Posted on 04/03/2012 7:28:59 AM PDT by xzins
As the nation faces a crucial election in a little over six months, the Republican Party appears to be caving in on a social issue that many conservatives consider of major import: same-sex marriage. What the GOP felt strongly enough about some 16 years ago to lead the fight for passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), many members are beginning to consider an issue open to compromise. Not only do many Republican House and Senate members consider gay marriage a dead issue, according to Politico.com, but Republican leadership has evolved to the point that it has quietly worked behind the scenes to kill amendments that reaffirm opposition to same-sex unions, the politics website reported.
The change, of course, has nothing to do with personal convictions, but much to do with political expediency, as party functionaries fine-tune their agenda to attract a demographic that has been conditioned to tolerate and even embrace homosexuality as normal. While the GOP certainly cannot match the Democrats in their fawning attitudes toward the gay lobby, there has nonetheless been an evolution in the political approach and an acknowledgment of a cultural shift in the country, Politicos Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer write. Same-sex relationships are more prominent and accepted. There are more gay public figures including politicians and its likely that many Washington Republicans have gay friends and coworkers. Just as important theres also a libertarian streak of acceptance on peoples sexuality coursing through the House Republican Conference.
All of that adds up to an increasing number of conservative politicians jettisoning concern over the nations moral slide of which tolerance for homosexuality is a symptom in favor of a more pragmatic approach to their political positions. Representative Allen West (R-Fla.) demonstrated this evolving GOP mindset when he said, as quoted by Politico: I personally have deep convictions about my children having a financially stable country that they can live in. I want my daughters to have the opportunities that I had, and thats what concerns me. Thats what keeps me up awake at night, not worrying about whos sleeping with who.
Even lawmakers who are committed to protecting traditional marriage concede that the fight for family values is much more challenging than it used to be. Representative Dan Burton (R-Ind.), who sponsored the Marriage Protection Act of 2011, said that while he thinks defending traditional marriage is tied to the stability of the nation as a whole, the attention of many voters is presently fixated on the economy and getting America moving in a positive direction economically. I dont know that peoples opinions have changed that much, he told Politico, but what I think has happened is that people realize the dire straits this country has been in and they think we better deal with that before we get back to the social issues.
Representative Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) noted that things have changed drastically since 1994, when President Bill Clinton introduced the Dont Ask, Dont Tell compromise for homosexuals serving in the military. Its been realized that back in 94, you could jump up on the House floor and pound your chest about [gay issues], and secure a good voter intensity, which you cant do anymore, Kingston told Politico.
It is clear that GOP strategists are beginning to switch their focus to a younger voter demographic. According to recent polls, 31 percent of self-identified Republicans now say they support same-sex marriage. But among 18-34-year-olds overall, that number jumps to nearly 70 percent.
One candidate who may be the beneficiary of such a sea change is GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. While happy to capitalize on his moral Mormon roots, in reality the former Massachusetts Governor has always been about compromise, and the issue of homosexuality offers a prime example.
As reported by CNSNews.com, when Romney first ran for political office in 1994, challenging Ted Kennedy for his U.S. Senate seat, he set his sights on one of Kennedys most faithful constituencies, Massachusetts gay community. When a reporter for Bostons Bay Windows homosexual newspaper asked the Republican candidate why gays should support him when Ted had always been a dependable pro-homosexual politician, Romney complimented the Democratic stalwart on that record, but suggested that he would do better, and that homosexuals could use a good lobbyist in the Republican Party.
Theres something to be said for having a Republican who supports civil rights in this broader context, including sexual orientation, Romney told the homosexual newspaper. When Ted Kennedy speaks on gay rights, hes seen as an extremist. When Mitt Romney speaks on gay rights, hes seen as a centrist and a moderate. Its a little like if Eugene McCarthy was arguing in favor of recognizing China, people would have called him a nut. But when Richard Nixon does it, it becomes reasonable. When Ted says it, its extreme; when I say it, its mainstream.
Romney added, I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican party and I would be a voice in the Republican party to foster anti-discrimination efforts.
Such a voice out of Romneys mainstream past makes him sound like just the man for the Republican Partys new, updated image. It should also prompt true conservatives to pray fervently against his election in November.
They are caving on all their principles by nominating Romney
Tagline...
ping
Your tagline tells a simple truth. Thanks.
Yes. Romney is a liberal.
I cannot see myself in the same party as Mitt Romney.
The GOP is caving on critical social issues. Has been for years.
Want proof? Look at the campaign for president. All the SoCons are gone. Palin, Bachmann, Cain, Perry, Newt and now Santorum....
Gone.
Instead we are told to shut up on these issues and focus on the economy. Or focus on getting Obama defeated. Or whatever.
But the bottom line is this. There is little to no difference between the Dems and the RINO’s on economic and spending issues. And health care? Puh-leaze. We are gonna be stuck with Romneycare or Obamacare. That’s like asking what type of poison do you want in your Kool-Aid? Strychnine or cyanide?
No.. the ONLY reason to vote the GOP ticket has been for social and moral issues. And if (since) the Repubs have waffled on those basic fundamental issues, then we are doomed.
Politico does not get to define Republicanism.
Yes, they seem to be caving in to everything.
I’ve slowly but surely been coming to the conclusion that my lifelong and exclusive support/allegiance to the GOP (finely honed in the era of Reagan) is rapidly approaching an end-point.
They just get to quote republicans. The republicans are defining themselves.
Well, no, but they sure have mountains of political ammunition to use against them when the Republicans constantly violate the core principles of republicanism.
Yep. Mine too.
The republican party went liberal, and I didn’t buy a ticket.
Romney didn’t just “compromise” on gay marriage. He was the gay marriage pioneer. He was the first. He set the example, which other states and other Republicans then followed.
The Massachusetts supreme court instructed the legislature that they had to pass a gay marriage bill. The legislature did nothing. But Romney stepped in and singlehandedly mandated gay marriage, threatening to fire any clerk in the state who refused to perform the ceremony.
Romney is the gay marriage pioneer. Also the socialist health takeover pioneer. And he nominated plenty of Communist judge whilel he was governor. And he was strongly pro-abortion.
He was the taxpayer funded “kill the baby for your health” pioneer, too.
Anyone who thinks I am going to vote for Romney OR Obama is sadly mistaken. And I think the same will be true of millions of other voters who still know the difference between right and wrong. No on Obama, no on romney, period.
If “spineless rats” lead the party then YES they will cave
I do not dispute the problem of the Republican Party potentially caving on homosexuality and more broadly on moral values. This is serious and it's been a dangerous trend for some time. We're seeing some of that right here on Free Republic with people arguing, contrary to the purpose of Free Republic, that conservative principles do not include a focus on God and basic morality. I've watched the rise of the “gay Republican” movement now for nearly thirty years and the simple fact of that matter is a significant number of conservative Republicans are closeted or quiet homosexuals who agree with the rest of the Republican agenda on economic issues. My attitude is to take their votes and refuse their offers to help in leadership roles, but lots of Republicans have become accommodated to the idea of homosexuality based on their experiences working with known homosexuals.
However, how many of us remember what the Republican Party was like in the late 1960s, most of the 1970s, and (in many states) well into the 1980s? Can any of us seriously argue that the Republican Party has not moved considerably to the right in accepting support from evangelical Protestants and conservative Roman Catholics?
We also need to consider the source. The New American “is published by American Opinion Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of The John Birch Society.” Link here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/about
That doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong, but their perspective needs to be taken into account just as if we were reading something from FOX News, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, or the New York Times.
Principle, and the U.S. Constitution take a back seat when it comes to just getting elected.
That's how we got stuck with Romney-the-RINO (although I will NEVER vote for another RINO, period).
The DimRats and the GOP
are 'merely'
two sides of the same
good-cop/bad-cop charade of the globalist puppet masters
http://twoday.net/static/omega/files/quotes_from_people_who_consider_us_subjects.htm
29."The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self createdscreen....At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties." New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922
33."For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the United States. But, he didn't. Most of his thoughts, his political ammunition, as it were, were carefully manufactured for him in advanced by the Council on Foreign Relations-One World Money group. Brilliantly, with great gusto, like a fine piece of artillery, he exploded that prepared "ammunition" in the middle of an unsuspecting target, the American people, and thus paid off and returned his internationalist political support.
"The UN is but a long-range, international banking apparatus clearly set up for financial and economic profit by a small group of powerful One-World revolutionaries, hungry for profit and power. "The depression was the calculated 'shearing' of the public by the World Money powers, triggered by the planned sudden shortage of supply of call money in the New York money market....The One World Government leaders and their ever close bankers have now acquired full control of the money and credit machinery of the U.S. via the creation of the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank." Curtis Dall, FDR's son-in-law as quoted in his book, My Exploited Father-in-Law
39."The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical. What the Trilateral Commission intends is to create a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nationstates involved. As managers and creators of the system ,they will rule the future." U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater in his l964 book: With No Apologies.
40."The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds' central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups." Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time (Macmillan Company, 1966,) Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown University, highly esteemed by his former student, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton.
37."Today the path of total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by the Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system, another body representing another form of government - a bureaucratic elite." Senator William Jenner, 1954
66."At the old Inter-American Office in the Commerce Building here in Roosevelt's time, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs under President Truman, as chief whip with Adlai Stevenson and TomFinletter at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco, Nelson Rockefeller was in the forefront of the struggle to establish not only an American system of political and economic security but a new world order." Part of article in The New York Times (November 1975)
82.The Ango-American Establishment "There is... an inner core of intimate associates who unquestionably knew that they were members of a group devoted to a common purpose and an outer circle of a larger number on whom the inner circle acted by personal pursuasion, patronage distribution, and social pressure. It is probable that most members of the outer circle were not conscious that they were being used by a secret society." Tragedy and Hope 1966 "Their aim is nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole." Carrol J. Quigley Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, Bill Clinton's mentor
92."Humanity is not following a haphazard or uncharted course -- there is a Plan." Who are these "World Servers" "They provide the vision and mould public opinion... The New Group of World Servers has... servers of humanity in every country... They know exactly what they seek to do. They... emphasize the brotherhood of nations, the unity of faith, and economic interdependence... They can be regarded as the embodiment of the emerging kingdom of God on earth." "This kingdom is not a Christian kingdom... it is a grouping of all those who -- belonging as they do to every world religion and every nation and race and type of political party -- are free from the spirit of hatred and separativeness." World Goodwill New Group of World Server
97.....to "invoke" the New Age Interview in Meditation Said Harmonic Convergence Day began a five-year "plan" to purify the Earth and prepare for the coming New Age kingdom. Civilization must be "destructured." "Helping to bring about the new day on earth, would be the establishment of an international `mediarchy'" promoted by globalist activists already in place in the news media - TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, computer networks, etc. Says it is mankind's destiny to "surrender to the higher intelligence that rules the planet." Crystal Earth Papers Says that chaotic events will result in the replacement of current governmental and political structures. New values will be instituted for mankind, including cooperation, collaboration, and unification on behalf of the "Spirit of the Earth." During 1997-2002 will be a time known as the "Era of Reseeding." Major population areas will be thinned-out. "The human population will be resettled, while the care of the planet will be entrusted to shamanic exercises." Industrial civilization will be done away with. UN personnel will develop plans for economic battalions to redistribute the wealth of the world. "Jose Arguelles professor of art at a New Mexico university, mastermind of World Harmonic Convergence Day August 16-17, 1987
110."There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton, former chief of staff, The New York Times, in a 1953 speech before the New York Press Club
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/009/cuddy/1-power-elite.htm
Berit's comment: These historical facts are not included in American social studies! But it's not too late to take a look at the roots and rulers behind today's political, economic, cultural and spiritual transformation. These handpicked leaders were chosen and groomed for their future roles as single-minded, pragmatic globalist change agents. According to their strengths and ideological compliance, they are placed where they're needed -- in banks, the media, U.S. Congress, government bureaucracies, etc. They despise our faith and values! In recent decades, potential young leaders have been brought together to be trained and tested at every UN Conference and many other global events.
1883: What part has Skull & Bones played in our elections? Professor Carroll Quigley was President Clinton's mentor, and in Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World In our Time the professor revealed that William C. Whitney (S&B) and others, in the late 19th century, developed a plan to control both major political parties through financial contributions and have the two main parties alternate power so the public would think it had a choice.[7] Professor Quigley said Whitney's plan lasted about 16 years, and after that, the "Eastern Establishment" (power elite) moved the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates toward the political center:
1891: Cecil John Rhodes organized a secret society to take control of the world. His mentor at Oxford University was John Ruskin. Ruskin has a swastika engraved on his gravestone, just as Rhodes Trust member Rudyard Kipling has on the covers of his early books.[11] Prior to Adolph Hitler, the swastika, which reportedly also has been seen at the S&B vault at Yale University, was an elitist symbol. In an apparent contradiction, John Ruskin referred to himself as a Tory and a Communist. [12]However, one must realize that the elite have no qualms about working with both the political left and the political right, with an ultimate goal of synthesizing them into a world socialist government.
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