If this is accurate, it's almost as much of a sign of evolving attitutes as the recent voter approval of gay marriage in three states:
A new poll shows Hoosiers are split on legalizing same-sex marriage, but also oppose amending Indiana's state constitution to ban it.
The poll, taken for the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University and WISH-TV, found that 54 percent of those surveyed oppose changing the state constitution to bar gay couples from marrying, while 38 percent support doing so.
I'm a little skeptical of putting too much faith in one poll when it seems to go against what has been the perceived consensus. If it is accurate, though, it shows that all those rallying against the amendment might be afraid of something that isn't there.
It would also be an indication of an abundance of common sense among the Hoosier electorate. Just because you're not in favor of something, that doesn't mean you have to want that opposition enshrined in the state constitution. That document shouud be for the few bedrock, eternal principles the state wants to govern by. There is no place in it for issues that are headed for obvious change or ones on which there is widespread disagreement.
We don't always show that much common sense. Putting the property tax caps in the constitution was just dumb (and that's the opinion of someone who favors the caps) because tax rates should be fluid and flexible, able to be changed by one generation of politicians and voters when it becomes apparent that the condidtions operated under by the previous generation no longer apply.
