Abortion ranked first among issues of concern to straw-poll voters, getting 41 percent of the vote, with protection of religious liberty second with 18 percent.Emphasis is mine. These are not the tea-partiers, who have a libertarian bent. This is a forum, rather, sponsored by the Family Research Council, an organization which continues to insist that homosexuality is curable and to link it to pedophilia. But the actual attendees at the forum -- religious conservative activists from around the country -- just don't seem to be all that riled up about the prospect of two men getting married.
Opposition to same-sex marriage was third at 7 percent.
This is not to suggest that these voters have become pro-gay marriage. If any of them was spotted in leather chaps at Remington's after the event -- it was not, I assure you, to show solidarity for their gay brothers and sisters. But the last time this poll was conducted, in October 2007, gay marriage was the top choice of 20 percent of the attendees. That's quite a decline, particularly given that gay marriage has been more in the news than abortion for the past couple of years.
Public opinion is moving toward acceptance of gay marriage. But it is doing so very slowly, at a rate of perhaps a point or two per year, and has at least a few years to go before it is the majority opinion. In the near term, the more relevant dimension may be 'passion', or depth of feeling. It used to be that the conservatives were ahead on passion -- they were strongly opposed to gay marriage, whereas liberals were, at best, lukewarmly in favor of it. Increasingly, that dynamic seems to be reversing.
Columbia's interior design crowd has been hissing like tea kettles at the prospect of a Bauer governorship. Now, the lieutenant-guvnah may or may not be gay, but honey he does likes pretty things. Have you seen his darling apartment on Senate Street? Yes, Senate Street no less.
ReplyDeleteSo who was spotted rustling the rhododendron outside the governor's mansion the other evening? Was some light-in-the-loafers-laddie measuring drapes with an iPod camera? Was he armed with paint charts and old copies of Architectural Digest? Well, let’s just say he was driving the most adorable little Smart Car you ever did see!
The Bauer Hour of Decorating Power is about to begin.
And if it is curtains for Mark Sanford, we're sure Andre's window treatments of magenta portieres festooned with ball fringe will be capable of completely darkening the parlor at a moments notice. Midnight screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show? The latest X-tube feature? Say, does anyone have a donkey?
And the parties! Oh, the parties. Can we talk? How many guests invited to the sure to be fabulous Halloween fancy dress gala will be bearded? Glenn? Lindsay? My, my, where is Truman Capote or Mike Rogers when you need them?
And here's a costume idea for the L-G: (save your sequins everybody) descend the staircase as Liberace! Now, girls, there's a candelabra in a closet somewhere; drag it in here.
Boys will be boys, But boys rarely will be governors. Hold on to your pasties girls, this is gonna be fun.