Thursday, November 08, 2012

Why the GOP Needs to Stop Fighting Marriage Equality

As the prior post indicates, Martin O'Malley of Maryland has embraced the emerging demographics of the future even as the Republican Party has focused more and more on a dwindling pool of angry white men, many of who are far right Christian homophobes.  With each passing election cycle, more of the GOP's concentrated white base is literally dying off.  The ultimate outcome ought to be as obvious as was the fate of the Titanic once it was clear that 5 water tight compartments were open to the sea.  One of the areas where the GOP is severely alienating the up and coming younger generations is through the party virulent opposition to LGBT rights and same sex marriage in particular.  A piece in the Huffington Post looks at the case for the GOP jettisoning its homophobia - and the Christofascists along with it - if the party seeks a long term future.  Here are highlights:  

[H]ere's some free advice to Republicans: starting right now, get off the "traditional marriage" bus as fast as you can. If today's election showed anything, it's that the demographic tide is turning against you. Big time.

Betting against basic human rights is never good for posterity, but it's no longer even good politics.  You already know the story: marriage equality passed by ballot in all three states that considered it (Maine, Maryland and Washington). And a constitutional amendment seeking to ban same sex marriage was narrowly rejected in Minnesota. True, the vote in those three states was close, but they were all wins just the same.

And more important, these votes deprive you of your strongest talking points: no longer can you blame "activist" judges or "rogue" legislators. And people have figured out that marriage equality laws don't infringe on religious liberty because such laws don't have to force clergy to perform a same-sex ceremony.

And there's more bad news for you: all the polls indicate that younger people strongly support marriage equality. Put another way, the electorate is going to be even more supportive of marriage equality four years from now. And even more four years after that. The writing is no longer just on the wall -- it's in the ballot box.

When he signed the Civil Rights Act, Lyndon Johnson allegedly remarked that, "We have lost the South for a generation." But at least he was on the right side of history. That's not the situation you now face. Marriage equality isn't just right, it's good politics too.

Will the GOP take this advice?  Not likely.  Or at least not until GOP legislators and governors grow a spine and kick the likes of Tony Perkins, James Dobson and here in Virginia, Victoria Cobb, to the curb where they belong.

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