The Supreme Court's refusal to take up challenges to laws legalizing gay marriage in five states has an immediate impact: Gay couples in those states can now wed. But it has a longer-term impact too; it's another piece of evidence that the fight over gay marriage is effectively over in this country.
Now, all of these charts make a very clear political argument: The country is rapidly growing more accepting of gay marriage and it seems — given the generational and inter-generational changes in the numbers — very unlikely that that trend will reverse itself. That's a simple political fact that Republican strategists have been trying to drill into the heads of their candidates in recent years; spending significant (or really, any) time talking about opposition to same-sex marriage is a straight political loser with virtually all voters not in the social conservative wing of the GOP base. (Sidebar: That's an amazing transformation in the politics of gay marriage; a decade ago, George W. Bush's reelection victory was credited in no small part to a number of ballot initiatives banning gay marriage on the ballot in key swing states. In 2004, 60 percent of Americans opposed gay marriage while 31 percent supported it, according to Pew.)
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Gotta keep the little dears ignorant, doncha know. So they'll grow up, vote Republican and…
Dirty, Dirty, Dirty! Politics, Politics, Politics!! Republicans, Republicans, Republicans!!! And, I think Rep. Dan Sullivan…
They no doubt considered you a dangerous radical, Cato. I was in your same position.