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What is remarkable about the reaction to the Prop 8 decision is that within the anger are the beginnings of admissions of defeat. The Right has won many important battles against gay rights, but they are losing the war…and they know it…[A]ttorneys for the Right Wing organizations backing Prop 8 could only manage to sputter tired prejudices barely disguised as legal arguments regarding the mythical damage to society caused by legal recognition of gay couples.
– Michael B. Keegan, president, People For the American Way, “Losing Their Appeal: The Real Reason the Right Is Terrified by the Prop 8 Case,” at Huff PostThe religious right may be having a conniption, but younger Republicans increasingly appear to believe that opposing gay equality is inconsistent with a belief in increased liberty and smaller government. Although the religious right will continue to be a strong presence in the GOP for years to come, changing demographics are not on the side of anti-gay forces and the GOP appears to be awakening to this reality.
– RD, “The GOP Drops the Fight Against Gay Rights,” at Frum Forum (RD is the pseudonym of a 10-year armed services veteran recently returned from Afghanistan)
I found these two articles interesting because they dovetail nicely regarding the topic of social conservative public meltdowns in the last week or so regarding the war to “save marriage.”
In the case of WorldNetDaily’s Joseph Farah, it’s become a PR disaster with each e-blast from his computer taking Ann Coulter to task for keynoting GOProud’s HOMOCON. They became more and more shrill (with her charging him with being a publicity whore and nutter birther), culminating in Farah making a hilariously deranged appearance on the Mike Signorile Show with him sputtering incoherently about the legal handwriting on the wall re: Prop 8 and the increasing public acceptance of marriage for same-sex couples.
As I noted a couple of days ago, the signal for Coulter, Glenn Beck and many other conservatives-for-pay to “come out” as either supporters of marriage equality or declare it a non-issue seemed to be the 138-page Prop 8 legal ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker.
The sorry-ass, religious, culture, and bias-based excuses to prevent opening civil marriage to lesbians and gays couldn’t stand up to the reality-based legal standard, as Olsen and Boies smacked down the so-called “experts” who bothered to show up to testify. Just a peek at Walker’s Findings of Fact alone put those ridiculous arguments completely to bed.
This is what Michael Keegan discussed on Huff Post – the real fear of the bible beaters is that the Prop 8 case will move forward:
A few days after Judge Walker’s decision, the pseudo-historian David Barton, founder and president of the right-wing group WallBuilders, explicitly described the nervousness that has been behind much of the Right’s outrage. The case against Proposition 8, Barton argued, could win in the Supreme Court…so opponents of marriage equality should sacrifice California in order to save anti-equality laws in 31 other states.“Right now the damage is limited to California only,” Barton told Tim Wildmon, President of the American Family Association during a radio interview, “but if California appeals this to the US Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court with Kennedy will go for California, which means all 31 states will go down in flames, although right now this decision is limited only to California…the problem is that instead of California losing its amendment, now 31 states lose their amendment. And that won’t happen if California doesn’t appeal this decision.”
For Beck and other high-profile conservatives, it’s simply “Game Over, Man” and time to cross this one off the list and move along to more useful targets focus on more pressing issues. RD @ FrumForum:
The list of conservatives supporting gay equality is growing – from the many Republican appointed judges who have ruled in favor of various gay rights cases, to GOP Solicitor General Ted Olson, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and even the ultraconservative former Vice President Dick Cheney. Nowadays Margaret Hoover of Fox News sits on the board of GOProud alongside conservative Grover Norquist; and even Elisabeth Hasselbeck has come out in support of gay marriage rights.A growing list of conservative writers and activists have endorsed various gay causes as well. Philip Klein at the American Spectator and talking head Mike Gallagher oppose “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and pundit George Will has remarked that with changing attitudes and demographics, “homosexuality will soon be a non-issue in the military”.
A telling incident occurred this past week when an Iowa Republican candidate made anti-gay remarks and the state GOP chairman publicly rebuked him, claiming his statements were “inappropriate and in no way represent the beliefs of the Republican Party of Iowa”.
What is happening to the GOP? First our elected officials tire of bashing gays and now our pundits? Perhaps Republicans are beginning to see the writing on the wall.
Perhaps it won’t add to their bottom lines anymore to spew anti-gay bile for votes and to fill organization coffers. I’d love to see how much longer some bottom-feeders of that movement like Peter LaBarbera can stay afloat as his boat sprouts new leaks once the real truth about homosexuality pokes holes in it.
Related:
* Mike Signorile interviews WND’s Farah – on Coulter’s ‘betrayal’: ‘My Eyes Have Been Opened’
* WorldNetDaily’s Farah in complete meltdown as high-profile conservatives ‘embrace the homos’
* Add AFA’s Bryan Fischer to list of homobigots in meltdown over conservatives ditching them
* Coulter on fundie Take Back America confab: ‘They’re a bunch of fake Christians’
10 Comments
Great write up Pam.I can imagine a smirk of deep satisfaction on your face as you are finally able to write this morning’s essay. I agree with your assessment. We’ll need to tamp out a few more brush fires yet, but this war IS over! So where is the party to celebrate our well fought/well earned victory when the final hammer comes down from the SCOTUS?
we are waiting for this PresidentTo come to his political senses. His admin is swimming in the wrong political direction and everyone knows it. His position is incoherent, and while he may think he needs to store up political capital, his admin is destroying its credibility big time. Its handling of this and the Islamic Community Center only reinforces my opinion that there is PR incompetence at tone deaf levels I couldn’t have imagined.
It’s not as if they couldn’t have seen the marriage legal issue train barreling down the tracks. Unreal.
Don’t count on itInnullnullCanada, the advent of same-sex marriage galvanized the far right like nothing ever before. In 7 short years, Canada has built up a network (with the assistance of Focus and co) that has wormed it’s way into every level of government and department (assisted by a Conservative government partly elected as a result of this surge).
Rational arguments will not win with the religious right, it will only confirm their belief that the country needs to be “saved” and ruled according to biblical principles. They will lose some allies, but they will gain plenty of money and fervent followers.
The real danger is what this will do to the left. Fear will motivate the anti-gay sect more than ever. Will comfort motivate the left?
I think he has a serious case of White House insularitus.
Just wait…First, I trust Ann Coulter even less than I trust Joe Solmonese. Her calling someone out for being a media whore is Bob-Hope-joke-vault-worthy. (Still, she was unusually coherent on the Red Eye thing; of course, someone really should have asked the never-married 50-year-old if she has a more personal stake in the sexual orientation poker game.)
Second, the christianist party is about to regain its favorite pulpit: Congress. The Boehner-Cantor-Bachmann House leadership WILL have a new Federal Marriage Amendment proposal – probably it will be HCR 1 in the new session – and, unlike our non-hate-crime needs, it WILL get lots of exposure in committees and it WILL be forced to the floor for lots of messy debate and a record vote.
If you take everything that’s happening with Homocon, et. al., at face value, you’re letting yourself be rope-a-doped.
Some AmbivalenceWhile I hope that you are correct (heaven knows I’m tired of being part of a demonized group), I can’t help remembering what a Republican congressman from Long Island (King) said when asked about the quiet from the Republican Party after the Prop 8 ruling. He stated that the Republicans felt they didn’t need to demonize the GLBT community in this election cycle because they already had their base fired up about illegal immigration; in essence, immigrants are now the preferred people to bash. I guess we’ve moved down the Republican “Hit” parade, but I have no doubt we are still on it and that we could return to being number one at any moment.
I think we’ll have to keep waitingAnother great piece, Pam.
I hope there will be a “come to his senses” moment, but Obama’s consistent failures (DADT, marriage, Cordoba, public option in health care, etc.) make me think this is less about PR incompetence, and more about doing what he actually wants to do.
TransTeh Gay may be dropping, but make no mistake, this is not over, this is not done.
I recall noting right after the ruling that it would be a mistake for them to move forward on the Cali thing– just like was said above. I also said it was a win win for the bad guys — they will raise money if they can go forward (to defend their hate), they will raise money if they cannot go forward.
But this is the start of the 2012 election season, and they know Teh Gay is too strong, so they will go after the Teh Tranz, and get ya’ll that way.
We’ve seen this before. Three times in the last hundred years. We come out ahead each time, but it’s still bitter, still a fight, and lives are still wrecked.
Don’t be lulled into a sense of victory. This is just the first big part of a shift that still going to go after all of us.
Ah, who am I kidding. I’m just one little girl.
GOProud and Jimmy LaSalvia has some responsibility for this changeFunny thing was that when I first saw this group form, I wondered if they were just going to be LCR-Hardcore. I was wrong.
The Log Cabin Republicans were political moderates who often shied away and recoiled from any criticism. Co-sponsoring CPAC and the criticism regarding this was just the beginning. I’ve gained quite a bit of respect for LaSalvia specifically for the way he’s been viciously attacking Joseph Farah and the WebNutDaily crowd, calling them “not conservative” and generally taking the lead in attacking the religious nutjobs. I love it.
I don’t support GOProud’s non-gay politics, but they’ve been essentially in pushing the fundies completely from the pedastal that they enjoyed for far too long because LCR was too whimpy politically to take them on.
I completely agreeGOProud needs to receive credit for making aggressive moves to point out the hypocrisy of the religious right and to take out the fakers and players like Farah, who cannot stand up to real scrutiny. LCR just never bothered to do anything activist.
Jimmy LaSalvia has put himself out there early and often to challenge them, and to bring on board prominent conservatives to take the lead in showing you can be pro-equality and Republican.
Seeing how little the LCR accomplished when it was the only game in town and GOProud pushing in the door to break the logjam is good news for us all, despite the differences we may have on non-LGBT policy.