Searching for Common Sense
By
Bruce Christian
Wedge Issue
Republicans were silent on LGBT issues during primary
Resignation is a way of life, and during the recently concluded primary election I began to question whether the anti-gay faction of the Republican Party had checked out.
The vitriol, the hatred, the anti-gay rhetoric that has been part and parcel of GOP wedge-issue politics for decades was missing, for the most part. The exception has been with some of the candidates of the fringe Tea Party-supported candidates such as Sharon Angle in Nevada.
Even J.D. Hayworth who used to flaunt his anti-gay positions to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars during his time as a member of the U.S. House, didn’t prey on Republican voters’ fears of the LGBT community. Early in his campaign, Hayworth did emphasize his “traditional family values,” but other than that, he didn’t bring up homosexuality during his campaign against Sen. John McCain.
This compels us to ask: Have we turned the corner on gay bigotry?
As much as it would be great to say the confluence of three major pro-gay issues progressing positively at the same time — employment non-discrimination and repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and gay marriage moving toward the Supreme Court — is the reason, the answer is probably simpler.
We haven’t seen much of this wedge issues so far because Republicans were running against Republicans. Good party members adopt similar views on wedge topics. If LGBT issues are going to serve to split voters this year, it will begin to happen as the general election campaigns begin.
Once it’s Republican vs. Democrat, the gloves come off. However, don’t expect the passion of the conservative right to be as strong as it has in the past. The reason: They know they are in a losing battle. Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans now favors gay marriage, favors repealing DADT and favors employment non-discrimination.
So Republicans have begun searching for other obnoxious wedge issues, such as whether Muslims in New York can build a mosque and community center two blocks from Ground Zero, or whether Arizona’s SB1070 is legal and the right way to solve the nation’s immigration problem.
This gives Democrats a great opportunity to get off the fence regarding gay marriage. During the primary, too many Democrats campaigning against each other continued to parse their words carefully regarding gay marriage.
Too many of them want to say such things as they favor equality for all, or that gay people should enjoy the same rights as heterosexual couples, but they refuse to simply say “yes” to gay marriage.
It’s a simple, yes or no question: Do you support gay marriage? Yet when I interviewed the four U.S. Senate candidates, only one emphatically said yes. The other three danced around the answer.
But then most of the major leaders of the Democratic Party still haven’t come around either. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and many others still dance around the issue. But no matter how you say it or how many times you say it, supporting “civil unions” is not the same as supporting gay marriage.
The LGBT community has a golden opportunity going into the general election unlike any other time. The members of the community and our straight allies who support our points of view easily make up at least 15 to 20 percent of the electorate. This is enough to determine the outcome of any election.
Republicans will get their expected hardcore 40 percent-plus and Democrats will get theirs. The LGBT community and its friends really can be the determining factor this year. We can send the strongest of messages by sending the right people to the Arizona Legislature, to Arizona executive offices and to the U.S. Congress.
Because the GOP seems to have backed off discussing the issues that matter most to us, it’s time for Democrats to press them. Do they become wedge issues if the Democrats use them? Of course, but the timing couldn’t be better.
