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Originally posted by Hank
I'm just saying that the middle ground people who don't already know how they'll vote will not be single issue anti-gay voters. those that are single issue anti-gay voters are probably going with the Reps anyway because of abortion.
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Originally posted by Hello
There is a middle ground for most of us on this one.
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I agree with the above. People that care passionately about restricting marriage to heterosexual couples are already big fans of Ralph Reed and the GOP. For the rest of the "middle ground" it's going to be a case of which party looks better (for lack of a better term) getting to the compromise solution of endorsing some rationally-based civil union concept. I think it will be far easier for the Dems to get there than it will be for the republicans, for whom the religious right is a key part of the coalition.
Interestingly, I think this would be the perfect answer for the Dems (or any politician who wants to appeal to the largest number of voters):
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The next step then, of course, is the question you ask of whether or not there ought to be some kind of official sanction, if you will, of the relationship, or if these relationships should be treated the same as a conventional marriage is. That's a tougher problem. That's not a slam dunk. I think the fact of the matter is that matter is regulated by the states. I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area. I try to be open minded about it as much as I can and tolerant of those relationships. And like Joe, I also wrestling with the extent to which there ought to be legal sanction of those relationships. I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into.
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Of course, these words are Dick Cheney's (from the '00 campaign). But, since the president has become a standard bearer for the defense of marriage constitutional amendment, it's going to be tough for the GOP to then backtrack to this middle ground.
I believe this whole thing is going to be an albatross for the GOP, no matter what kind of poll data people trot out about what percentage of people favor recognizing homosexual marriages. Wishful thinking, perhaps.
Interestingly, I also saw somewhere that 6 of the 7 justices of the MA supreme judicial court were appointed by republican governors, thus giving the Dems a possible counter to an "antidemocratic crackpot leftist court up in MA forcing us to recognize these unsanctified unions" complaint by the right. Or, I guess, at least one word of that complaint.
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