Sunday, April 02, 2006
Wonder What The Log Cabin Folks Think Of All This?
The Minnesota Republican Party, like pretty much every state Republican Party branch, is pushing to get anti-gay marriage legislation on the ballot this November because they think it'll still make a useful get-out-the-vote tool for them. But there are a few problems with this concept: 1) It's evil (not that this ever stopped Republicans from doing anything). 2) Polls show that most Minnesotans, by a 54% to 40% margin, don't want that amendment and don't think the state needs it. This ties in with the recent Pew Polls showing an increasing tolerance nationally of gay marriage, even among Republicans. Even those who aren't too crazy about the idea of gay marriage, aren't exactly fond of wasteful and repetitive legislation -- and since Minnesota already forbids gay marriage, the new legislation is seen as ridiculous overkill. But the Republicans continue to burn our tax dollars pushing it, to the extent of doing stupid moves like introducing eight virtually identical anti-gay marriage bills at the same time in the Minnesota legislature. Meanwhile, the efforts of the leaders of the anti-gay marriage movement to avoid looking like whacked-out crazy bigots keep getting undermined by their own supporters. There were the openly-bigoted sign carriers at the big anti-gay rally at the State Capitol last month, for starters. More ominously, after a prominent local blogger, Mr. Sponge of Minvolved, took the anti-gay folks over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed to task, someone sent him e-mails threatening his wife -- by name -- and mentioning in detail where she works. Mr. Sponge stopped blogging after that. The violence of the reaction is both bad and good. Bad, in that they will stop at nothing to save their cause; good, in that it shows (as do the polls) that their cause is in deep trouble. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they don't take more people down with them when they finish flaming out.
The "nice polite" Republican Party can't win by appealing to peoples' better side and certainly not by being honest about their intent. Or what was the Souther strategy all about to begin with.
People of good will tend to be people of a bit more intellegence. They tend to not vote for the party of hate.
John McFeign is definitely a professional. But he's making a play for the real thing too.
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