In all the debate we’ve heard in recent weeks concerning the prospect of Maine marriage going gay, no one seems to be mentioning the elephant in the room, that the instigator of the gay marriage proposal is a powerful political force that is changing core beliefs in Maine and the nation.

To sort of steal and totally twist the quote made famous by Hillary Clinton when the media was hounding her husband for his affairs in the late 1990s, there is a vast left-wing conspiracy that is indoctrinating Americans into thinking there’s nothing wrong with same-sex marriage.

In Maine this conspiracy started in the 1990s with homosexuals wanting equal rights when it came to such basics as hiring, credit and housing. After many promises from the homosexual side that their demands would stop short of marriage equality, Mainers finally passed a referendum that ended the supposed discrimination.

Not even a couple years later, we see how the gay rights crowd wasn’t telling the truth. Spokespeople for gay rights in Maine promised their lobbying would stop with rights concerning the workplace, banking and the like. They wouldn’t go down religious roads seeking gay marriage as activists in other states had, such as Vermont. But, like the old saying goes, give ’em an inch, they take a mile.

I only wonder if gay marriage is the ultimate for the gay rights crowd. If Mainers approve of same-sex marriage, is that the top of the mountain for homosexuals? If society redefines marriage as between two men or two women, what is left for the vast left-wing conspiracy? The final wall would have been broken down. The sexual revolution would be complete. Moral equality between heterosexuality and homosexuality would be reached.

But just because I can’t think of a higher cause for the homosexual elite doesn’t mean there isn’t one. I know conservatives who say once we allow gay marriage, what’s to stop polygamists from going mainstream or pedophiliacs from pushing for marriage between an adult and a child? Or perhaps there’s some animal lover out there that wants to legally wed his favorite dog? It doesn’t take too much imagination to see where the redefinition of marriage is headed. And for you who think I aim to scare or overreach, picture yourself back in the 1980s for a second. Can you imagine we’d see a day when two men were allowed to marry at a church altar or head down to the courthouse for a marriage license? In Windham or Standish or Bridgton of all places?

This is about as real as the culture wars get. That’s why Maine politicians shouldn’t be left in charge of this decision. Every state, that I know of, that has approved gay marriage has done so without a referendum vote by the people. And where there has been a referendum the measure has lost, even in left-leaning California.

The Maine Senate passed gay marriage last week, and the House passed it this week. And that’s where this should stop. If the foundations are to be rocked, it should only be done by the people of Maine, referendum style. The people should vote on such a moral matter.

Now, you may think I’m a nut for thinking there’s a vast left-wing conspiracy when it comes to homosexual rights, that maybe I’ve eaten too many swamp-stained fiddleheads this spring. I don’t think I’m paranoid. They said Hillary was paranoid, too. But she was also correct. There was a vast right-wing conspiracy against her husband. There were a bunch of conservatives who were trying to shut him down because they believed he was a lousy president. And they poked and prodded until they got what they wanted: His utter humiliation and ineffectiveness.

There’s no difference here. Gays and lesbians have a plan, they have tenacity, and they are holding a clinic, schooling future activists in how to bend and remake society. Their main tool is the political equivalent of Chinese water torture, which they have efficiently used to slowly break down the average American into believing there’s nothing wrong with two men or two women marrying.

But they are mistaken. Marriage is a special word, an idea originally used in the Bible to bind a woman and man together forever. Over the years, divorce rates and reality shows like The Bachelor and Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire have made a mockery of marriage, and as a result the word has lost much of its meaning. But if people can see past those negatives and remember that marriage is a beautiful thing to be honored and protected, then maybe we can withstand the organized push for gay marriage.

John Balentine, of Windham, is the former editor of the Lakes Region Weekly.