Posted on 07/29/2013 7:51:24 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Note well: It’s not 52/43 in favor of legalizing gay marriage. It’s 52/43 in favor of requiring, as a matter of federal statute, that gay marriage be permitted even in states where a majority oppose it. In other words, you’ve got majority support here for the anti-DOMA. Something to bear in mind come 2016, when inevitably some socially conservative GOP candidate will start talking about a Federal Marriage Amendment again. At this point, the public’s likelier to support an FMA that makes gay marriage legal as a matter of constitutional law than an FMA that outlaws it.
The most arresting data point here, for my money, is that Catholic support for a gay-marriage mandate is running at 60 percent, considerably higher than support among U.S. adults generally. I don’t know how Pope Francis’s comments this morning will play with Catholics abroad but they should be just fine here.
Any reason to question the topline 52/43 number? Actually, yes. When Gallup polled the question of gay marriage more generally back in May (i.e. asking whether SSM should be legal, not whether there should be a federal statute requiring it in all 50 states), they got a nearly identical 53/45 split. I would have guessed that reframing that question in terms of whether federal law should require its legalization would have brought out the federalist in some gay-marriage supporters and knocked the overall level of support below 50 percent. Not so. There’s barely any fall-off when you phrase it in terms of a federal mandate. That makes me think either (a) there are very, very few sticklers for federalism on this subject in the population or (b) support for SSM actually jumped several points between May and today (maybe to the high 50s) and thus the 52 percent support we’re seeing for a mandate really does represent a considerable fall-off. That’s not implausible, actually, given that we had a major Supreme Court decision on DOMA and Prop 8 in the interim. Maybe support for gay marriage spiked after SCOTUS struck down part of DOMA and that’s why even the prospect of a federal mandate leaves support above 50 percent.
Would a federal statute imposing gay marriage would sit better or worse with social conservatives than a Supreme Court ruling imposing it as a matter of equal protection? (Never mind the fact for this thought experiment that Congress’s constitutional authority to legislate on marriage is dubious.) Presumably it’d be slightly better: A statute can be repealed and/or its supporters replaced whereas a SCOTUS ruling requires a change in Court membership, which can take decades. And a statute would have some democratic legitimacy as an expression of the will of the national majority even if it’s viewed as a usurpation of the will of the state majority. Lefty blogger Digby phrases it this way: It’s one thing to say that legalizing gay marriage is a matter of majority will versus minority rights, but what if the (national) majority opposed to it is now a minority itself? Then it’s minority rule versus minority rights happen to be supported by the (national) majority. Regardless, the real significance of this, I think, is that it’ll embolden Anthony Kennedy and the Court’s liberals the next time the issue comes before them to mandate gay marriage nationally under the Equal Protection Clause. Ginsburg has worried in the past that the Court, as it did in Roe, shouldn’t be quick to take a hot-button social issue out of the public’s hands lest it embitter and entrench the opposition. The lesson for her and Kennedy in this poll is that most of the public would be okay with risking that. Not a deciding factor, but a data point the next time they rule.
ObamaNation’s love affair with sexual deviancy continues.
Supreme court says - marriage is a state issue and is no business of the federal government.
Get over it.
Why doesn’t AllahPundit come out of the closet and disclose who he is.
Pretend it's a circus.
The Founders despised majoritarianism, and with good reason.
That was not the ruling.
Catholics who are Catholics don’t support homo anything except for homo celibacy (chastity).
And the pope reiterated that homosexual behavior is sinful behavior.
All states will recognize homosexual marriage whether they allow them or not, and the federal government has already recognized it for it’s employees throughout the United States and in immigration.
This society has been too dumbed down to save.
The Big Fall is probable unstoppable at this point.
Time to become a prepper.
Millions of us in America stand against all that these evil doers believe in and are doing. Someone paid gallup for this poll and they also paid for the outcome. There is a difference in polling and social engineering and gallup couldn’t care less... they just want to make a profit and the employees want their perks.
“why doesn’t AllahPundit come out of the closet and disclose who he is.”
Too many penises in that closet I would imagine. Maybe he is wedged in there tightly?
These Homosexual people are not GAYS;......they are QUEERS!
Definition ..... of Queer:
“: one that is queer; especially often disparaging : homosexual.”
It fits.......there is nothing GAY, -about their actions. Quit calling Queers: - Gays! That is just an out right lie.
Besides, it insults and is highly offensive to females that were/are named “Gay”. It is highly inaccurate and misleading.
The Story line should read............”Queers Allowed to Marry in all 50 States.”
Look it up .....
“ differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal “
Gallup unsurprisingly doesn’t understand that the states have never delegated to Congress, via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate marriage, which includes defining marriage.
In other words, the states would first have to amend the Constitution to grant Congress the specific power to regulate marriage. This is also the same reason that Obamacare isn’t legal.
The federal government keeps overstepping its constitutional authority. Marriage and a lot of other matters is a state issue and not a federal one. The full faith & credit clause just says one states laws should be honored by another state, not that the federal government can step in and mess with all states. The duties of the federal government are listed in the constitution, other areas are reserved to the states.
We need to start a new political party constitutional conservatives, the Republicans are weasels.
Notice what happens when the media became an all out proponent for gay marriage in at the end of the 90s. Also look at what happened during the period conservatives were pushing back with prop 8 etc. Support dropped 6 points to 40 while against peeked at 57%. The push back that coincided with Chickfila debacle also showed a uptick. This issue can be turned around with the will and work on messaging. Right at this moment we are under an all out media onslaught. I’m skeptical of this poll but I have little doubt that the media propaganda blitz along with many conservatives failing to do their jobs is what is being reflected. This could change. If a conservative GOP takes the Presidency and manages to appoint a conservative traditional marriage supporting judge this peek in SSM support could once again collapse. Also if SSM proponents over play their hand they could find themselves in trouble politically. The best thing for traditional marriage supporters is to continue to hold strong and fund the opposition. The real problem we have is that groups like HRC have ads all the time promoting ssm but the conservative alternative isn’t there not even on talk radio. If it had been SSM marriage would still be no better off than where it was in 90s. What this graph represents is how to fail with an issue that was totally in conservative favor. The South is still strongly opposed to Gay marriage. Let’s keep it that way.
Such is the news about New Rome, which will probably continue trying to blame Jewish folks. Meanwhile, the default process continues.
I’m not aware of any state that doesn’t recognize legal marriage from another state, for instance common law marriage can only take place in 9 states, but they all still recognize it, as long as it was legal in it’s original state.
The feds have also recognized homosexual marriage for it’s employees nationwide and in immigration.
The liberals and libertarians beat us and got their ‘gay marriage’.
Has any state where it has been put to a vote ever passed it?
In California it was a judges decision, and the unconstitutional governor’s decision to not defend the constitution.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.