Yesterday former Republican National Committee Chairman and Bush campaign chief Ken Mehlman publicly announced he was gay. That doesn't particularly interest me -- it's his business and it wasn't the world's most closely guarded secret -- but it has occasioned some commentary on the Republican Party and conservative movement that is interesting.Please read on . . .
Antle is right about how plainly responsive electoral opposition to homosexual activism has been.
2 comments:
"Responsive" in a very limited sense, perhaps.
The reality is that, for most of the gay marriage fuss over the past decade, the conservative movement blew court rulings that had effect only in particular states into an electoral issue in areas almost certain to remain untouched by them. (With courts in New York rejecting pro-gay marriage legal challenges, did anyone in, say, Tennessee really need to worry about them?) I think it would be wrong to call the effort entirely cynical - some conservatives really do just think the gays are so insidious that they could somehow have turned Tennessee into the Castro - but it's naive to ignore how the issue was turned into a get-out-the-vote mechanism for Republicans.
More to the point, regardless of what caused the push against gay marriage, the rhetoric used against gay marriage proponents has consistently dipped into, if not wallowed in, harshly anti-gay territory. Look at such latter day efforts as Prop 8, where the advertising push that really moved poll numbers in favor was of the "They want to indoctrinate your children!" variety.
Personally, I find it hard to get upset about it. Public sentiment is rapidly turning in favor of gay marriage, and the more "masked" arguments against it -- see Ross Douthat's recent efforts, for instance -- aren't really less odious despite being less overt. But the facts are the facts, and the conservative movement spent most of the 00's crudely slandering LGBT citizens.
Always appreciate your thoughtful comments. I'll respond later when I'm not thumb typing.
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