When I hear anyone talk about the President, any President, and “social issues”, I always wince. Mostly because these two things never really have much to do with each other.

For all of Ronald Reagan’s talk about “social issues”, virtually nothing ever really happened. These “social issues” are always hashed out first in state legislatures, then the state courts, and then, maybe, the federal courts (this is the ways it is supposed to work). So, the Presidents appointments matter, but that’s about it.

There has never been a vote, up or down, on the topic of abortion in the US Senate, never. Not when the Democrats ran the show or now when the Republicans barely run the show. There have been a few bills on limitations, but never an up or down for the whole thing. Why ? Because they don’t really want one, and the Supreme Court cut all that off, taking a state “social issue” into a federal issue before the normal course of discourse had been completed. I hope this doesn’t happen with “gay marriage” as the giving it the same status as abortion will make it even slower to assimilate.