RUSH: There’s a story in The Politico today that says Republican consultants (who are reputedly the source or the sources for this story) secretly want gay marriage to become the law of the land everywhere to get rid of the issue.
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RUSH: That’s right, The Politico — I’ve got it right here, folks — is saying they found a couple of Republican consultants who said to them (summarized), “You know, the best thing could happen for us is if the Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage in every state and takes the issue off the table. We can’t be bigots in the 2014 election.” Why don’t we just give away every issue so it’s no longer a problem? Yeah, and let’s just cancel elections and say, “Democrats, you are now in power in perpetuity.”
That way nobody will criticize us.
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RUSH: So last night I’m engaged, as I always am, in show prep. You know, life for me is show prep. Everything that I do is potential show prep. Everything I do holds potential as content on this program. Last night I was engaged specifically in show prep. So I’m sitting on the couch and I’m using the iPad last night. I ran across a story in the Politico, and the headline got me. It sucked me in there. The headline is: “The SCOTUS Ruling the GOP Really Wants.”
Okay, now, what did that tell me?
That told me that the Republicans actually want something here that nobody would believe that they want, and it turned out that my interpretation was right. Essentially this story is sourced by two Republican consultants. The names are not that familiar to me, and what these consultants had told The Politico is that this issue is so potentially damaging to the Republicans because they’re so out of it culturally, they should just get this issue — gay marriage — off the table.
The fastest way to do that is for the Supreme Court to make gay marriage legal in all 50 states and therefore the issue is gone. It’s not something the Democrats can criticize the Republicans for going into the 2014 elections, and let’s just get it out of the way. It doesn’t matter anyway. The economy is what matters. I read this and I got into more detail, and my initial reaction to this was, “Well, okay, let’s just get rid of another issue. Let’s just give up another core belief, because we don’t want to be criticized for holding it.
“So let’s just get rid of this core belief and move on to the next one.” It reminded me that this is exactly how the Republicans have behaved philosophically in all of these budget skirmishes. From the end-of-the-year fiscal cliff to the sequester to whatever it was, the Republican leadership said, “You know, let’s let Obama have this, and then we’ll really take it to him on the sequester.” That’s what they said on the fiscal cliff. Then the sequester came, they said, “You know, let’s not fight this.
“Let’s let ’em have this, and we’ll really take it to ’em on the continuing resolution at the end of March. That’s what really matters.” Remember that? Well, we’re coming up at the end of March on the continuing resolution, and gay marriage is thrown in the mix. So the Republican leadership says, “Let’s just put gays behind us,” and a lot of people are saying, “Is that where you really want them?” Let me give you some details from the story.
“Conservatives watching this weekÂ’s gay marriage arguments at the Supreme Court are wondering if it will happen again: Unelected justices ignoring the will of legislatures and high-handedly imposing their own wishes on one of societyÂ’s most divisive moral issues. In political circles in Washington and elsewhere, a good number of these conservatives will also make a surprising confession: They are strongly rooting for that outcome exactly.” Now, “a good number of these conservatives”?
I found two of them as sources in this story. Only two.
“In a mostly hidden subtext of the gay marriage debate, a lot of Republicans…” Again, there are two mentioned. “In a mostly hidden subtext of the gay marriage debate, a lot of Republicans would be thrilled with the most far-reaching court decision possible. This is the only way, they reckon, to take the issue out of an electoral arena in which it is increasingly bringing them little but grief. A mid-March Washington Post/ABC News poll underscored the extent to which the GOP is at odds with the public on gay marriage:
“58% of respondents said they support gay marriage, and 64% said that the issue of gay marriage should be ‘decided for all states on the basis of the US Constitution.’ But the Republican Party and its evangelical core have not moved with the rest of the country, tying the GOP — for now — to a position thatÂ’s anathema to the majority of younger, more educated and politically independent voters; precisely the voters the party needs to begin clearing out the wreckage of two consecutive presidential defeats.”
So you see, according to this, the Republican leadership thinks the best way to avoid losing elections is to let the Democrats win every controversial issue. Because these Republicans say, “We’re just gonna get beat up, and the longer the gay marriage issue is on the table, the more they’re gonna call us bigots and homophobes and racists. We can’t go into an election being called that! We don’t want to defend that. Let’s let ’em have it.”
The problem is that seems to be the working philosophy on everything. “Obamacare? Well, we tried to repeal it. We had a vote. But let ’em have it — and the sequester and the fiscal cliff and the stimulus and whatever Obama economic policy. ” So, The Politico says, “The only obvious way to square that political circle in the short term is through a sweeping Supreme Court decision — one that strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act and invalidates California’s Proposition 8…”
So these two consultants told The Politico what they prefer is the court strike down DOMA and make gay marriage the law of the land everywhere and then we can move on. So let’s just agree to lose another issue and kick it down the road. Now, the simplest way, I think, to maximize this kind of thinking is to just say, “You know what? Since the public hates us so much, and they’re always gonna hate us no matter what the issue — if we tell people what we think, they’re gonna hate us — let’s just, for now, let the Democrats have every election.
“We’ll come back at ’em in like 2030 when everybody’s forgotten about this stuff. I mean, that’s the obvious solution. Let’s just do amnesty. Let’s let ’em have it! Let’s just open the borders. Let ’em have amnesty, and then we’ll come back to fight another day on taxes. While we’re at it, you know, let’s stop fighting them on abortion. Let’s just agree that it’s not an issue anymore. Because, man, we really get beat up on that. Cap and trade? Exactly right!
“Let’s pass a carbon tax, whatever, because, man, we’re just getting beat up here. You realize we’re not gonna be able to raise money if this stuff keeps up?” (interruption) Well, I don’t think they’ll say, “Turn in all the guns.” There is a line that they won’t cross. But, again, I must say, it’s just two consultants in this story, and these two consultants are characterized by Politico as speaking for the party. I doubt that they do. But nevertheless The Politico found ’em, or they found Politico. I don’t know how this happened.
I do know that several Republicans do use The Politico to get their hopes and dreams in the public domain. “That would be a crushing defeat for voters and politicians, predominantly on the right, who believe marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman. But to Republican consultants…” Get this, now, ’cause this is the part that’s believable. “But to Republican consultants, fearful of ending up on the wrong side of political history, such a ruling would be a liberation.”
There are two consultants who are the sources of the story. So, as far as they’re concerned, they don’t want to be on the wrong side of cultural history, so don’t oppose this. Here’s the theory: “‘It removes the issue from the Democratic playbook of fundraising scare tactics and political demagoguery and breaks their usual messaging dynamic of, “You’re a beleaguered minority; let us protect you from the evil GOP — oh, and here’s your absentee ballot,”‘ said Florida-based Republican consultant Rick Wilson.”
That quote here is attributed to him, that having the Supreme Court strike down DOMA and legalize gay marriage everywhere, takes the issue away from Democrats. So they can’t run around and fund-raise by calling us a bunch of bigots, and it’ll stop the Democrats from running around telling people that you’re a bunch of minorities that the Republicans don’t like, and they’re trying to stick it to you. The evil GOP! We can remove this evil GOP from their playbook if gay marriage is legalized.
That’s the fallacy here. The Democrats are never gonna get rid of the GOP as a campaign tactic, no matter what the GOP does. Last I looked, it was the Republican Party that ended slavery. We’re still racist. Dick Cheney came out in 2004, and was one of the early Republican supporters of gay marriage. How’s that working out for him in terms of the left stopping their assault on the guy? It didn’t. Who was on the wrong side of cultural history in Rome?
The Caligula crowd, or those who were opposed? In 1940, who was on the wrong side of cultural history in Germany? Rick “Wilson continued: ‘Democrats wonÂ’t be as happy explaining to gay business owners why” the Republicans are a bunch of reprobates if the issue becomes legal nationwide. There are other Republicans who are offering quotes on this. There’s also a Republican Tea Party member, a guy named Mainwaring. He’s gay, and he has a piece that I have here in my Stack. He’s just opposed to gay marriage like you can’t believe.
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RUSH: Here is this guy Doug Mainwaring. I mentioned earlier, Doug Mainwaring is cofounder of the National Capitol Tea Party Patriots. This article appeared in ThePublicDiscourse.com. Basically the headline says it all: “I’m Gay and I Opposed Gay Marriage.” His piece says, “Marriage, from the stateÂ’s perspective, is about kids. Period. That’s the reason the institution exists. We should tremble at and fear the notion of undoing it.” Again, Doug Mainwaring, who’s gay, co-founder of the National Capitol Tea Party Patriots, not the National “Gay” Capitol Tea Party Patriots.
His homosexuality is not, apparently, the number one thing about him he wants people to know. It’s the fact that he is the co-founder of the National Capitol Tea Party Patriots. That’s what he wants people to know. Now, grab audio sound bite 26. Apparently Greta Van Susteren last night on her show asked Karl Rove about this theory that The Politico has today, that the best thing for the Republican Party would be for the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA. Now, here’s her question to Karl Rove. “Do you know what I think would be the best thing strategically for the Republican Party, Karl? The Supreme Court in these two cases issues very broad decisions and just basically ends the discussion so that the Republican Party isn’t debating gay marriage in 2014 and 2016.”
Here’s what Rove said…
ROVE: I think there’s a lot of, uh, a — a lot of wisdom in that. I also think, though, that if the court makes a broad decision and overreaches, uh, we could have the same situation that we’ve had with abortion where people say, “Look, I don’t like the court determining the outcome. Uh, I’d rather leave it to the people and to the — their elected representatives.”
RUSH: Okay. So Karl said, “Well, I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that, getting the issue off the table.” This not a new tactic, by the way. It just seems to be the go-to tactic for Republicans lately. But he’s also right. If the Supreme Court decides this, this isn’t gonna settle anything. It’s gonna keep this culture roiled, because it is gonna be like abortion where nine lawyers in black robes have decided what is and what isn’t, instead of the people in the democratic process.
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