Public support for gay marriage is at a record 53 percent, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released this month, the first time the poll has measured support for gay marriage above 50 percent. In 2004, support was 32 percent. Among the young, the question appears settled: 68 percent of voters ages 18-29 support same-sex marriage rights.
The findings reflect broad trends revealed in other polls. As support has steadily risen, ‘‘Gay marriage has lost its clout [to divide voters] as a wedge issue,’’ said Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. ‘‘Same-sex marriage has become mainstream"
Gay no longer divides. It unites! And social conservatives in Iowa are united in their opposition to same-sex marriage, which is already warping the race for the GOP nomination. NYT:
The ailing economy and the Tea Party’s demand for smaller government have dominated Republican politics for two years, but a resurgent social conservative movement is shaping the first stage of the presidential nominating contest, complicating the strategy for candidates who prefer to focus on fiscal issues over faith. Here in Iowa, whose caucuses next winter will open the campaign, social and religious conservatives are pressing the likely candidates on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion rather than on jobs, the budget deficit and other economic concerns that leaders of both parties expect to dominate the general election.
Iowa's social and religious conservatives went for Mike Huckabee in the caucuses... and Mike Huckabee did not go on to win the nomination. But anti-gay haters play too big a role in the GOP nomination process for GOP presidential hopefuls to ignore their "concerns." Hence:
Haley Barbour joins Tim Pawlenty and Mike Huckabee in wanting to reinstate the ban on gays in the military, opposing a policy now supported by 80 percent of the public and a majority of servicemembers. He made the commitment on the radio show of the extreme right Christianist, Bryan Fischer. Now remember what we have been told about the Tea Party and the current GOP: they are focused on the size of government, debt and spending and are downplaying social issues. The latter is not true. Their position on the military ban is aggressively reactionary.
