DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[Jester]

No it was a joke. It is just that his party always comes with ideas like banning the marriage between cousins for example....of course because they know it is a thing common under muslims, and that is exactly what they are always focusing on.

So, to come full circle, I guess:

I am not much like Geert Wilders. My disagreements with him are many, but I think the essence of it comes down to Robert Nozick's arguments about patterned vs. unpatterned goals. Mr. Wilders seems to have an idea of what a good society "looks like" - specifically, it looks like the modern Netherlands. One of the (many) virtues of this society is that it is, relatively speaking, free. But the point of Mr. Wilders' philosophy is not to preserve the freedom, but to preserve the society that looks like the modern Netherlands. If freedom has to be thrown overboard to keep things looking the way they're "supposed to," so be it. Restrict immigration. Restrict "non-Dutch" cultural and religious practices. Reinforce family values. Surpress "non-western" influences. Put all political power directly in the hands of the current cultural, ethnic, and religious majority via populist government.

I take the opposite view. I do not have a pattern that I want society to "look like," but rather, a series of rules about liberty. If the Netherlands in 2100 looks nothing like the Netherlands in 2013, I have no inherent issue with that, so long as it was the result of people interacting freely. The family values could be very different. The religious and ethnic mix could be very different. Culture could have changed almost entirely. (There might even be food that isn't bland!) This would not be an inherently bad thing, and even if I didn't like the result, I don't see it as any of my business to prevent it by using state power.

And so. I am a liberal, and Mr. Wilders is not. I believe people should be able to do what they want, unless they're harming others. I believe polygamy should be legal. If anyone is coerced into it, then that should be dealt with using the existing laws against coersion, combined with social support for the disadvantaged and the powerless. This might lead to families and social structures that are unfamiliar to us. We might not like everything that people do with their liberties. But is not a problem to me.

-Jester