Posted on 03/26/2013 2:33:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A shot across the bow of Beltway Republicans on Gay Marriage Day at the Supreme Court.
Alternate headline: "Huckabee's running in 2016."
When asked if he believes the Republican Party will change its position and support gay marriage in a Wednesday Newsmax interview, Huckabee remarked, "They might, and if they do, they're going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk."...
"And it's not because there's an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody's homophobic that I know of," he continued, “but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard.”…
“If we have subjective standards, that means that we’re willing to move our standards based on the prevailing whims of culture,” he said. “I think politicians have an obligation to be thermostats, not just thermometers. They’re not simply to reflect the temperature of the room, or the culture, as it were. They’re to set the standards for law, for what’s right, for what’s wrong, understanding that not everybody’s going to agree with it, not everybody’s going to accept it.”
I’ve read a bunch of pieces lately claiming that SCOTUS striking down gay-marriage laws will actually be a gift to GOP politicians because it’ll take this issue off the table. Rubio and Paul and Jindal et al. won’t have to squirm over whether to endorse SSM, back a federalist approach to the issue, or oppose it on the merits. They can just shrug and say “The Court was wrong but whaddaya gonna do?” and move on to other business. Take it from Huckabee: That won’t happen. Abortion’s technically been “off the table” for 40 years and yet it’s still an absolute litmus test for any potential GOP nominee (and any potential Democratic nominee too). To keep social conservatives onboard, candidates will be asked to promise (a) that they’ll appoint Supreme Court justices who are committed to overturning any gay-marriage rulings and (b) that they’ll endorse some sort of constitutional amendment that would either ban SSM outright or, at a minimum, return the issue to the states. (The amendment will go nowhere but that’s beside the point here.) Think a prospective nominee won’t do some squirming over whether they should sign on to those propositions, especially given the GOP’s panic over losing young voters? Come 2016, this won’t be just about gay marriage anymore; it’ll be a test of whether social conservatives retain the same influence over the party platform that they’ve had for the last few decades. That’s why Huck’s framing this in apocalyptic “stick with us or we walk” terms. It’s their party, at least on social issues.
With respect to what’s best for other GOP pols, the simple explanation is the correct one: They’re better off if the Court surprises everyone and upholds Prop 8. Then the 2016 field can take the position that they’re personally opposed to SSM in order to placate social cons while insisting that, as good federalists, they want local voters to decide this issue for themselves. That sort of squishy middle-way stance won’t dazzle anyone on either side but it might hold the Republican coalition together by reassuring Huck and his supporters that red states will still get to chart their own course. It might also be acceptable to young voters in the sense that the potential GOP nominee won’t be standing in the way of gay marriage in states when the votes are there. But note: The squishy position won’t work if the Court does end up legalizing gay marriage this summer. In that case, taking the federalist position via a constitutional amendment will be seen as an attempt to roll back marriage rights that gays have already won. Young voters likely will find that alienating, and social cons may reason that an amendment to return power to the states on the subject simply doesn’t go far enough as a rebuke to a judiciary that’s out of control. What politicians cherish is room to maneuver, and a pro-SSM ruling leaves the GOP with less of that than an anti-SSM ruling would.
Anyway. Across the aisle, Mark Begich magically decided last night that he too is now pro-gay marriage, which makes three Democratic senators who have “evolved” in just the past 24 hours. I’m starting a pool as of right now: At what time today will the next Democratic holdout formally declare his support for SSM? I’ll take 2 p.m. ET.
Update: Interesting choice of words from Reince Priebus:
“We do have a platform, and we adhere to that platform,” Priebus said in an interview Monday on USA TODAY’s Capital Download video series. “But it doesn’t mean that we divide and subtract people from our party” who support the right of gay men and lesbians to marry.
“I don’t believe we need to act like Old Testament heretics,” he said, saying Republicans “have to strike a balance between principle and grace and respect.”
To an extent I agree. But when you strip off parts of the GOP machine to use, you bring the cancer into the new host.
The machine, from aides to secretaries is GOP. Thus every bit the problem. All the staffers are mercenary. They work for GOP this cycle, Dem the next.
All these unemployed people out there and we cannot find new blood?
The TEA LEAVES say that if you want low taxes you gotta’ go with the Evangelicals and Catholics or your taxes go up.
In fact it is flippin' miracle we are still here!
well I’ve got news for Reince. I don’t have to respect anything I find abhorent. And rightg now I find the entire republican establishment abhorent. Got an email today from the RNC wondering where my four figure donations have gone. I told them to check with Reince.
I agree. Doesn't make permanent Democrat rule (at least for my lifetime) feel any better.
Situational ethics do not concern a principled people. Did Washington consider what would happen if the Revolution failed and what the colonists would have got? No He chose to stand on principle and won a country.
We can’t even pull a lever without ‘feeling’ our way through the process.
The big problem has been consultants ~ mercinaries ~ don't hire them.
Agree. This CAN be done. All I see is a history of “We Can’t” from many corners. Self fulfilling prophecy.
Repubs did it to the Whigs. It has happened time and again across history. We just lack the will.
Alas, Mitt Romney wasn't hiring Virgians, nor Asian Americans, nor was he interested in campaigning. Besides, he let his crowd cheat us out of a meaningful primary.
So much for that. They were not interested in Romney though.
Hell, we had posters here listing nothing but vicious attacks against others favorites and not posting arguments to support their own candidates....some of the nastiest crap I've ever seen her on FR
Maybe I shouldn't even be posting right now, don't want to be negative and a drag, but I think the whole thing should just collapse, let's get it over with and start the fight to rebuild it the way it was meant to be, vis a vie The Constitution!
Lincoln himself was a Whig railroad lawyer. Just in case you wondered how it was as President during a great Civil War he still had time to worry about a Transcontinental Railroad ~ that was a piece of cake for him ~ he knew the answers and the issues cold.
There you go. Proof positive the people can be found. Now multiply you and them by 57 states.
No former state/Fed lifer staff, no more retread/failed candidates with baggage of their own making. Give voters SOMETHING they can believe in without tying their conscience and cognitive abilities into knots and watch what happens. The TEA party proved whats possible in 2010. Then the GOP took it over.
Huckabee won’t leave the Repub. Party because there is no other place for him to go. He will do just as Republicans did this time and vote for a liberal Republican who supports gays and in 2016 that will include approval of gay marriage.
You support individual candidates that reflect your views. You’re just no longer beholden to the GOP elite’s Rino Plantation anymore. We’re always ripping dems and black dems for staying on the liberal plantation, well we have our own plantation and the Rinos know it by their “where else ya gonna go?” mantra they throw at us while openly mocking and denigrating conservatives. No more. No more holding the nose.
If that’s a Tea Party guy, a proven conservative Republican, or a constitutionalist party guy who has momentum, or a independent who’s conservative but doesn’t want the “R” label, then you support them. And try to get others to vote for them. And if you are in bizarro county and you have a conservative democrat candidate like a Zell Miller - who gave the best speech at a GOP convention - running against a Rino, you vote for the conservative democrat - as long as they stay conservative.
This means the Republicans learn we are not just going to vote for them because they have an “R” next to their name. Lip service doesn’t cut it. Empty campaign promises never intended to be followed through on - ex. “WE WILL REPEAL OBAMACARE” - aren’t going to cut it. One speech for the conservatives, one for moderates and one for liberals they hope to vote for them, that ain’t going to cut it. Swinging hard to the right to get the nomination, then doing the “reset” and moderating for everyone else, ain’t going to cut it.
We have to get off our own plantation. We have to recognize we’re ON a Rino plantation in the first place. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t see there’s a problem to solve.
We’ve put far, far too much UNDESERVED FAITH in the Republican party. Far too much. They are just people. Many are just politicians putting fingers in the air basing their views on the latest polls. Cleaning house means abandoning the notion an “R” gets an automatic vote from us.
If the country is on the way out anyway, why not vote your conscience? Why keep the Rinos in power who wouldn’t try to stop the democrats? Get people in there who actually would attempt something. Like minded people would have a better chance to work together, be it independents, conservative republicans, tea party newbies, conservative demcrats with a working conscience, etc. We know what we get with Rinos steering the ship. We get what we’ve had the last 4 years. We get platitudes. We get big ideas and big words and little to no action. We get never-intended-to-be-fulfilled campaign promises. We get tough talk, but cave-in after cave-in after cave-in.
We’ve been on our own Rino plantation. It’s time to say goodbye and seriously look at the best conservative candidate from wherever, and back them to winning at the ballot box.
“I can’t stand Huckabee, but when he’s right, he’s right.”
I do, mostly, like Mike, and when he’s right, he’s really right.
The GOP will lose me forever IF they start being pro-homosexual. I don’t like it that someone who is openly homosexual can even call themselves Republican. I think they should be clearly told they are NOT WELCOME. Big Tents are only good for a circus. Create a Big Tent GOP and you will get a circus.
My point was the Repubs took them out. I’ll defer to you on the rest. And we can do to them what was done to the Whigs.
If it takes a collapse, so be it. Better than life under Soviet liberal rule.
And if republicans join in the passge of expanded gun control laws, 2nd amendment voters walk.
Then what is left of the republican party might just as well admit they are nothing more than a wholly owned subsidiary of the democrat party.
Once they get out of the way conservatives can set about building a true opposition party.
“Hell, we had posters here listing nothing but vicious attacks against others favorites and not posting arguments to support their own candidates....some of the nastiest crap I’ve ever seen her on FR.”
You are right, and I’m ashamed I was part of that (except I don’t regret opposing Romney...I knew he was a loser all along). I especially regret bad mouthing Rick Perry. He is looking mighty good to me now.
Those whose ‘attacks’ were grounded in conservative principles have nothing to be ashamed of. A primary was never intended to be a sweet 16 lovefest.
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