Will Prop 8 and Gay Marriage Derail the GOP This November?

Just when the sputtering economy was seemingly presenting Republicans with the well-paved road to victory this November along comes Proposition 8 and gay marriage, the political equivalent of GOP crack. And these self-righteous morality junkies just can't get enough. They're addicted to guns, God and gays, as well as immigration and abortion, and relapse during every campaign they wage. Watch it be the death of them in the midterms as they embark on this diversionary homophobic witch hunt while 14-million Americans are unemployed and the poor and middle classes have been financially ravaged. To Republicans, It's the homo's, stupid! Can Karl Rove be far behind?

The economy is still facing unprecedented challenges, especially in the jobs market, as Friday's disappointing employment report indicated. But all the GOP has to offer voters are spending cuts on the lower and middle classes and huge tax cuts for the rich. It's the same old song. Nothing innovative. And not terribly popular with middle-America. Which is why it's so easy for them to lose focus and fall back into their comfortable hot-button social issues trap yet again.

Voters lapped up that polarizing rhetoric during the Bush/Cheney/Rove glory days. They astoundingly put aside their own financial interests and tapped their personal prejudices instead. While Republicans are predicting massive victory this year and a repeat of their "revolution" of 1994, that victory was fueled by New Gingrich's Contract with America which focused on issues that had broad popular support like welfare reform, term limits, tax cuts and balancing the budget. The Gingrich army didn't invade our bedrooms, as the current leadership is trying to do. And that will be political suicide. Voters are much more focused on economic issues this year, and any attempt to divert them away from their pocketbooks will be a disaster for the GOP.

On a completely different note, here's a little question for my Republican friends: how come Obama, who you label as the most liberal president in history, is against gay marriage? And, why would he appoint a Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagen, who's said there's no constitutional right to gay marriage? I'll be waiting for your answer....

 

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Comments

[JoeHilley]

02:45 PM on 08/10/2010

Every election cycle for the past forty years has seen Conservative Christians duped by Conservative politicians into equating the Gospel with the Republican Party agenda. Which puts Believers in the position of being pro-war, anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-healthcare, anti-care for the poor, pro-gun, and pro-death penalty - all of which is antithetical to the Gospel embodied by Jesus. We are creeping ever closer to an ethnic/ideological purge in the US and when it comes it will be led by the Right in the name of this toxic politco-religious soup.

[Dmacc502]

11:49 AM on 08/10/2010

This may surprise some of you, but I feel the majority of this country couldn't care less.

[OBroadhurst]

03:29 PM on 08/13/2010

So what?

[Nick Santiago]

01:26 AM on 08/10/2010

I really, really hope the GOP jumps on the anti-gay bandwagon and tries to make it a campaign issue for November. Maybe then the masses will see that they cling to any divisive issue they can to win votes while ignoring the REAL problems facing our nation.

The Tea Party has a very Libertarian slant and many of them are all about the government being small and staying out of the private lives of American's. I really think that if they try to recreate the 'hate momentum' that was so successful in the Bush/Cheney years that it will blow up in their face.

[bobo5]

10:27 AM on 08/10/2010

Republicans could invent a new issue. What about fraud marriages with gays for immigration purposes?
This will involve both gays and Mexicans.

[kaptaintripps]

11:11 PM on 08/09/2010

Will Prop 8 derail the rightious, Family Values, oh-so-pious GOP? We thinking Americans sure hope so!

[Contact1972]

12:49 AM on 08/10/2010

That's what I worry about---how many of us are actually thinking.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

07:29 PM on 08/09/2010

The economy is a two edged sword as most Americans who follow the news realize that the Republicans have deliberately obstructed recovery in hopes of raising their political fortunes.

Diversion, division and fear have traditionally worked in the past and the GOP will hang their hopes there again.

[FlexSF]

10:51 AM on 08/09/2010

May the careers, and the institutions, who have raised millions of dollars on the backs of the gays by exploiting sexism and homophobia go bankrupt. Anti-gay religious leaders, "family" research council, NOM, Focus on the "family," deserve their faces rubbed in their mile high pile of crap they've created.

Voting away our right to get married is a serious crime. They deserve all of the negativity that they have coming to them!

[Kenyatta J Yamel]

07:06 PM on 08/09/2010

Voting away gay rights is shameful. Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law.

[Jay Haney]

07:23 PM on 08/09/2010

Not just gays...anybody's. We've done that more than a few times in this country's history and we need to always be vigilant that we actually defends EVERYONE'S rights.