29 April 2009

More problems for the Republicans

The more dogmatic you become, the more exclusionary you also become. This fact is just now beginning to dawn on the Republican Party. This is the same party that drove Arlen Specter into the Democratic camp yesterday and is threatening to run off other moderate party leaders.

Republicans are adamantly opposed to gay marriage. Like abortion, it is one of their litmus tests. Many still cling to the belief that being gay is an illness that can be cured. Forty nine percent of Republicans say they oppose any kind of recognition of gay unions, let along gay marriage. But the same New York Times/CBS News poll shows that 57 percent of those under age 40 support gay marriage. Only 19 percent of this age group oppose it.

Ooops. Can you say "dangerously out of touch?" Furthermore, more states are making gay marriage legal and it's going fairly unnoticed. The reason? No one really much cares anymore.

According to Steve Schmidt, who was the senior strategist for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, "The Republican Party is shrinking. One of the reasons it is shrinking is because there are large demographics in this country that view the party as intolerant or not relevant to them."

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