Gay marriage opinion shift: conservative lawmakers, pundits left scrambling
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This being the Easter/Passover Spring break for Congress, you鈥檇 think lawmakers back in their home districts would be eager to talk about the past week鈥檚 major news story 鈥 the latest developments on same-sex marriage, which has seen one of the most pronounced and rapid shifts in public opinion and political action in recent US history.
But no, they鈥檙e trying to figure it out too, and so are most of their constituents. Meanwhile, one-by-one (or so it seems) political figures are coming out for gay marriage.
Most recently, that鈥檚 US Rep. Justin Amash, (R) of Michigan, a conservative who used to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was argued before the US Supreme Court this past week.
鈥淩eal threat to traditional marriage & religious liberty is government, not gay couples who love each other & want to spend lives together,鈥 Rep. Amash wrote in a Twitter exchange with The Huffington Post. 鈥淚 support repealing federal definition of marriage portion of DOMA. Always have.鈥
Asked if gay couples should have the option to marry, Amash tweeted: 鈥淥f course. How can anyone stop a couple from getting married in their own way? I just want government out.鈥 (Read the full exchange .)
That鈥檚 essentially the position Sen. Rand Paul voiced recently, although the Kentucky Republican focused on the US tax code, which (as now enforced) prohibits the survivors in same-sex marriages allowed in nine states and the District of Columbia from receiving certain financial benefits when their spouses die.
It鈥檚 hard for many Republican lawmakers to make the leap Amash did for fear of being challenged from the right by a social conservative in a party primary.
But that hasn鈥檛 kept other Republicans from speaking out.
Former Utah governor, US Ambassador, and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman took the issue head-on in a column in The American Conservative last month.
鈥淢y marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love,鈥 Mr. Huntsman wrote.
鈥淎ll Americans should be treated equally by the law, whether they marry in a church, another religious institution, or a town hall鈥. The party of Lincoln should stand with our best tradition of equality and support full civil marriage for all Americans.鈥 (Read his full column .)
Huntsman was among more than 100 conservatives and Republicans who filed a friend of the court brief in the DOMA case before the Supreme Court,聽among them former governors,聽GOP聽administration senior officials, prominent right-leaning pundits, and actor Clint Eastwood.
In the US Senate all but nine Democrats now publicly support same-sex marriage. The wavering nine are Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Bill Nelson of Florida, Tom Carper of Delaware, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
On the Republican side, it鈥檚 looking increasingly like Lisa Murkowski of Alaska will join Rob Portman of Ohio, who recently announced his switch in favor of gay marriage (in his case, tied to the fact that his son is gay).
"The term 'evolving view' has been perhaps overused, but I think it is an appropriate term for me to use," she said a few days ago as reported by the Chugiak-Eagle River Star in her home state. 鈥淚've got two young sons who, when I ask them and their friends how they feel about gay marriage, kinda give me one of those looks like, 'Gosh mom, why are you even asking that question?'"
Meanwhile, some conservative pundits seem to be changing their position 鈥 or at least their view of where things are headed 鈥 as well.
鈥淲hether it happens now at the Supreme Court or somehow later, it is going to happen,鈥 Rush Limbaugh said this week. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just the direction the culture is heading.鈥
(Limbaugh blames this on 鈥渁 gay Mafia that has inflicted the fear of death, political death in the Republican Party鈥︹)
鈥淭he compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals,鈥 Fox News host Bill O鈥橰eilly said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where the compelling argument is. 鈥榃e鈥檙e Americans. We just want to be treated like everybody else.鈥 That鈥檚 a compelling argument, and to deny that, you have got to have a very strong argument on the other side. The argument on the other side hasn鈥檛 been able to do anything but thump the Bible.鈥
Slate columnist Amanda Marcotte sees a pattern of 鈥渃oncern trolling鈥 among some conservative pundits
鈥淐oncern trolls are largely people who know that they can't argue their viewpoint on its merits, so instead they try to undermine the persuasively argued viewpoint with their 鈥榗oncerns,鈥欌 she writes.
For Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, that concern includes the prediction that if the Supreme Court rules that DOMA is unconstitutional, that will bring on an 鈥渁ssault on religion,鈥 as he put it on the PBS program 鈥淚nside Washington.鈥
He uses as an example a Jesuit school like Georgetown University with married student housing for heterosexual couples only. 鈥淚t will get sued,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his will become an assault on religion. And the religions, which I think are sincere in their beliefs, are going to be under assault and under attack.鈥
Whether or not that鈥檚 true, it鈥檚 probably way too soon to tell. The Supreme Court justices this week seemed in no hurry to declare the constitutionality of same-sex marriage.