Posted on 10/21/2014 8:11:17 AM PDT by e-gadfly
The Supreme Courts recent decision not to take up challenges to state amendments banning same-sex marriage has had two significant effects it has expanded marriage to 30 states and reignited the political conversation around marriage equality in the 2014 midterms. Since 2011, I have worked with Project Right Side to help Republican leaders navigate a radically changing electorate on the freedom to marry. While public acceptance of marriage equality has steadily increased, this moment may ultimately be looked upon as the point where Republican opposition to marriage equality began to fall in earnest.
According to a recent poll of Republicans I conducted on behalf of Project Right Side, for every Republican that said they have become more opposed to same-sex marriage over the last five years, two have become more supportive of it. In fact, in just the last three years alone, there has been an eleven point increase in Republican support for marriage rights for same-sex couples; and a seven point drop in those opposed to legal recognition.
More congressional Republicans support marriage equality, eight in total, than ever before. And this year alone, there are ten Republican candidates, five challengers, and five incumbents that support the freedom to marry.
Monica Wehby, the Republican Senate candidate in Oregon, is prominently running an ad featuring the endorsement of a gay man saying shell fight for every Oregon family, including mine. At 51 years old, Wehby stands on the Republican fault line for marriage support. Republican opposition to marriage equality is heavily concentrated among those older than 50 whereas a majority (52 percent) of Republicans under 50 support same sex marriage. Among even younger Republican voters, those under 30, support for marriage equality stands at 61 percent.
The Republican nominee in the Massachusetts race for Governor, Charlie Baker, describes being gay as no big deal in an ad featuring his gay, married brother. Bakers experience is emblematic of the key driver of growing support for marriage equality: knowing a gay person. According to a recent Marist poll, Americans who personally know someone who is gay are two times more likely to support marriage equality. And CBS polling shows that Americans are much more likely to know a gay person now (69 percent) than they were in 1993 (19 percent).
Clearly, the electoral math around the marriage issue is changing dramatically; while it formerly energized conservative opponents it is now doing more to motivate Democratic supporters. Using data from a Project Right Side Election Night survey of battleground states in 2012, Ive estimated that support for marriage equality netted Obama nearly 250,000 votes on Election Day in battleground states (he won those states by 504,422 votes). Without those votes Obamas winning margin would have been razor thin.
Whats encouraging is that these polling trends are leading many Republicans to rightly take action in advance of 2016. The Nevada Republican Party proactively removed language from their party platform on gay marriage. A recent Project Right Side poll that surveyed Nevada Republicans tested this change and found that a strong majority (61 percent) supported the partys removal of opposition to same-sex marriage from their platform; only 32 percent oppose it.
So what does this all mean for the forthcoming presidential campaign cycle? Karl Rove speculated that its not beyond the realm of possibility that the Republican Party will witness in 2016 a presidential candidate who supports same-sex marriage. One marriage supporter, Senator Rob Portman from Ohio, has even expressed interest in exploring a bid, and evidence exists that his stance would not be a hindrance in key presidential primary states.
In surveys Ive conducted among early state Republicans, there is a real willingness to embrace the freedom to marry. Among New Hampshire and Nevada Republicans there is actually plurality support for marriage rights. And while Iowa and South Carolina are not yet net supporters of the freedom to marry, my research shows that there is still robust support for LGBT friendly messaging and policies: 51 percent of Iowa Republicans agree that the government should stay out of the private lives of adults, including gays and lesbians, while 74 percent of South Carolina Republicans strongly agree that we should all follow the Golden Rule and treat others as we would like to be treated, including gays and lesbians.
While a good deal of work remains to be done among Republicans, the last few years have seen enormous progress. The freedom to marry movement stands at an historic moment in time and its clear that Republican officials in Washington and candidates on the campaign trail are poised to play a major role in gaining greater acceptance for same-sex marriage.
Are you still here?
I thought you got the zot years ago.
You can move on if you want to. As for us conservatives - we will NEVER accept pro-fag marriages.
Huh. You ARE a troll.
Buh-bye.
They’ll get such a nominee without me.
“You will not have to worry about gay marriage or abortion if we have Sharia Law. WE HAVE LOST THIS battle.”
Regardless of whether or not gays can claim to be “married”, the battle which we must not lose is to restore the balance of power between the federal judiciary and the states.
If we acquiesce to federal circuit court judges overturning state constitutions and voters we will inevitably end up with the King James Bible being classified as “hate speech” and eventually full-blown Sharia law.
Are you serious? Move to a state where gay marriage is not allowed?
And then wait while black robed thugs OVERTURN your state laws and LEGALIZE it? You do realize that is happening right now, don’t you?
Girl, you are no conservative. Values matter most.
Indeed, how many GOP candidates are out and about decrying what has happened in Houston, in Idaho, etc.? Thirty years ago, any politician worth his salt would grab a hold of such incidents and raise holy hell over such fascistic attacks and losses of freedom.
Of course, thirty years ago, you also had Republicans who’d give endless speeches against judicial activism, in favor of family values, and standing up for states rights. Yet, last week, all three issues intersected via the Courts, in one of the most egregious examples I’ve seen in my lifetime, and only a scant few (Cruz, Huckabee) even managed to address it.
The Republican Party seems to stand for nothing nowadays. Totally devoid of spines.
Yep. As I move through the replies on this thread - I see a zot coming.
But if e-gadfly gets the zot, then so shoud Hildy and Gerorgia Girl and others who agree with him that fag marriages are now OK..
Wait till some liberal judge strikes down age of consent laws using the same “logic” to strike down gay marriage.
Fag this, fag that...sheesh, don’t you homos ever get tired of pontificating about what you do in your bedrooms and how the rest of us just need to not only embrace it but support and celebrate it?
GTH already...so sick and tired of fags...you’re abnormal...you have a deviant sexual desire...your deviant sexual proclivities are what DEFINE you, nothing else.
I won’t ever accept it let alone anything else with regards to HOMOSEXUALITY.
Homosexual because there’s nothing gay about it.
This person who has this opinion must live in the liberal republican bubble. I don’t why this thread even should be allowed here. Its seems like someone is advocating for this. Romney was in support and did so by rewriting marriage from one man and one woman to 2 people having some protections under the law to be recognized as a legal marriage. He didn’t win. People were repulsed by this. So, they can try another candidate and the base will not put the stamp of approval on that candidate. It’s not marriage. It’s not gay friendly. It’s a homosexual behavior. Can’t we get away from the political correct cover, it’s not normal to the majority of human beings. I will never accept that as marriage. There’s a lot of violent behavior in the same homosexual community which is again covered up by this media. Have you ever seen a 59 year old man chase down a 17 year old boy. I have. The liberalism of these republicans of wanting to be liked by their oppositions are truly dangerous for the society as a whole. You will Never. Ever. Change God’s law. Not happening. No man has a right to change the moral compass that was already given from a higher authority. Who gives this author the right to be all powerful over others. His law is right. God’s law is wrong. You can’t have it both ways. This is indoctrination of acceptance by those who Decide to do this and to those who want their loved ones to be accepted. These people want their self worth (by accepting these choices of their actions) validated. The courts can force man’s law on paper, it won’t work.
None of this addresses *WHY* Homosexuality is becoming popular.
It is fine to talk about polls, but you need to get to the root underlying problem which is driving the polls. What is driving the polls is homosexual propaganda disguised as entertainment and piped into millions of households every day.
Politics are downstream from culture, and what is rotting the culture is the Perverts in Hollywood who create this propagandatainment.
If Hollywood (and New York) were devoting as much time to rehabilitating the image of Satan Worshipers, we would be seeing a spike in the popularity of Satanism.
It’s an election year.
We will see the trolls in droves.
Georgia Girl, my state of Virginia used to be one of those where homo marriage wasn’t allowed, and I couldn’t imagine otherwise. But, thanks to judicial tyranny and the stifling of the will of the people, it now IS allowed. My “governor” has made it known that all queers will be able to adopt children. Last week, my Sunday paper was a celebration of perversion-—the entire front section was made up of color pictures of deviants getting “married.”
You can’t outrun what’s happening to this country. The Founders never could have imagined a world so mired in a moral sewer that it would allow two men or two women to “marry”, or that would allow women to kill their babies at will.
I don’t know about the average American household, but here in mine, those things matter even more than fiscal issues.
Crispy fried troll on sale at aisle 3.
You might also consider that what you see is a cultural trend being forced down the throat of an otherwise supine public. It isn't a good thing.
This is like saying we lost our oxygen tank, so let's just continue swimming without it. I've got news for you missy, if you let them get away with this, you will also let them get away with the next thing, and the next thing and the next thing, and pretty soon you are in a concentration camp because you have lost it all.
This is all connected together. The same power that shoved this down our throats is going to keep shoving things down our throats until we are dead.
What is going on here is that wealthy liberals who are both sickly perverted and who posses heavy influence in Hollywood have been pumping propaganda into the nation's conscious for many many decades, and it is slowly warping the nation's mind towards insanity.
They are going to use that weapon on other issues too, and I kid you not, *IT IS A WEAPON* meant to kill us.
Go not meekly into the camps. We have sufficient force to overwhelm the guards, and only by fighting back do we have any hope for survival.
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