I’ve now read 8 gazillion emails on gay marriage. One of the interesting trends has been an increase in the number of conservatives who say government should get out of the marriage business altogether. While I think this is probably — thought not definitely — a bad idea, I generally find it an admirable tendency. Conservatives have always been reluctant to use the state for social engineering. Indeed, the rise of “big government conservatives,” “compasionate conservatism” and, yes, “neoconservatism” are all largely attributable to desire to fight fire with fire against left wing social engineers. If the left stayed out of the social engineering business, it’s more than plausible that the right would never have gotten in the business in the first place. (This “anti-State” tendency of American conservatism has been a long running theme of mine see here, here, or here. ).

What I find admirable about conservatives’ increasing willingness to pull-up the plank of state support for marriage is that it reveals A) an openness to new arguments B) a dogmatic preference for a smaller state, even at the cost to your side and C) a reflexive decency which says I’d rather the state do nothing than impose my views on the unwilling.

Now, again, this isn’t the majority position, but I have been witnessing first hand how literally thousands of rank and file conservatives work through these issues and this seems to be a common response to demands for state recognition of gay marriage; “well, then get the government out of the marriage business entirely!”

Personally I think there’s nothing wrong with a state reflecting and recognizing the cultural arrangements of the nation, but as an intellectual tendency I find this heartening.