Gay marriage remains divisive issue, but only for Republicans

By Nathan Rothwell 

It’s astounding how quickly one’s views can change when the issue hits a little closer to home.

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), at one point considered a frontrunner for the Republican vice presidential nomination in 2012, recently penned an editorial coming out in favor of marriage equality in an Ohio newspaper.

Once an opponent of same-sex marriage rights, Portman changed his views upon learning that his son is gay. In Portman’s words, learning this “prompted him to consider the issue from another perspective: that of a dad who wants all three of his kids to lead happy, meaningful lives with the people they love, a blessing [Portman’s wife] Jane and I have shared for 26 years.”

Portman deserves to be commended for valuing his son’s wishes, as well as the wishes of others, enough to reconsider his antiquated views. However, he went on to add another passage of note:

“British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he supports allowing gay couples to marry because he is a conservative, not in spite of it. I feel the same way. We conservatives believe in personal liberty and minimal government interference in people’s lives. We also consider the family unit to be the fundamental building block of society. We should encourage people to make long-term commitments to each other and build families, so as to foster strong, stable communities and promote personal responsibility.”

I found this quote particularly interesting. One would think that the notion of marriage equality would appeal directly to American conservatives for this very reason. Champions of small government and personal liberty have a difficult time arguing that it is in fact okay for government to be large enough to tell us who we can marry, and only grant the personal liberty to do so if our chosen partners fall within the appropriate, government-sanctioned definition of “marriage.”

Nevertheless, some conservative leaders still attempt to do so, dressing their bigotry up as their own arguments for freedom.

"Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in the traditional way does not make me a bigot," said Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to the Conservative Political Action Conference last Thursday. In short, it’s not that Rubio and others want to prevent marriage equality; they’re simply opposed to the federal government telling states what to do.

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I'll point out that a similar argument was once made in defense of slavery. The same defense was also used decades ago to oppose desegregation and interracial marriage.  When the right of marriage becomes a right of every American, regardless of sexual orientation, Rubio’s words will seem just as silly as they did in defense of slavery and segregation.

Portman’s editorial speaks to how silly it is that social issues are part of the conservative cause in the first place.  Opposition to issues such as gay marriage and abortion are deeply rooted in religious beliefs, and Republicans have cynically made these issues part of their platform for decades in order to bring single-issue voters into their fold.  As history marches forward, and the LGBT community becomes fully welcomed into American society, Republicans are quickly finding that their opposition to gay marriage earns them fewer and fewer votes.

This reality will take center stage as the Supreme Court is set to rule later this month on whether states can impose bans on same-sex marriage. As is the reality that gay people are all around us. They are our parents, our children, our relatives, and our dear friends. When this became clear to Rob Portman, he reevaluated his views and came to the only logical conclusion. I hope that every Republican comes to know that they have a gay relative or friend, or are perhaps gay themselves, and are forced to reexamine the issue with the knowledge that they can't deny rights to people who they know and love.

Truth be told, whether they know it or not… they probably already do.

(This article has been updated to reflect that Senator Portman's first name is Rob, not Ron).

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Ex-Head of Florida GOP testifies that some party officials discussed suppressing black votes

One would hope that this really wasn't the topic of conversation that Republican party officials, or any party official at any level of government would be discussing in 2012, much less on the state level. But, according to Jim Greer, the former Florida Republican Party Chairman, it happened.


 (Florida News 10 WTSP report )

Greer had resigned facing pressures from within his own party in January 2010. It was at this time that Greer said he signed a severance package agreement with the party amounting to $130,000. Greer never received what he says he was promised, and later filed a lawsuit against the party and two officials, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and Sen. John Thrasher.  However, Greer is also facing possible criminal charges for corruption, stemming from his creation of Victory Strategies LLC, which made $200,000 from the party while Greer was Chairman. The result of all of this is a 630 page deposition, the testimony of Greer, who describes the turmoil in the months leading up to his resignation. He in fact, documents the split in the party that occurred as the right wing of the state party clashed with Greer over their support of Marco Rubio. According to Salon:

Joe the Plumber uses Holocaust to justify unrestricted gun laws

Cross-posted from Spin and the Media

 

If only the Armenians and Jews had guns, they could have defended themselves from genocide. This is the ridiculous claim Samuel Wurzelbacher makes in his new ad. "Joe the Plumber," made infamous by the McCain campaign and the mainstream media in the 2008 election season, is running as a Republican in Ohio's 9th district. The video reinforces American exceptionalism, uber-Bush-era style patriotism and the idea that Obama wants to "take away our guns."

Santorum Suspends Campaign

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced he was suspending his campaign at a press conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His exit from the campaign all but assures that Mitt Romney will be challenging Barack Obama for the presidency in November.

It's unclear why he picked today as the day to step aside, although a look at the polls in his home state offer a clue. According to Public Policy Polling, Romney was leading Santorum in the polls among likely Pennsylvania voters by a score of 42 to 37 percent. Many people argued that Romney's campaign would not survive if he could not win his home state of Michigan, so perhaps Santorum saw the doom facing his own political future if he couldn't win in Pennsylvania.

Health is not a moral issue

I am proud to call Missouri my home. I’ve lived here practically my entire life. Yet it seems that at nearly every turn, our state’s leaders are all too happy to paint a black eye on the state and embarrass us in front of the rest of the nation.

No one is worse than Senator Roy Blunt. Recently, Blunt made headlines by attempting to push an amendment to the Affordable Care Act through Congress that would allow any employer to refuse coverage to employees for any health service if the employer morally objects to it.

This came in response to a federal regulation that requires employers and insurers to provide contraception to employees as part of their health care plans. Even though contraception is a legitimate and useful part of preventative health care (such as preventing the formation of ovarian cysts, for example), leaders in the Catholic community insisted that making such treatment available amounted to “the rape of the soul.”

The Obama administration devised a practical compromise. If a religious employer morally objected to providing contraception as part of a health care plan for its employees, it would be exempted from the requirement. Employees could still obtain free contraception, however, directly from the insurer who administered the employer’s health care plan. Everyone wins – employees retain access to the best health-care options available, and religious zealots don’t have to have their souls raped (whatever that means).