Evangelical, Mormon, and Catholic leaders and parachurch groups are in full-blown panic mode as the day the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on same-sex marriage draws near. They rightly understand that if the Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage the culture war at the federal level is over. While there might be state and local battles to be won, on the federal level, the war is over.
Once gays are afforded the same civil rights and constitutional protections as the rest of us, Evangelicals will likely begin telling the faithful that we now live in a post-Christian world. Evangelicals, along with their fellow culture warriors in Catholicism and Mormonism, have lost their favored seat at the cultural table. No longer will appeals to God, the Christian Bible, the Law of God, etc. work. This is lost on those who are running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. From Ted Cruz to John Kasich to Rick Perry to Marco Rubio to well, whoever else is in the clown car, they seem oblivious to the fact that it is not 1950. Waving the U.S. flag and shouting I LOVE JESUS will not garner enough votes to put a Republican in the White House. The same white crackers, Tea Party lunatics, Patriots, and fundamentalist Christians will vote for the Republican nominee, but their ranks are literally dying, unable to attract young adults. Not only are they dying, but they remain a bastion of bigotry and racism. As the United States becomes browner, the Republican party becomes less relevant. In time, there either will be a huge party split, with the rednecks and the Christian nation crowd starting there own party, or the current Republican Party will be forced to banish the wing nuts and broaden their tent.
Winning the same-sex battle at the federal level would be a big boon to the Republican Party. It will also embolden culture warriors, a reminder to them that God is still on their side. While it will certainly be a huge blow to liberals and supporters of same-sex marriage like myself if we lose, we will live on to fight another day. We know that we are in a generational battle for the future of the United States. Unlike the culture warrior with their five item menu, the liberal knows war must be waged on many fronts. Same-sex marriage is just one of those fronts. We must also work to:
- Overturn Citizens-United
- Reform voting and end gerrymandering
- Turn back state abortion laws that are harmful to women
- Neuter the military-industrial complex
- Reign in the security-industrial complex
- Provide a living wage for all
- End the assault on evidence-based science
- Shore up the wall of separation and church
- Drastically reduce our global environmental footprint
- Provide young adults with educational opportunities that do not saddle them with decades of debt
- Rebuild infrastructure before the United States turns into one big pothole
- End the war on drugs
- Decriminalize and legalize marijuana use
- Reestablish law enforcement as peacemakers
- Empty the prisons of nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of petty drug crimes
- End capital punishment
- Strip corporations of their power and influence over local, state, and federal government
The culture warriors, who overwhelmingly vote Republican, seem to have little interest in the things I’ve mentioned above. Guided by their literalistic interpretation of the Bible and the Constitution, they work to undo the social progress of the last 100 years. In their world, if women returned to the kitchen, gays to the closet, undocumented workers to the country they came from, all would be well. What they want is 1950. They want to return to the era of McCarthy, a period of time when fundamentalist patriotism and Christianity ruled the roost. They want to return women to the days when they feared pregnancy and feared their husband. They want to return to the days when the hegemony of whites had no challenge. They want to return to the days when the United States had no equal and used its military and economic power to advance an imperialistic agenda.
For these reasons, and many others, I rarely can find common ground to work with Republicans. Their Party is overrun by nuts, cranks, corporate CEO’s, lobbyists and conspiracy theorists. While sane voices can be found on the left fringe of the Republican Party, their numbers are few and they seem unable to make their voice heard. When Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Jon Huntsman are your party’s voice of reason, you have a big problem on your hands. While I am willing to compromise and work towards a common good, I find it impossible to work with people who think that every social and political change is a threat to America, Christianity, and the American way of life. When the discussions starts with abortion is murder or America is nation chosen by God, it’s hard to find common ground. Truth is, I’d probably find more common ground in an insane asylum than I would some corners of the Republican Party.
The issues I have mentioned in this post provide readers with a glimpse into my politics and how I view the world. The aforementioned positions are not a complete list, but it does show readers the issues that I think are most important.
This post should not be taken as an endorsement of the Democratic Party. I am increasingly unhappy with Party and President Obama. Some days, I think both political parties are the same, especially when it comes to how corporations and money influence their decisions.
The placement of these items on the list is priceless! Tax revenue from pot may fix the potholes.
The supreme court is expected to rule in favor of gay marriage. One sobering thought, if Romney had been elected the supreme court would have a vastly different balance, as the Sotomayor and Kagan slots would be Romney appointees. While Romney, as a Mormon, would not be wearing his religion on his sleeve; one thing I do know is he would use supreme court appointments to throw a bone to the religious right that held their nose and elected a Mormon.
I do have a lot of issues with Obama. For one thing he doesn’t use the bully pulpit very well, and I think his foreign policy isn’t very nuanced with the exception of finally allowing talks with traditional adversaries like Cuba and Iran. I’m certain that a Romney presidency would be an order of magnitude worse.
In fact I’m inclined to vote Hillary on the basis of Supreme court nominations alone. The president serves 4 to 8 years, a supreme court justice is their for life, and as Republicans like to nominate people in their 40s you could be looking at half a century of influence. (Also the original intent of the constitution to get advise from the Senate is now ignored the process in the Senate is very similar to appointment of cabinet positions, where the attitude is the president should get to pick his teams)
[Obama’s Supreme picks were actually in his first term so it would McCain, rather than Romney, but with similar results.]
I would up-vote this if I could, Troy! I have been saying for decades that the Supreme Court should always be a factor in the votes people cast in presidential elections. The high court has by far the longest-lasting influence on how our laws are applied.