Why Republicans Could Have A Pro-Gay Marriage Presidential Candidate In 2016 ZOT!

The Supreme Court’s 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 “she’ll 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. Baker’s 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, I’ve 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 Obama’s winning margin would have been razor thin.

What’s 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 party’s 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 it’s 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 I’ve 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 it’s 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.

Have you been following the events in Houston and Idaho? They are going after church pastors for their speeches or for not marrying gays. Should we surrender our first amendment rights too?

Once you surrender to the homo-Nazi movement we will have zero rights left. It will be very quickly followed by shutting down conservative and Christian radio, TV and websites that do not toe the line. This has become very very obvious.

Some FReepers thought the city of Houston would back down due to the backlash, they have not as I predicted they wouldn’t.

I wrote this response to one of those posts, but it applies to much much more than gays and stuff.

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It hasn?t backfired on her yet. This is not over.

With the left it is never over. They never give up.

Only ?our side? walks away and says ?Well, that?s that, let?s get a snack?

Meanwhile the left slithers back and keeps fighting while we are off trying to have a normal life again.

This is what they do.

They are just like the Borg in this regard. Remember what Picard said in that film?

?I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We?ve made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And *I* will make them pay for what they?ve done! ?

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Will we sacrifice America? We?ve made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They assimilate the cities, and we fall back. They assimilate whole states and we fall back.

Will we keep compromising? retreating? Or will we draw that line and say NO FURTHER, will we ever make them pay for what they?ve done?

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Because the people we call RINO?s won?t draw the line, they will continue to compromise, they will continue to retreat on issue after issue.

Boehner: Obamacare is the law of the land and it will be funded.

Scott Walker: Gay marriage is here to stay.

Jeb Bush: As President I would govern like LBJ

McConnell wants to punch us in the face, defund our candidates, undermine our candidates even if they win primaries. They?d rather see the BORG win elections than us who refuse to give the enemy what they want, eventually - just more gradually than the enemy wants it. They have no real quarrel with the Borg over the direction.

Annise Parker might be ?backing down? temporarily, but she isn?t. She is just changing her strategy not her goal, we should not breathe a sigh of relief and go on our merry way thinking the coast is clear and everything is roses now.

Maybe she isn?t a BORG. Maybe she is one of those Weeping Angels from ?Dr. Who?. Oh sure they stop moving when we shine the line on them, but as soon as we stop paying attention they are sucking our brains out.

Remember that this is not about Annise Parker, or the whole stinking city council of Houston. The people of Houston elected those NAZI?s, because they support them and they support their promises and goals. Or they don?t really care.

Look at what the people of Germany allowed in the 30?s. Look at what the whole cruel world allow to happen in the middle east for decades. Ask the children of Rotherham what happens when good men do nothing.

?Shocking and Shameful? it might be, but this is just one little footnote in the vast horrible tome of the -Isms. It is hardly any more ?shocking and shameful? than what has been taking place in this country and the whole freaking world for decades upon decades.

Millions of dead babies, molested children, mentally and physically. How many failed products of the government ?schools? are there now? Half the people in this country seem to have no idea there are such thing as right and wrong.

So-called ?churches? and ?moderates? want to negotiate and compromise with the great evil of the -Isms. Then they have to compromise down again and again until their is nothing left to surrender. A downward trend into hell.

In the 80?s when I grew up I thought there was a political party who was ?on my side?. Yes, I was a kid who saw the battle. I saw it in much more muted and simpler terms back then but I saw it. I saw a Champion of my side in Ronald Reagan.

But I haven?t seen it since. I hoped and tried to see it in others but they never had it. There were some smart ones, there were some who were great on this or that issue and even some who seemed to see it the same way I did but they were the ones who had no power and never would have. They never rose. Why?

Because the political party I thought aligned with me and my ideals was not. There aren?t any. They are as bought and sold as the Democrats, and they are even less idealistic. Some of them are Democrats with an R by their name, and others are the compromisers and surrenderers.

?Our side? hasn?t hardly begun to really identify the enemy, not really started to organize, and we are a long way from a real fight. But more and more, sure still too few -far too few- are recognizing that the Republican Party isn?t going to save us, and often it?s not really even on our side at all.

We have just began to wake up. Just starting to stir. I do not know what shape and form this will take but I don?t care as long as it is ready to do real battle.

The enemy has been gnawing away at everything that holds civilization together. The family, marriage, childhood, modesty, innocence, right and wrong, faith and even the concept of the self; our conscious.

They have faced very little resistance. They are like oil seeping through, every little crack they drip drip drip drip into us and into our society. Look at how long they fought to make abortion legal and common and now celebrated.
They started on the edges, in the shadows, oh look at those poor women, so abused... oh look at those poor homosexuals, so pushed into the closet...

And over time we compromised and negotiated, oh we don?t want abortion in unregulated dirty back alleys, let us make it legal, safe and rare... oh it?s just another choice, who are you to have an opinion on a private matter.... yes we do want it to be unregulated even if it is in a dirty back alley! The important thing was always dead babies.

But that was just one symptom. It all comes together at the end. Even if we had 2 pretend opposition groups they naturally saw what side was really what.

Productive people taxed into poverty, while those who don?t work are made better off by those taxes. Criminals celebrated while those who shoot the killers are vilified. Generations-old conflicts, race and every possible thing used to divide and conquer become causes. A once-free economy chained by regulations and government bailouts and debt.

On every single issue, we negotiated in good faith and fell back, we compromised and fell back, but they took more and more and more and we fell back.

And every time we had a tiny puny and very temporary ?victory? we would celebrate and say ?darn shame they tried that? and then we go home and try to live normal lives. While they, the evil, the -Isms, the enemies of civilization slithered back after we went home and retook their bases of power and started their evil work once again.
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Let us finally draw the line.

Let the battle be joined.

Even if we feel alone against the whole world let us stand tall and fight

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