海角大神

Buzzfeed鈥檚聽Chris Greidner reports that conservative groups opposed to same-sex marriage are聽actively campaigning against Republicans who have endorsed same-sex marriage:

On some level, I suppose, it isn鈥檛 surprising to see groups opposed to marriage equality campaigning against candidates who favor it, but it is highly unusual to see this happening in the context of a general election campaign. If this were a primary where DeMaio, Tisei, and Wehby were up against other, more conservative, candidates, as I believe each of them were earlier this year, then what these groups are doing would be standard operating procedure. In the context of a general election, though, it is highly unusual because, in effect, these groups are telling the people that listen to them to either stay home on Election Day or even to vote for the Democratic candidate, although that would seem to be a counterproductive strategy, since the Democratic candidates in these races all likely support marriage equality as well.

It鈥檚 also worth noting that each of the candidates involved in this targeting campaign are running for federal office. Even if they did manage to win, which seems at least possible in the case of DeMaio and Tisei but rather unlikely at this point in the case of Wehby, they really wouldn鈥檛 have much of anything to do regarding the issue of marriage equality. With the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision in聽United States v. Windsor聽the law of the land, there really isn鈥檛 anything that Congress will be considering regarding the marriage issue at any point in the near future. To the extent there is legislative action to be taken on the issue, it will be at the state level and even that action may end up being preempted by whatever the Supreme Court ends up doing with the cases that are before it from Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Since the marriage issue is basically irrelevant from the perspective of a federal legislator, the only thing that these groups are doing is punishing these three candidates for daring to dissent from Republican orthodoxy on the issue of same-sex marriage.

If nothing else, this campaign should demonstrate quite clearly that these groups and the people who support them want nothing to do with the idea of a 鈥渂ig tent鈥� in the Republican Party on the issue of marriage equality. Either you oppose same-sex marriage, or they will try to take you out, even if it means electing a Democrat. Why Republicans continue to pander to social conservatives when they act like this is beyond me.

Doug Mataconis appears on the Outside the Beltway blog at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/.