Three Cheers for the New York State Senate

New York is set to become the seventh state to allow same-sex marriage. Because the Empire State is so populous, the new law will roughly double the number of Americans who have access to gay marriage. But, as momentous a victory as this represents for marriage equality, the vote late Friday night by the New York state senate reverberates far beyond the single issue of gay marriage. Because its state senate is controlled by Republicans, New York is the first state to allow gay marriage where the legislature is not dominated by Democrats. At a time of deep partisan division and gridlock nationally, this news out of New York represents a welcome breath of bipartisan cooperation. And federal politicians in Washington ought to take note.

Although the New York Senate is controlled by the GOP, most of the Republican senators actually oppose same-sex marriage. But instead of obstructing the measure by keeping it bottled up in committee, Republican leaders of the state Senate actually allowed the legislation to be brought up for a vote anyway.  Same-sex marriage prevailed because most of the chamber's Democrats lined up behind it, with a small handful of Republicans helping to push it over the finish line. The result was truly bipartisan.  

Sadly, it's hard to picture a similar feat coming to pass in Congress, whether on the matter of gay marriage, or any other issue. Congressional Republicans routinely stand in the way of nearly any Democratic initiative.

Imagine, though, if the Washington GOP behaved more like their colleagues from the Empire State. Most of the Republicans in the state Senate didn't help Democrats pass gay marriage, but they didn't stand in the way, either. They let the Democrats do the heavy lifting to round up the support to get it passed. Those New York Republicans should be applauded, because that's exactly how Republicans in Washington ought to behave. If Democrats in Congress can muster the votes on a given issue, they ought to be able to prevail, just as the Democrats in Albany did. Republicans shouldn't obstruct just for the sake of obstruction. The lesson from New York, though, isn't only for Republicans, President Obama should pay attention, too.

Article Author: Scott Nance

Scott Nance has covered government and Washington for more than a decade. He's the editor and publisher of the political blog, The Washington Current.

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