Republicans Amazingly Support Same-sex Marriage

Republicans are finding their way to support same-sex marriage, not so slowly-but-surely.  In fact, for many formerly of the opposition, their turnaround is astonishingly quick.  The New York Times yesterday reported that some prominent party members are now encouraging the US Supreme Court, in an amicus brief, to get on board, also.  Here's a paragraph from their story:

Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York; Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress.

These are only a few of the 75 who signed the brief.  Other Republican supporters of same-sex marriage, including Colin Powell, Dick Cheney and Laura Bush did not sign on, but have publicly affirmed their support.

So, what is behind this change of heart?  It seems to be a matter of long-held fundamentals catching up with political realities. The heart of the Republican ideology is the priority of and freedom for the individual.  For these who are changing their outlook, it's a simple matter of being consistent with this commitment.  This quote from same Times article is a case in point:

“The die is cast on this issue when you look at the percentage of younger voters who support gay marriage,” said Steve Schmidt, who was a senior adviser to the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and who signed the brief. “As Dick Cheney said years ago, ‘Freedom means freedom for everybody.’ ”

The political reality is that the demographics of America, which are making the GOP irrelevant in coming national elections, strongly favor those who align with supporting same-sex marriage. As Schmidt put it, "the die is cast."  So the combination of wanting to be consistent with Republican ideology and demographic realities produce this amazing turn of events.

Welcome to the cause.

Margaret Hoover: Paul Ryan, Same-Sex Marriage, & Proposition 8 from KLRU-TV on Vimeo.