Wednesday Open Thread [5.28.14]

Yesterday, I posted the Gallup poll showing that Americans now support marriage equality by 55 to 42%. Digging deeper into that poll, we find a massive generational gap. Basically, the old people are just plain bigoted towards gays. Once they die off, we are all going to wonder why this was ever an issue. We are going to laugh at those opposing marriage equality the same way we mock opponents of interracial marriage.

Opinions also differ dramatically along party lines. Democrats (74%) are far more likely to support gay marriage as Republicans are (30%), while independents (58%) are more in line with the national average. Though Republicans still lag behind in their support of same-sex marriage, they have nearly doubled their support for it since Gallup began polling on the question in 1996.

61% of younger Republicans support marriage equality, according to Gallup. So that means that soon, within the next 10 years, the GOP platform and all GOP candidates will be pro-marriage equality as well. If they aren’t, not a single Republican anywhere will win an election. Well, maybe in Utah…

So, the war is lost for the radical Christianists who seek to turn America into a theocracy. Or is it?

In a lengthy piece for National Review this week, the Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T. Anderson addresses the unsettling question for opponents of gay marriage: “where do we go from here?” He argues that conservatives can still win the fight if they “persuade our neighbors that our views about marriage are reasonable” and fight for them culturally and politically before the “chaos” of redefining marriage sets in. In other words, winning back hearts and minds.

But even he concedes that social conservatives are fighting an uphill battle.

“In the short run, the legal battle over the definition of marriage may be an uphill struggle,” Anderson wrote. “But in the long run, those who defend marriage as the union of a man and woman will prove to be prophetic.”

LOLz. I can tell you that, in my life, the gay marriages and families of my friends and family are more stable and successful that the heterosexual ones. But eventually, yes, there will be gay divorces, just like there have been straight divorces for many decades. And that will not single the failure of gay marriages as an institution no more than straight divorces single a failure of straight marriage.

Seriously, the crazies’ plan is to convince their neighbors and friends that their bigotry is reasonable, all the while waiting for the coming chaos of gay divorces. Hahahaha. It’s just so pathetic.

The Wall Street Journal:

[When President Obama] delivers a big foreign-policy address at West Point [today], he’ll talk about the tensions and disputes that suddenly seem to be breaking out all around the globe. But amid all the messiness, one encouraging sign he might point to is the remarkable spate of elections being staged in countries important to the U.S. […]

The list of places on the U.S. watch list where the core function of democracy–citizens choosing leaders–has been exercised in recent weeks is an impressive one. Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Egypt and Colombia all have held national elections. Meanwhile, India just held an election that produced a peaceful sea change in leadership in the world’s largest democracy. And in Europe, a bedrock of democratic rule, voters across the continent last weekend cast votes that will significantly change the character of the European Parliament.

Eugene Robinson:

“Anyone who hopes the [Republican] party has finally come to its senses will be disappointed. Republicans have pragmatically decided not to concede Senate elections by nominating eccentrics and crackpots. But in convincing the party’s activist base to come along, establishment leaders have pledged fealty to eccentric, crackpot ideas…As for the “government’s too big” part, this traditional GOP mantra has become — thanks to the Tea Party — a weapon of spite, not a statement of policy…The victories by establishment-backed Republicans in Senate primaries hold no promise that the party is ready to stop throwing tantrums and begin governing. They do ensure, however, that Democrats will have few, if any, “gimme” races this fall…Republican candidates simply cannot risk being called “moderate”…Democrats can, though. The Republican Party’s move to the right opens political space for Democratic incumbents and challengers trying to win in red states.”