Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sunday Question for Conservatives

Here's the 2008 Republican platform:
Preserving Traditional Marriage
Because our children’s future is best preserved within the traditional understanding of marriage, we call for a constitutional amendment that fully protects marriage as a union of a man and a woman, so that judges cannot make other arrangements equivalent to it. In the absence of a national amendment, we support the right of the people of the various states to affirm traditional marriage through state initiatives...
Republicans have been at the forefront of protecting traditional marriage laws, both in the states and in Congress. A Republican Congress enacted the Defense of Marriage Act, affirming the right of states not to recognize same-sex “marriages” licensed in other states. Unbelievably, the Democratic Party has now pledged to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which would subject every state to the redefinition of marriage by a judge without ever allowing the people to vote on the matter. We also urge Congress to use its Article III, Section 2 power to prevent activist federal judges from imposing upon the rest of the nation the judicial activism in Massachusetts and California...
Safeguarding Religious Liberties
...Forcing religious groups to abandon their beliefs as applied to their hiring practices is religious discrimination. We support the First Amendment right of freedom of association of the Boy Scouts of America and other service organizations whose values are under assault, and we call upon the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reverse its policy of blacklisting religious groups which decline to arrange adoptions by same-sex couples.
Here's the question: what do you think the GOP's position on same-sex marriage will be in 2020? More generally, what will the GOP's position on issues surrounding gays and lesbians be in 2020?

4 comments:

  1. In 2020, the GOP position on same-sex marriage, and LBGT issues generally, will be about the same as their current one.

    The biggest challenge for the GOP in the coming years is keeping their increasingly diverse constituents happy. Full national gay marriage and full national gay integration is pretty much a fait accompli at this point; there's no reason for the GOP to support it and antagonize the evangelicals or the xenophobic Tea Party types. The GOP has enough problems without pissing off restive constituents for no gain. So - no change.

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  2. It will linger on indefinitely as a platform plank, without any real policy consequences, having become the domestic-policy equivalent of a return to the gold standard -- but one expects conservatives to be anything other than tenaces antiquorum.

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  3. for 'one expects', read 'no one expects'

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  4. An addendum to your question: "And you do you feel about Rick Perry's stance on New York's new law legalizing same-sex marriage?"

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