February 26, 2013
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The Times They Are A Changin’
Nearly eight and a half years ago George W Bush won reelection in large part because of his denouncement of gay marriage. In 2004, a wide majority of the country was against gay marriage. And an overwhelming majority of Republicans were against gay marriage. Bush won by getting the evangelical vote out to rally around gay marriage bans in states across the country. At that time, the false fear of two dudes kissing was worse than the very real potential of spending more time in Iraq. Back then, it seemed like we were light years away from gay marriage getting a majority support among Americans. And we seemed even further away from getting significant support from Republicans.
But that was nine years ago. Flash forward to now. It is said that the wheels of justice turn slowly, yet on the issue of gay marriage the wheels have started to move very quickly. A majority of Americans support gay marriage including the President of the United States who makes a point to mention gays in many of his most prominent speeches. We should not be surprised that Democrats support gay marriage. We should be surprised when Republicans do.
Today 75 prominent Republicans signed a brief supporting gay marriage. I was not surprised to see Jon Huntsman support gay marriage. I was not all that shocked to see that Christine Todd Whitman supported it. I was floored though to see that Meg Whitman is now supporting gay marriage even though when she ran for governor of California she supported Prop 8, the ban on gay marriage. What a stunning turn of opinions by her and some of these other 75 Republicans. I never thought that Republicans would start to support gay marriage so soon.
In theory Republicans should be for gay marriage. If you get back to the roots of what it means to be a Republican, the right for gays to marry should be a core belief. Republicans say they are for less government. They are supposed to be against government intrusion into our lives. They always claim to be against “the nanny state”. Yet when it came to gay marriage, they folded like a cheap tent on those core beliefs. They showed a remarkable lack of balls when it came to dealing with the religious right on this issue. Instead of telling them that while they want their votes, they can not be against gay marriage, they went right along with them in demonizing gays and fighting against gay marriage. Why? To get votes and get elected. It is nice to see that some of them are now finally starting to come out in support of what many of them probably always felt was right: gay marriage.
Of course a lot of this is political too. They got their asses kicked in November in part because they look like they are stuck in a different age. They needed to realize that not only is this not 1950 anymore, but it isn’t even 2004. Americans, especially younger Americans, no longer giver a shit about dudes kissing. America has moved past that, instead preferring to focus on things that actually matter like jobs and the economy. Republicans basically no longer have a choice to be against gay marriage and still remain relevant. Sure, gay marriage is not going to make or break them. But, refusing to change with the times on issues such as gay marriage and immigration and many other issues will make or break them, which is fine for liberals like me. But, we are at a crucial point when it comes to gay rights and achieving equality will be much easier with Republican support.
