CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Posted on 11/07/2004 6:56:03 AM PST by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Years from now, when all the analysis is over, historians might point to a specific moment in the 2004 campaign for president when the tide turned in favor of Republican President George W. Bush over his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.
It was early July, two weeks before the Democratic convention, and Bush was speaking out in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
"Because families pass along values and shape character, traditional marriage is also critical to the health of society," Bush said in his July 10 national radio address. "Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of traditional marriage will undermine the family structure."
Some had warned that it was unwise for Bush to put such emphasis on what they viewed as a divisive social policy when voters cared more about Iraq, the war on terrorism and the economy.
"Our analysis of the swing voters shows that they are concerned about Iraq and about the economy, and I don't think they are likely to be swayed, or have strong feelings, about a constitutional amendment," Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, told The New York Times back in July. "If anything, they may see it as putting the emphasis on the wrong place when the country has other problems."
But when it was all said and done, 22 percent of all voters across the United States picked "moral values" as the most important issue facing the nation, followed by the economy and jobs (20 percent) and the war on terrorism (19 percent). Eighty percent of those who saw moral values as the most important issue voted for Bush, according to post-election data released by the National Election Pool.
Eleven state ballots included measures similar to the Federal Marriage Amendment, revising state constitutions to limit marriage to its traditional definition. The measure was approved in all 11 states, including Ohio, where a Bush win secured his victory in the Electoral College, and eight other states won by Bush.
"Clearly the supporters of traditional marriage helped President Bush down the aisle to a second term," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
Kerry said during the campaign that he favored restricting marriage to heterosexual couples, but opposed achieving that through the constitutional amendment process.
Catholic leaders nationally and in the states looking at the issue this year had called nearly unanimously for approval of the federal and state amendments.
Only Oregon and Michigan voters approved the amendment to ban same-sex marriage but chose Kerry over Bush. In each of those states, according to the National Election Pool data, voters picked something other than moral values as the most important election issue. For Oregonians it was the war in Iraq, and for those in Michigan, it was the issue of the economy and jobs.
Speaking Nov. 4 at a panel discussion sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Karen M. White, political director of EMILY's List, said Republican organizers "were very smart in arranging their electoral strategy" around issues like same-sex marriage that were likely to bring Bush supporters out to vote.
EMILY's List works to elect "pro-choice Democratic women to federal, state and local office." EMILY is an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast.
Democratic strategists may have underestimated the number of people who would flock to the polls over the marriage initiatives, White said. In part that's because when voters are asked what are the most important issues facing American society "most people are not going to say, 'gay marriage,'" she said.
At another post-election discussion the same day, John Kenneth White, politics professor and director of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America, said that in some ways the Massachusetts Supreme Court handed Bush's campaign the issue it needed to succeed in this election.
Before the state court ruled last November that laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples violate the state constitution, John White said Bush's re-election campaign was stumbling.
The court's decision gave Republican strategists and activists an issue that energized people to come out to vote to pass the marriage initiatives and also support Bush, he said.
Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, said the marriage initiatives brought Bush "a critical bump in support among core Democratic voting groups" that favored the amendment, including African-Americans, Catholics and women.
"Among African-American voters in Ohio alone ... President Bush nearly doubled his support over the 2000 election, from 9 (percent) to 16 percent," Daniels said.
Bush "also improved his support among Catholics and women by 5 percent," he added. "Indeed, America demonstrated broad-based strength and momentum for our Federal Marriage Amendment -- strength and momentum that transcends all racial, cultural and religious boundary lines."
Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
NordP (www.pledgewear.com) – I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE.
Pro marriage ping!
Pro-life ping!
Doing a constitutional amendment on marriage puts that issue in the hands of the people. If you were to go Kerry's route some liberal judge would be making that decision for you like what happened in Massachusetts.
Missed this one .... ping!
I also think that the swift boat guys did a WHOLE LOT to damage (S)Kerry's campaign and image.
Finally, Time and Newsweek just published their analyses of the Kerry campaign. They delayed publishing it because it is so damaging to Kerry. Apparently there were many, many problems in his campaign....mostly revolving around his inability to make a decision.
One commentary:
Kerry would have to make SOME/ANY decision and he simply couldn't. So he would start calling people for advice. He was always on his cell phone. Many times he would be on two cell phones at the same time, one at each ear.
Sometimes his campaign folks would simply TAKE HIS CELL PHONES AWAY FROM HIM to keep him on track.
Another tidbit:
Theresa was more of a liability than an asset. "High maintenance," the liberal editors called her.
During the Democrat primaries, Theresa was so angry with Dean that she DEMANDED that she be scheduled for a public debate with Dean. SHE wanted to publically DEBATE Dean. Harhar. What a fiasco for the Dems!!
The more I read about Kerry's campaign the more I see that he was doomed. The pro-Kerry editors of these two rags magazine BOTH concluded that Kerry simply did not know how to run a campaign. They both agreed, separately, that the Bush campaign ran CIRCLES around the Kerry campaign.
Homosexual Agenda Ping - People keep chewing this question - was it moral values? Were moral values irrelevant? Etc.
The leftists say that Neanderthal knuckle dragging haters voted for Bush in order to discredit those who believe in traditional morality. Conservatives who attempt to straddle the moral divide (like Rush sometimes does) say, "No no no, it wasn't "gay" marriage, it was the WOT."
It was both.
Let Scripter AND me know if anyone wants on/off this pinglist.
(I'm baaack - and thinking of doing a new pinglist... about moral absolutes in general, examples of what happens when there aren't any, and general principles involved. Let me know your thoughts, and if you want on such a list. It wouldn't be as busy as this one (I think).)
Disagree. If the social issues really carried the day, and not the issues of the economy and terrorism, then Alan Keyes would be the senator from IL. Bush won because the American public had no confidence in Kerry as the leader of our armed forces as we're engaged in an overseas conflict. Something about the guy having stabbed the military in the back once already.
No matter how they try to twist the words of our Lord, they can only come out one way -- the way they were intended.
We need the Constitutional Amendment on marriage to protect it from Liberal activist judges.
Personally, I think they won it for George Bush. Without them the president would have lost.
I, too, question whether social issues really carried the day. But since even the Liberals say they did, we should use this belief to our advantage whether they did or not.
How? The President has nothing whatsoever to do with the passage of constitutional amendments. There's no reason for him to get involved.
Oh, we're the "knuckle draggers"? Seems to me that your knuckles drag more when you are constantly in the bending-over position.
There is no question that the economy and terrorism had a big impact, but poll after poll has indicated that moral values were the most important issue in this election. On the other hand, moral values alone won't be enough for Alan Keyes to win any race, due to his authoritarian sense of righteousness and almost confrontational approach, which is most prevalent whenever he speaks, projecting an aura of negativism. Just in a period of a few weeks while campaigning in Illinois, Keyes said Jesus wouldn't vote for Obama. He branded Mary Cheney as a selfish hedonist, and compared Illinois politics to third world despotism.
In a few weeks he had alienated Republicans with his comment about Mary Cheney, got the Illinois political powers mad, and instead of attracting Obama supporters to his side, he made sure to keep them as far away as possible when he told them what Jesus would do.
God has granted this nation 4 more years to work out a solution to these problems. May He have mercy on our collective soul!
We still count on'em, don't we?
They continue to protect us.
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