Is Rush Limbaugh Right on Gay Marriage?

Read Time:2 Minute, 42 Second
"The Republican Party right now is willing to let pretty much anybody have whatever they want in their process of rebranding." -Rush Limbaugh Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
“The Republican Party right now is willing to let pretty much anybody have whatever they want in their process of rebranding.” -Rush Limbaugh Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Columnist Marc Ambinder, writing for The Week in his Compass column doesn’t believe the republican hype about embracing gay marriage and tells us why:

Yes, gay marriage is increasingly popular. To my own eyes, it’s astoundingly popular, and I’m very happy that it’s popular. Nearly 60 percent of Americans now support it. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 26-27 on a series of cases that will probably make it a lot easier for gay people to actually get married everywhere.

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans under 30 support gay marriage. Nearly every Republican I talk to supports it, too, which makes it hard for me to conceive of a world where the GOPers who are potentially available to vote in the party’s primaries wouldn’t support it. But they do not. And as I’ve written, I don’t think they will for a while. I do not think that the party is structured to reward a modernizing socially moderate candidate. The same GOP establishment that admits it must change and is embracing technology wants Ron and Rand Paul out of their party. (And Rand isn’t exactly a huge supporter of gay rights.) Sen. Rob Portman waited two years — after being vetted for the veep nomination — to come out as a supporter.

Rush Limbaugh calls these conservatives, particularly younger ones, “Manhattan bar scene conservatives.” (And honey, I’ve met some interesting Republicans at Manhattan gay bars, although I don’t think he and I mean the same thing.) On his show today, he had nothing original to say about the topic other than this: Freedom is not a license for hedonism. And darn it, younger conservatives had better realize it. That’s silly. But then Rush pointed this out:

The second thing is, homosexual marriage. If the party makes that something official that they support, they’re not gonna pull the homosexual activist voters away from the Democrat Party, but they are going to cause their base to stay home and throw their hands up in utter frustration. Now, whether they like it or not, the Republican Party’s base is sufficiently large that they cannot do without them. And their problem is they don’t like ’em. It really isn’t any more complicated than that.

Rush is right. The GOP’s problem is that its primary and caucus voting base is older than its new ideological entrepreneurs. The young Turks need to take over the party. But it is hard to figure out how they’ll fashion a political coalition that allows for this until the old generation just dies off. The traditionalists still vote in the primaries and caucuses. Tea Partiers overlap more with libertarians on some issues than your generic non-Tea Party conservative might, but they’re still social conservatives. Some conservatives understand this more than others. CPAC is not representative of the GOP or its base. Wish it were! But it’s not.

What do you think?  Is Rush, of all people, right?

Follow MadMike’sAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.

About Post Author

Guest Contributor

Guest contributors are those who provide commentary, advice, or other food for thought designed to entertain and enlighten our readers.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
11 years ago

Well, with the greatest of respect, over here in England he’s lost the argument purely by being called ‘Rush’.

Anyone who would cheerfully accept such a silly name is clearly a sandwich short of a picnic.

“Hi, I’m Rush, will you sleep with me?”
“No”
“Why?”
“Because that ain’t something I want to rush!”

BOOM BOOM

Anyroad. I’m English so WTF?

Bill Formby
11 years ago

I am not sure Rush is sure about what he believes to believes to be almost a fact to believed. The Republican party is in a mess right now except on a couple of issues. If they could run on not raising taxes and pro life only, they could do pretty good. However, they run into real problems when they start having to deal social security, medicare, gay rights, abortion for rape victims, protecting the rich, and immigration. For all intents and purposes the Republican Party is rapidly becoming a limited political party that can no longer lead but only obstruct. They have managed to gerrymander the voting districts so that they control a number of states and congressional districts for the next 8 -10 years but they will lose that edge soon. If they haven’t changed by then they will become irrelevant.

Bean
Reply to  Bill Formby
11 years ago

Not sure I agree about the pro-life issues. Frankly, the continued idiotic comments and proposed legislation regarding choice and human sexuality (ie, sex ed, attacking planned parenthood)has harmed them, with women – even conservative ones. The only thing they get with this platform is the religious folks who would vote for them anyway.

Jess
11 years ago

No, this answer has been brought to you by one word answer girl.

I am of the opinion the GoOpers are going to let SCOTUS deal with it, so they can go back to the rubes and say, well see activist judges said “teh gheyz” have to be given this one, we had no control over it. That being said, infighting is funny when it’s the other side doing it.

Marsha Woerner
11 years ago

Is Rush Limbaugh RIGHT about ANYTHING? I think not!
(Of course, like all generalizations, this is a GENERALIZATION…)

Admin
11 years ago

Yes. In that he is an expert.

11 years ago

He’s right about why the General Obstructionist Party will continue to pander to the religious reich. It has noting to do with gay marriage, what’s good for the world, or anything other than maintaining power.

Maintaining power through audience demographics and size is what Rush is about anyway. In that, he is an expert.

Previous post Scientists may be able to reverse extinction
Next post Ohio Shooter flips off, curses victim’s families
7
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x