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Will the Republican Party continue to fight for marriage?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by J Snow, Nov 7, 2012.

  1. J Snow

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    So I know we just finished one presidential election, and the last thing some people want is to talk about the next, but I can't help but feel in another 4 years that continuing to fight against gay rights is going to a suicide mission for the republican party. I already feel that had gay rights not been a factor in this election, Romney may well have one. The youth in this country supports gay marriage, and all of the kids in high school now are going to be able to vote in the next election, while the old conservatives die off.

    So I ask, will the republican party give up on fighting gay marriage as a compromise to remain viable in future elections, or do you think they will hold on desperately?

    Aaron Zelinsky: Memo to Republicans: Give Up the Fight Against Marriage Equality
     
  2. LisforLisa

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    Give it some time, some people in this country still support segregation. I'm sure there will also be people who oppose gay marriage. Eventually republicans will also support gay marriage.
     
  3. Aquilo

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    I feel the title of the thread should be 'Will the Republican Party continue to fight against marriage?' :/

    I fear they will, at least for some time, until they're forced by the newer generations to change course.
     
  4. J Snow

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    I guess that was poor wording. I meant for the issue of marriage, not for marriage itself obviously :confused: My bad.

    Well, I believe that if they continue to fight, they probably won't be winning again in another 4 years. Things could change, but that's my belief.
     
  5. Onyxknight

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    I think if they wanna have any kind of shot whatsoever at continuing to be a top party and having the influence they've enjoyed for so long, they need to rethink what they feel is important to the party.
     
  6. FishMan27

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    My thought is that they'll continue fighting for a another election or two. The biggest gap they have is the racial gap. If they can adjust their platform on that end, I think they'll continue to fight. I agree that eventually, they'll figure out gay marriage really isn't worth fighting against, but I have a feeling there is still work to be done. With the successful passing of gay marriage laws in Wahsington, Maryland, and Maine, as well as the rejection of the amendment against gay marriage in Minnesota, I think the movement towards equality is closer to reaching its goal than ever.
     
  7. IanGallagher

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    I don't think so. The one main thing shown in this election is that the people are turned off by anti-minority sentiments. To me that killed any chance Romney had from the start. He was against gay people, poor people, women, etc. The ONLY people he wasn't against was rich white men it seemed like. Obama didn't just seem to win, he kicked Romney's ass lol. That's gonna make an impact.
     
  8. john1984

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    I think the republican party needs to stop with all the social issues stuff. It will be the end of their party. They need to start standing for what they claim is their position on limited government. Thats a message that many people get, especially young people my age. It's why at the ron paul events i went to there were so many young people of all different types. He had a message of freedom and not being in all these wars that resonated with people. It sucks that because of things such as marriage equality i feel i have to vote democrat when i can't stand many of their other views. They can't grow government and make more regulations fast enough for themselves. People, especially young people that might otherwise get behind the conservative message won't if this pattern of making certain people or minorities less than continues.
     
  9. FunnyMonkey

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    I think if the Republican Party went pro gay rights , they could have won.
    But the Republican Party is staring to die not that many young people and becoming republican. I think the Libertarian Party is going to take over in the next 15 , or so years.
     
  10. Level75

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    I believe they will fight for a while longer. But this election really betrayed many of their expectations. One of which was that people are basing their votes only on the economy and don't care about social issues. So I do believe they will fight a while longer, but this election will inspire a long, hard look at what platforms they are simply going to have to drop to no longer alienate potential voters. It's already telling that Democrats can openly support same-sex marriage while Republicans try to avoid talking about it.
     
  11. rx79g

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    I think republicans will continue to oppose it for a long time, but they'll probably emphasize it a lot less on their platforms. My prediction is they'll start saying something along the lines of "We'll allow equal civil unions with all of the same rights, but we won't call it marriage." Seems like splitting hairs but that's what politicians do.

    As far as libertarians taking over, probably not. I could see the republican and democrat middle coming together into a third coalition that might include moderate libertarians and the far right dying out. I think in the future the republicans will be the party of small federal government and state power instead of the party of traditional social values. They do both already but I see them dropping the latter, at least at the federal level. But I'm not a political scientist so what do I know.
     
  12. everett

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    I feel as though it would be Futile at this moment or even in the future. If they want to make a connection with the young generation they need to change their ways. Alas that is easier said then done!
     
  13. Pret Allez

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    Honestly, I think that if Republicans had not been associated with the crazy rape apologism and staunch opposition to marriage equality and LGBT rights generally, the election could have turned out very differently.

    I said as much to my conservative acquaintances on Facebook: all you have to do is dump the bigotry, and you'll kill us in every election for the next 8 years at least.
     
  14. Owen

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    Especially when your party's philosophy is based on maintaining the status quo.
     
  15. Caudex

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    Yes. They will.
     
  16. dano22

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    I think they will continue to fight against gay marriage for awhile. Maybe in a generation or two the hardcore homophobic part of the party won't exist as much but that is still a long shot. There are still many extreme homophobes in my age group.
     
  17. Browncoat

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    This. No election outside of the Great Depression has gone the way of an incumbent with ~8% unemployment. It wouldn't be close if not for how the Republican Party has lately been perceived by a majority of independents/swing voters.

    Whether they like it or not, the elephants will have to move uniformly to a more centrist point socially, as the Conservatives have in Britain. They will slowly erode, otherwise.
     
    #17 Browncoat, Nov 7, 2012
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2012
  18. Mogget

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    My guess is that the GOP will be as silent as possible on social issues of all sorts, while still using dogwhistles to let the trifecta of sexists, racists, and homophobes know they're still on their side. What the GOP can't ditch without stopping to be the GOP are classism and the division of people into the deserving and undeserving. Unfortunately, more Americans are in favor of those two than are in favor of the trifecta.
     
  19. Chip

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    I'm inclined to agree with Mogget, but the problem is, I don't think they'll be successful in trying to have their cake and eat it too.

    *Real* republicans aren't so horribly obnoxious. The problem is that the party has been hijacked by the ultra-right religious crazies. And the problem is, the Republicans can't win without these asshats, so they have to pander to them. And that means having nutjobs like Santorum and Bachmann and Palin running in the primaries, and making just enough noise, because the crazies will come out in droves to support them. It also means that being even remotely pro-choice won't fly, which gets them back into the issues with women voters. And in a country that is increasingly diverse, taking a hard stance against immigration isn't going to win points with the large contingent of Latino voters.

    The reason I don't think silence will work is, at least in part, because the Dems and others who care will directly ask about those issues, so they will have to either lie, tapdance, or tell the truth. And as we've seen with Romney, I think they are starting to realize that tapdancing doesn't really work.

    They're sorta fucked. They can make a wholesale shift toward moderation, enough to appeal to the younger and more intelligent portions of the electorate, and hope that appeal is enough to offset the loss of the religious crazies. But if they do that, then the Tea Partiers are likely to run their own 3rd party candidate, which will likely siphon off at least a portion of their base.

    If you look at it that way, it becomes a lot more obvious why the current strategy... do everything possible to suppress voting, particularly by Latinos, blacks, and other lower-income individuals, lie, cheat, and fix voting machines, and pander to the crazies that nobody else wants... is sort of the only obvious choice without a wholesale remaking of the party from the ground up .
     
  20. Luke12

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    As a pretty staunch Republican, I can say this: no, not for long.

    The GOP is a political party. Political parties exist to win elections, and they paid a very dear price for their opposition to gay marriage yesterday. Younger Republicans such as myself are far more libertarian than our parents, and that will be reflected sooner rather than later.

    Prediction: official opposition to SSM will be dropped for 2016. Endorsement of it will occur in either 2020 or 2024.