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John Kasich Is The Liberal Media’s Darling [Hmmm...]
The Federalist ^
| 08/14/2015
| Dennis Saffran
Posted on 08/14/2015 5:23:00 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Ohio Governor John Kasich has become the darling of the liberal media for his touching response to a question about same-sex marriage (as well as his stirring defense of accepting Obamacare Medicaid expansion money) in the debate last week. A Google search for Kasich gay marriage yields over 10,000 largely fawning articles, such as this piece by Slates LGBTQ editor extolling his gracious and humane view.
Asked by Megyn Kelly, if you had a son or daughter who was gay or lesbian, how would you explain to them your opposition to same-sex marriage? Kasich replied:
Well, look, Im an old fashioned person here, and I happen to believe in traditional marriage. But Ive also said the court has ruled … and I said well accept it. And guess what, I just went to a wedding of a friend of mine who happens to be gay. Because somebody doesnt think the way I do, doesnt mean that I cant care about them or cant love them. So if one of my daughters happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept them. Because you know what? Thats what were taught when we have strong faith.
So the issues like that … are planted to divide us. I think the simple fact of the matter is … we need to give everybody a chance, treat everybody with respect, and let them share in this great American dream that we have, Megan. So, look, Im going to love my daughters, Im going to love them no matter what they do. Because, you know what, God gives me unconditional love. Im going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around me.
Is Kasich Catering to Social Conservatives?
Despite the media adulation, Kasichs performance doesnt seem to have helped him much in the polls. Only 8 percent of GOP respondents in the first post-debate survey called him the winner; and while 54 percent said they had a more favorable opinion of him after the debate compared to only 18 percent who had a less favorable opinion, this just placed him in the middle of the pack well behind Ben Carsons 80 percent to 9 percent ratio and Marco Rubios 68 percent to 13 percent ratio. Yet these poll numbers among Republicans notwithstanding, some of the Kasich enthusiasm appears to have extended to conservatives as well as liberals, and not just to establishment organs like the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which termed his gay marriage answer deft, or Peggy Noonan, who characterized it as lovely. If my Facebook feed is any indication, Kasichs appeal is increasing among social conservatives.
Kasich’s position on the tension between gay rights and religious and other first amendment freedoms is the worst of any of the seventeen GOP contenders.
Yet this is not completely shocking. The part of Kasichs gay marriage response that seems to have particularly resonated with social and religious conservatives his invocation of the unconditional love that flows from his faith was lovely and moving. The rest of his reply, however, should trouble cultural conservatives especially when considered in the context of other things he has said about same-sex marriage and the rights of those with religious or other objections to it. His statements suggest that hes not just an old fashioned person who believes in traditional marriage who would still love his daughters if they were gay, but rather an evolved politician whos fully prepared to acquiesce to the same-sex agenda.
Thats speculation, of course. But even so, theres been a lot of evolution on gay marriage, so whats a little straight lie for the base when we need the votes of all those millennials riding around in their Ubers drinking their craft beer? What is not speculation, though and whats far more important in evaluating Kasichs candidacy is that his position on the tension between gay rights and religious and other first amendment freedoms is the worst of any of the seventeen GOP contenders.
The social conservatives who liked Kasichs answer apparently took his ritual affirmation of belief in traditional marriage at face value, and didnt recognize his stress on accepting the Courts ruling, his enthusiastic reference to attending a gay wedding, or his tuttutting about the divisiveness of all social issues as a dog whistle to liberal opinion. But thats the thing about dog whistles; only the dogs are supposed to hear them.
Its Time for Kasich to Come out of the Closet
Kasich, whose senior strategists are the same pro-gay marriage consultants who managed the failed 2012 campaign of former Utah Governor and Obama Administration Ambassador Jon Huntsman, is indeed running as the Huntsman of 2016 the candidate of the socially liberal, pro-business country club faction. He began beating the drum for respecting the Courts marriage ruling two months before it was handed down, reiterating this sole point in interviews after the Obergefell decision, refusing to criticize both its result and its flawed legal reasoning.
It is therefore hard to see the ‘Court has ruled’ incantation as anything other than code for ‘I agree with the decision and view criticism of it as illegitimate.’
Of course, liberals dont routinely intone their belief in campaign finance regulation but then say the Court has ruled and we have to accept Citizens United, just as genuine right-to-lifers didnt persistently express their opposition to abortion but then say the Court has ruled and we have to accept Roe v. Wade. They accept these decisions as the law in the tautological way that one accepts the mere existence of something, but they still criticize and work to change it, as is their right and obligation as citizens in a democracy. It is therefore hard to see the Court has ruled incantation as anything other than code for I agree with the decision and view criticism of it as illegitimate.
This is underscored by Kasichs exuberance about actually having attended a same-sex wedding, something he was even more ebullient about in an earlier interview: If my [gay] friend invites me to a wedding my big question is well, what time is it? I mean its a time to celebrate with people. Hammering home the point the day after the debate he told CBS, Im for traditional marriage, but … Ive got friends that dont practice that, and … God bless them. That doesnt sound like a guy whose belief in traditional marriage extends beyond just merely thinking that it should still be legal.
The biggest concern with Kasich, though, is not his fingers-crossed-behind-his-back failure to just come out and say he supports gay marriage. Its his complete dismissal of the potential threat to religious and other first amendment freedoms that all four dissenting justices warned of in Obergefell (including Chief Justice John Roberts, who had just upheld Obamacare the day before and so can hardly be written off as a rightwing yahoo). He is the only GOP candidate to go out of his way to downplay this threat, saying lets not get carried away. At a news conference he gave perfunctory lip service to his disappointment with the ruling, but when a reporter asked about its impact on a photographer refusing to work a same-sex wedding, he curtly replied lets not create problems where there frankly is (sic) none. Afterwards, he quickly turned away from her in the impatient way a politician does when someone has just said something particularly inane.
We Cant Ignore the Consequences of the Impending Culture War
Alas, Governor Kasich, if only these conflicts didnt exist. But as Chief Justice Roberts and the other dissenters realized, the growing intolerance of the gay rights movement and its leftist supporters had already created big problems for freedom of speech and religious even before Obergefell.
The problems that Kasich thinks dont exist have become even more ominous since Obergefell, and are increasingly alarming for the nations religious population.
Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich got carried away from his job last year, when it was discovered that hed made a modest $1,000 contribution to the successful 2008 ballot initiative to repeal court-ordered same-sex marriage in California. Aaron and Melissa Klein, the evangelical former owners of a small bakery in Portland, got carried away from their business and faced crippling fines after declining, on religious grounds, to make a custom cake for a lesbian commitment ceremony. Others who may be getting carried away soon include tenured Marquette political science professor John McAdams, who is at risk of termination for criticizing a graduate teaching assistant who had browbeaten an undergraduate for opposing gay marriage, and Dr. Paul Church, a Harvard Medical School surgery professor facing revocation of his hospital privileges for untoward comments about the health risks of gay sex.
The problems that Kasich thinks dont exist have become even more ominous since Obergefell, and are increasingly alarming for the nations religious population. A movement to tax, and thus effectively destroy, churches that will not perform gay marriages has sprung up overnight. On top of that, corporate America has already stepped in to threaten the loss of church insurance coverage.
Kasich is not an evil person or a doctrinaire liberal. But like too many members of the Republican establishment, he seems at best oblivious to the increasing threat of a culturally authoritarian illiberal left that liberals are even beginning to recognize. As Consumer Reports used to say about products that didnt score well in its ratings, there are better choices.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: 2016; 2016election; conservatism; election2016; johnkasich; liberalmedia; ohio
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To: SeekAndFind
21
posted on
08/14/2015 7:07:57 PM PDT
by
PGalt
To: SeekAndFind
Kasich keeps touting the budget surplus during his time in Congress.
He thinks i’m stupid. There was no surplus. (Closest they came was a 17B deficit) It is a lie through budgetary gymnastics. But what do you expect from a career politician
22
posted on
08/14/2015 7:19:13 PM PDT
by
griswold3
(Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
To: griswold3
RE: Closest they came was a 17B deficit
Boy, would I give anything to have that kind of deficit!
To: campaignPete R-CT
You misunderstand, I don’t think he’ll finish last, I rank him last, or close to it. Don’t like the fella. Don’t like him at all.
24
posted on
08/14/2015 7:29:40 PM PDT
by
Impy
(They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
To: ripnbang
In the debates it was the first thing out of his mouth after hundreds of interview where it is always the first thing out of his mouth. Talking points are one thing, but he’s boring me to tears with this “I’m just the son of another “worker” just like all of you tripe that the Demonicrats alway try to adopt as their personona!!!/rant
25
posted on
08/14/2015 7:48:30 PM PDT
by
SierraWasp
(Help Stamp Out Pernicious Progressives and Arrogant Activists With Their Liberalism!!!)
To: Impy
nobody is lower than pond scum.
wait a minute, pond scum is on the surface ... I must mean whale shit. Which is it?
There is one candidate who takes the pond scum award. John.
26
posted on
08/14/2015 9:13:00 PM PDT
by
campaignPete R-CT
(A Christian man who is content to be ruled by Elena Kagan is no Christian and not a man.)
To: SeekAndFind
The media is doing what it always does, picking our candidates for us.
27
posted on
08/14/2015 9:43:21 PM PDT
by
Figment
To: SeekAndFind
To: campaignPete R-CT
I believe the “lowness” of pond scum (which is algae) refers to it’s place on the evolutionary scale.
29
posted on
08/14/2015 10:13:40 PM PDT
by
Impy
(They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
To: Impy
John Ellis is right there!
30
posted on
08/15/2015 3:42:40 AM PDT
by
campaignPete R-CT
(A Christian man who is content to be ruled by Elena Kagan is no Christian and not a man.)
To: Impy
31
posted on
08/15/2015 4:20:31 AM PDT
by
campaignPete R-CT
(A Christian man who is content to be ruled by Elena Kagan is no Christian and not a man.)
To: SeekAndFind
Voters punished the Republicans in Congress with a $179B deficit in 2006. I keep thinking just who was being punished by putting Nancy & Harry (eventually Obama)in charge.
32
posted on
08/15/2015 9:43:51 AM PDT
by
griswold3
(Just another unlicensed nonconformist in am dangerous Liberal world.)
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