I heard a mention of this on NPR this morning. Thus far Obama has been pretty tepid on gay issues, as have many other Democrats. But this ruling will potentially give their enemies some ammunition, in that they’ll hold it up as evidence of how liberals are eroding family values (never mind that the judge in this case was originally appointed by Reagan, but then again when has a politician ever let facts get in his way).
So what do you think?
I’m not sure it’ll have an impact one way or the other in the midterms. The appeals process will probably still be under way by the elections, with both sides hoping their side will ultimately win out. Of course that won’t stop Republicans from using it as ammunition to demonize the other side, but this will just be preaching to the choir.
It will energize parts of the GOP base, just like Arizona’s law being suspended will. This hurts the Dems, especially because they must be pretty demoralized by now compared to the GOP, it wouldn’t surprise me if they stayed home in droves.
That’s funny, because all of my Democratic friends are fairly excited about the ruling yesterday. And frankly, what have the Republicans managed to do in the past two years, other than ineffectively saying “no” to everything the Dems do? I keep thinking this has to be a really demoralizing time to be a Republican- when Sarah Palin is the most visible spokesperson you’ve got, you’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
I don’t think it will have the sizzle it might have had 5 years ago. Firstly, it’ll be years before there is a ruling that actually matters. Secondly, the economy is what people are worried about. It’s going to be about jobs, deficits, and taxes.
Demoralizing? Every analyst out there predicts gains in the both houses of Congress for the Republicans, and many are saying they’ll take the House. If that’s “demoralizing”, what must it be like to be a Democrat?
Add to that the position of current movements allied to the Republicans, like the tea party one, social issues are not very important to them.
Exactly. There’s a beatdown coming in November, and the Dems know it. That’s why Obama’s knucklehead spokesasshole, Gibbs, was out lowering the bar two weeks ago, for post-apocolyptic spin reasons.
The GOP has been saying ‘no’ because that’s all they have to do - the Dems keep passing unpopular legislation, over the will of the people (or, in this case, having it overturned).
Not to threadjack, but check out the recent vote in Missouri, a state that McCain carried by 1 point. The ballot initiative to overturn Obama’s healthcare scheme, Prop C, won by a massive 40 points. You don’t think the GOP’s coalition of tea partiers and social conservatives is fired up, compared to the Dems?
This issue will continue the hit parade I think because it plays into the same themes - out of control judiciary, overrulling states rights, reading stuff into the 14th that doesn’t exist, judicial activism, etc.
Yes, this will energize the GOP base, but frankly, they’re already about as energized as can be. This is another log on a blazing bonfire, so I don’t see much effect at all.
Isn’t this what the 2010 Election forum is for? 
Yeah, that pesky Constitution.
I know, I know. You guys keep posting polls which say that Democrats aren’t as popular as they were a while ago… but the numbers are never quite as big as you say they are. While I agree that Pubs will make some gains, somehow I don’t think we’ll be seeing the kind of epic bloodbath the Dems gave the Pubs two years ago, though. All we’ve had from the Republicans in the past two years is, “Look how bad the Democrats are!”, with no reason given for why the Pubs would be a better choice. It’s just like the Republican Health Care reform- it’s just a few pages of why the Democrats’ version won’t work. This does not inspire confidence in the Republicans.
Such as? 'Cause I remember the healthcare bill, which while not great, was a hell of a lot better than the Republican proposal. What was that, exactly?
You guys keep telling us that the Dem’s proposals are unpopular. Frankly, it sounds a hell of a lot like whistling past the graveyard. Maybe if you say it often enough, it’ll become true?
Don’t forget how demoralized you are! Aren’t you demoralized yet? I mean, you only got a health care bill, a stimulus, SCHIP extensions, credit card reforms, a financial reform bill, two new SCOTUS justices, and a federal court affirming same-sex marriage! Get demoralized!!!
You may be missing the point. Whether you liked the healthcare bill or not, or whether it was needed or not, is completely irrelevant. The fact that most of America was against it, and the fact that those against it were certainly more motivated than those for it to come out in Missouri (the only referrendum I’ve seen so far, other than Mass, NJ, Va elections… how’d they work out…) is the only point I was making.
FWIW, I mostly agree with hansel, this is just one more log on the blazing fire (good analogy there). Arizona was another. Not sure what the next one will be, since cap-n-trade seems to be dead… cardcheck maybe? Fairness doctrine? you tell me.
Anyway, it will matter for single issue voters, and for my money, I see the social/family values voters as a somewhat different population than the anti-illegal immigrant voters, which is different from many of the anti-UHC voters (which itself has two camps, those who care more about either gov interference in healthcare, or the devastating fiscal implications to the Treasury).
Edit to add: it’s not impossible that this sways the Calif Senate election, since they’ll be closest to the issue.
But, at least half of those were against it because it did not go far enough. We went over this many times in GD during the health-care debate.
Understood, and I am not trying to re-invent that debate in this thread. The point is, people were against it. And it’s not unreasonable to assume that for every point the bill moved to the left on the liberal-conservative spectrum, they would have lost as many or more supporters on the other side. In fact, I’d guess that the bill was optimized to get as much support as possible, seeing as how close it was in Congress.
The fact that Missouri barely went for McCain, 50-49, and this thing passed by 79-28 or whatever, must count for something. The state is highly purple, but the motivated troops were mostly on the right. I suspect a similar event this Nov. This is at the crux of the OP’s question.
(For the record, I did not bring up the UHC bill, Lightnin’ did)
Plus the folks who were in favor of every single provision of the health care bill, but who still opposed the bill. Like my dad, who thinks that funding for pre-natal care is a code word for abortion.
Not to continue this threadjack but that vote in Missouri took place during a GOP primary, it is completely and utterly meaningless. Besides didn’t the last poll say most people in the US were glad the health care bill passed? i think it was 59% in favor with only old people being completely against it.
If that were true, you’d have a point.
However you can see that the Dems also had a primary on Aug 3.
And the latest polls show pretty serious opposition, 51.8% to 37% against.
No significant effect.
The anti-gay bigots were already going to be voting Republican, so this doesn’t change anything.