Millennial Republicans See Risk For Party In Gay Marriage Response
Millennial Republicans are urging GOP leaders to adopt an inclusive tone on gay marriage following last week's Supreme Court ruling.
They argue that combative rhetoric risks alienating a new generation of voters who could abandon Republican candidates over the issue.
Polling indicates the economy remains the most important issue on millennials minds. Republicans argue that young people leaving college and struggling to find jobs in a slow economic recovery will warm to their party’s message.
Polls show millennials are likely to favor gay marriage regardless of their political party.
Sixty-one percent of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 34 back gay marriage, according to a Project Right Side and American Unity Fund poll last month. That's 4 percentage points higher than the 57 percent support among all voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percentage points.
GOP strategists and pundits are calling on their candidates to be careful with the issue.
Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said he doesn’t expect “the 2016 Republican presidential nominee to be at a San Francisco gay pride parade.”
Still, he argued candidates should consider the views of millennial voters on gay rights seriously as they calibrate their positions.
Pennsylvania Just Legalized Same Sex Marriage And Rick Santorum Has Nothing To Say
On Tuesday afternoon, a conservative federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush struck down Pennsylvania’s same-sex marriage ban, ruling that prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause. “We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,” U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, concluded. A day later, Gov. Tom Corbett (R) — who is facing a tough re-election bid — announced he would not appeal the ruling, allowing Pennsylvania to become the 19th state, along with the District of Columbia, where same-sex couples can marry.
Any comment would prove undoubtedly awkward, since Judge Jones was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2002, at the urging of Santorum, who described him as “highly qualified to assume the important role of Judge and the duty of protecting the Constitution and ensuring the effective operation of our judicial system.” Still, politicians rarely allow consistency to get in the way of political expediency and Santorum had plenty of opportunities to express disappointment with his nominee.
But some Republican strategists suggest that Santorum’s choice to remain silent is indicative of the GOP’s decision to de-emphasize its rhetorical opposition to gay rights in an effort to attract younger and more moderate voters.
“The push for same-sex marriage nationally is moving much faster than many in the Republican Party, including Rick Santorum, ever thought it would,” Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told ThinkProgress. “And now the GOP is trying to internally rectify the changing landscape because their position hurts them primarily with voters under 40; those same voters they need in the tent if they want to win the White House in 2016.”
“Those running for President on the right side of the aisle recognize that until the Party is able to fully square itself with the changing times, it is best suited to at the minimum show respect for gay rights,” O’Connell said. By remaining silent, Santorum may be trying to do just that.
Gay marriage: Is GOP Tiptoeing Away From Opposition?
A great debate is going on within the Republican Party over how to handle one of the most sensitive social issues of modern times: the definition of marriage.
Supporters of same-sex marriage point to signs that the party is gradually changing its tune on the issue, as it seeks to grow its appeal among younger voters and project a more inclusive image.
While defense of traditional marriage has long been a defining issue for GOP social conservatives, a recent Pew poll found that 61 percent of Republicans under age 30 favor the right to same-sex marriage.
“The movement in favor [of same-sex marriage rights] is moving much faster than many would have predicted in the Republican Party, but it’s still a very difficult issue,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.
After the 2012 election, the Republican National Committee (RNC) did some soul-searching on how to widen its appeal among women, minorities, young voters, and other groups that skew Democratic, and released a report on its findings.
It was more a call for a change of tone than a full-on call for support of same-sex marriage. But some Republicans call it an important start.
“You have to have a slow move toward where you’re talking about respect, and saying, ‘Hey, these are people, too,’ ” says Mr. O’Connell, who adds that it’s “highly unlikely” the party’s presidential nominee in 2016 will endorse gay marriage.
Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Christian Science Monitor
Liz Cheney’s Wyoming Race a Turning Point For GOP On Gay Marriage?
In The Daily Beast on Monday, Republican political analyst Ford O’Connell asks a provocative question: can former Vice President Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter, Mary Cheney, “save the GOP?” He answers, in a fashion, “Yes.”
O’Connell examines a number of interesting developments in how Republican partisans and politicians view the issue of same-sex marriage, how rapidly the public’s perception of gay and lesbian couples has evolved, and how the GOP can stop alienating a younger generation on the issue. But while he sees Mary Cheney as having the potential to reorient the GOP on the issue of marriage, O’Connell correctly writes that it is Liz Cheney’s primary campaign in Wyoming that will have the most immediate effects on the trajectory of the GOP’s opinion on gay marriage rights.
O’Connell closes by observing that efficacy still trumps ideology, no matter how divisive the social issue in question may be. New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie won reelection, in spite of his opposition to same-sex marriage rights, with the support of a host of traditionally Democratic voting blocs in the Garden State. The message he sees being sent to the GOP nationwide: “Stand by your principled opposition to gay marriage but don’t alienate those who disagree with you.”
Supporting Gay Marriage Now is Hardly Heroic
You know politicians. It can't be just a stand; it has to be a courageous stand.
That explains the recent rush, particularly among Democrats in the Senate, to get to the new correct side of the same-sex marriage issue.
Same-sex marriage is going to happen. It's already legal in nine states and the District of Columbia, and the Supreme Court has before it two cases that could allow it to expand marriage for gays nationwide. Even if the Court doesn't rule accordingly, Nate Silver says his opinion data projects it will be legal in 32 states by 2016 and 44 by 2020.
So, who among the late converts do we take seriously? And what are we to make of the rest?
Congressional Democrats Will Suffer From Party Endorsement Of Gay Marriage
President Barack Obama already had come out in favor, and he'll be able to raise some money off it from LGBT donors. And it may help him marginally with independents, who now favor gay marriage, 51-40—although if cultural issues influenced their votes significantly, it's unlikely they'd be independents.
But although it's hard to figure how this momentum adds many votes—most gay marriage supporters already are in the Obama camp—it's not hard to see who is hurt by the move. The plank will be a headache for Democrats as they seek to maintain control of the Senate—particularly for those in tight races such as Tim Kaine in Virginia, Jon Tester in Montana, and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. It could be even worse in the House, where close to 70 seats are said to be up for grabs.
Some will say this was morally the right thing to do, regardless of the electoral consequences. Others will point out party platforms are like elevator music—there to be ignored. But if the purpose of a platform is to give candidates a base of ideas on which to run—and be identified—this move seems more politically correct than politically astute.
