Within minutes of the recent announcement that the Massachusetts State Supreme Court ruled that the state can no longer deny gay couples marriage licenses, all the requisite players had pretty much shot their respective loads. We now have six months of repetition to look forward to – no new arguments, just an upward spiral of increasing volume.

Although the Court has allowed the legislature 180 days to do something in response to the ruling, the text of the opinion seems to make it pretty clear that nothing short of an amendment to the state constitution, or interference from the federal government will stop gay couples from being able to obtain marriage licenses in Massachusetts. This fact will not stop conservatives from doing everything within their power to stop what they see as an attack on heterosexual unions. Given Jerry Falwell comments after 9/11, some fundamentalist Christians might even see gay marriage as a terrible breakdown in our national defense.

With the increasing visibility of homosexuality in popular culture, the recent confirmation of a gay Anglican bishop, and the continuing strides made in other countries towards the legalization of gay marriage, it isn't surprising that the metaphoric of conservative religious organizations is starting to get a little panicky. Drawing comparisons between incest and gay marriage is the very definition of spurious, but at least one popular conservative has done just that. The word, "shrill" comes to mind.

But while the average Christian on the ground might be horrified by the Court's ruling, conservative pundits and Republican strategists can be heard rubbing their hands together and salivating throughout the streets of Washington DC. Polls indicate that a small majority of the American public is against gay marriage, and Republicans intend to mine this vein for political gold in the 2004 for election.

Considering that employment is increasing, there's no telling if it will continue to do so – some of the president's supporters might be justifiably worried about that: If, by November of next year the net job growth fails to out pace the net job losses that occurred during Bush's term it might hurt his chances at reelection. And depending on what the situation in Iraq looks like, it may or may not carry any political advantage for the president – and only a suicidal campaign strategist would try to spin an unstable occupation into an positive reason to vote for Bush in any case.

The Court's ruling has given Republican activists a beautiful gift from heaven; all they needed was something other than the economy and Iraq to attack the opposition with. They'll let the right-wing echo chamber do the rest.

The key issue here is the 180 days that the Court granted the state before it will be compelled to hand out marriage licenses to gay couples. If they had emulated the similar ruling recently given in Ontario, which required the issuing of licenses immediately, things might be different. No, the issue would surely not have been settled by the time the election rolls around; but the heat would be off.

Let's face it: we're a fickle nation. We tend to forget things pretty quickly when a new scandal comes along. An example? Well, you probably won't be hearing very much about the Paris Hilton sex tape for a little while. And we seem to have forgotten completely about that little ol' leak. Who knows what sort of issue would have grasped the public consciousness during the upcoming summer campaign season?

But the 180 days falls due in May of 2004, just in time to ramp up the slime what's already promising to be one of the dirtiest campaigns in recent memory. Worse yet is that we, the people of this nation, will have to listen to the same old tired arguments over and over and over again, without any real movement one way or the other. Who will win? The angry God of the old testament? Or the men and men and women and women with nothing but love and the law on their side?

And yet, it could be entertaining. Emotional attempts to concoct appropriate euphemisms are always fun; now we get to watch conservatives spend the next six months trying desperately not to constantly shout, "Goddamn faggots!" whenever they go on TV or the radio. (Actually, Rush could probably just shout that for three hours straight and nobody would really notice.)

Six months. Sounds like a prison sentence.

-B. C. Silvia