Posted on 08/24/2010 10:06:19 AM PDT by TrueRightWing
When Bill Clinton moved to open the military to gays in 1993, the GOP and conservative Democrats led the effort to oppose gay rights. In 1996, Hawaii flirted with gay marriage and the GOP again led the charge against gay equality, culminating in the federal response known as the "Defense of Marriage Act".
Flash forward fourteen years to the present. Gay marriage is ruled a federal right for the first time and the response from the GOP is… tepid. Not one nationally prominent elected official thought the issue was important enough to get worked up over....
Complicating matters for social conservatives, polls show even a majority of Republican voters support abolishing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"....
The list of conservatives supporting gay equality is growing--from the many Republican appointed judges who have ruled in favor of various gay rights cases, to GOP Solicitor General Ted Olson, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and even the ultraconservative former Vice President Dick Cheney. Nowadays Margaret Hoover of Fox News sits on the board of GOProud alongside conservative Grover Norquist; and even Elisabeth Hasselbeck has come out in support of gay marriage rights...
What is happening to the GOP? First our elected officials tire of bashing gays and now our pundits? Perhaps Republicans are beginning to see the writing on the wall. Public opinion is changing rapidly in favor of gay marriage rights....
The religious right may be having a conniption, but younger Republicans increasingly appear to believe that opposing gay equality is inconsistent with a belief in increased liberty and smaller government. Although the religious right will continue to be a strong presence in the GOP for years to come, changing demographics are not on the side of anti-gay forces and the GOP appears to be awakening to this reality.
(Excerpt) Read more at frumforum.com ...
Spocial issues are hardly unimportant. What this shows is that the left controls the media and education and can change the opsotion of the populace. The GOP sees this and follows.
HomoPac ping ...
I think you’re right—that the GOP is and should be focused on the economic message.
I also don’t think the GOP cares about this issue much. I suspect they look at the way the people are already voting against gay marriage, and then how the judges rule, and they don’t see a place for themselves in this fight. What are they going to do about it? Anything they say will allow the Dems to call them haters, which makes the middle uncomfortable and might lose GOP momentum.
I think they’re looking at the prevailing winds in terms of voting and know they’ve already got the support they’re going to get from folks on this issue, in this cycle. I suspect many people who vote against the issue do so without telling people; the defeats have been rather lopsided.
And the RNC certainly doesn’t seem to care about this issue, probably because they suspect how many gays are part of their country club set. Very Rockefeller Republican—moderate to liberal on social issues, caring only for tax cuts for themselves and their pals, and low-cost labor.
They may also be looking at the generational split in the vote, and positioning themselves accordingly. Getting in front of an oncoming parade and waving a baton is about the level of “leadership” they’re capable of.
That’s a good point. I think many folks here would be surprised at how to most young people gay marriage is no big deal, and strong opposition to it by the party could brand them the way opposition to abortion did. I am NOT saying I approve of this, merely observing what appears to be an inevitable truth—that gay marriage may be stopped for now, but I think its day is coming, and the gay rights bunch will move on to the next thing they’ll be bitching about.
Frum is all excited about our children being taught that anal sex is normal and natural.
From what I hear, the anus collapses after a while from sexual overuse and one has to use a bag (I don’t know the medical term for it) attached to them to go to the bathroom.
This is normal and natural?
I don't disagree. However, WE CAN DO BOTH! This is not an either/or. IMHO, this is a Trojan Horse for conservatives. A true conservative does not need to identify themselves separately (GOProud?) by what they perceive to be their sexual orientation. The mission of GOProud is decidedly non-conservative.
Bad analogy.
The issue here is getting voters to vote for you, or for your guy.
With both immigration AND gay "rights", these are the facts:
When presented with a choice on a ballot, and the right to vote "yes" or "no", the voters are on our side.
When presented with a candidate who makes immigration or gay "rights" an issue, they usually vote for the other guy.
Does it make sense? Not really. Is it accurate? You betcha.
The GOP is right not to allow gay "rights", specifically opposition to it, to be identified with them.
In that form, it's a loser.
In this election cycle it is.
Let's not forget the painful hemorrhoids requiring painful surgery leading up to the rectal prolapse, the genital warts, and the genital, oral or anal cancers.
What’s conservative anymore. Ann Coulter is hanging with the poofters. She’s a conservative, but I don’t get it just the same.
It would be so much simpler if we just called homosexuality what it is - a psychosexual syndrome or disorder.
At least we could try to study what causes it, have a telethon, and come up with a vaccine.
There isn’t a more important issue than fixing the judiciary. Republicans winning elections is meaningless of liberty is being stripped from the people by judges like Vaughn Walker.
Spot on. But you should know by now that 65% in favor of a conservative idea is "barely half", whereas 51% in favor of a liberal idea is "an overwhelming groundswell in favor of (fill in the atrocious perversion here)."
Moreover, public opinion thought Obama would be an acceptable president, too; but now that the public has more accurate information? Not so much.
If the public knew the truth about the gay life instead of these treacly "two daddies" propaganda pieces, the public would be 90% against the entire gay agenda.
TrueRightWing were you confused when you joined FR?
This is a CONSERVATIVE forum and from what I can tell all you’ve done in the few days you’ve been a member is push libertarianism especially militant homosexualism.
A conservative forum in the natural place for people who agree with Ann Coulter and Grover Norquist and Dick Cheney and David Frum and Ted Olson and....
Free Republic does not support or promote the homosexual agenda.
I’m writing Davis in.
(sigh) Ok, please explain your leap of logic to take my comment - "This is why I am no longer a Republican, but a conservative. Republicans and conservatives aren’t the same thing, anymore!!" - and arrive at "Good. Neither the political parties can count on your vote"?
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