Last updated on May 11th, 2012 at 09:05 am
It took no time for rapid response right wing propaganda gang over at Fox News to turn up the fear and claim that Obama’s support for same sex marriage is a declaration of war on marriage.
Here is the headline over at Fox Nation courtesy of Media Matters:
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You can expect to hear this same war on marriage hysteria repeated by the right in the days, weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries to come. This is going to be their line of attack. They think that it is still 2004 and same sex marriage is a potent culture war issue that will carry them to victory. Same sex marriage is a wedge issue, but not in the way the right thinks it is. Recent polling by Pew has found that first time ever more Americans support same sex marriage than oppose it. The wedge on the issue is by age. A majority of Millennials and Generation Xers support same sex marriage. The older a person is the more likely they are to oppose same sex marriage.
Younger people are driving the shift in favor of same sex marriage. These same younger people are key component of President Obama’s support, and they also are not the back bone of the Fox News audience. In essence, when Fox News and the right try to revive the culture war and use gay marriage as political wedge, they are only hurting themselves and their party.
The depth of the political pit that Republicans have put themselves in on this issue can be best seen in the reaction of the Log Cabin Republicans to Obama’s statement,
That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous,†said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director. “Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign’s ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short.
The Log Cabin Republicans are bashing Obama and calling the president’s statement a political calculation, but they are supporting a nominee, and are members of a party that is opposed to same sex marriage. They are bashing Obama for supporting what they want, strictly because the endorsement didn’t and never would come from a Republican president. This is what is called putting partisan politics ahead of the common good.
While the Log Cabin Republicans try to straddle an impossible line, Fox News is playing to their 65 year old base. The war on marriage will be Fox’s new cause du jour. They will climb the walls and pound the tables, and emphatically state that marriage must be defended.
What they don’t realize is that the Obama and the Democrats wouldn’t have it any other way.
To far right that has hijacked the Republican Party, same sex marriage is drug that can’t be resisted. They will plunge into this debate with venom and ferocity. They will let it overwhelm all other issues, and they will lose in November.
It is amazing that the Republicans don’t understand this, but the left and Democrats have learned how to use their culture war against them. Most Americans aren’t supporting the Republican Party’s positions on issues like taxation, Social Security and Medicare, and same sex marriage anymore. Anytime Democrats can get Republicans to focus on the issues that they disagree with majority of Americans about it is a big win.
So freak out Fox News, fill up your airtime with the “war on marriage,” and by doing so help President Obama and the Democrats win the November election.
The Republican inability to resist the “war on marriage” is helping to make their formerly big tent even smaller.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
