believe that it will. For NOM's scenario to work, a supporter has to believe that government agencies want to hide the data because there will, in fact, be something to hide.
Then you have to believe that the US Census Bureau underwent a twisted review in order to send a political gift to future politicians. You have to reject that the review process was the straightforward examination that they say it was, but was instead some sort of shady action. You have to believe that many people took great risks just so they could help some future administration hide just how fully the gays will destroy marriage in the next decade. That darn Barack Obama and his gay-loving band of miscreants!
And then you have to add a little yuletide to your fanciful schemes via the suggestion that this is all coming out now because people are otherwise distracted with their gifts and their eggnog. After you've built up the rest of this tree of machination in your mind, this piece about it being a holiday news dump is that special star whose light keeps you up at night. It is that hint of grated nutmeg on this sundae of subterfuge.
But for the National Organization For Marriage, here at the end of a seventh full year of operation, this is the kind of wackiness that has become its normal operating speed. I've begun to pity the whole enterprise.
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