Republicans run head first into the same-sex marriage trap

[Nevilledog]

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Amanda Marcotte
@AmandaMarcotte
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The notion that same-sex marriage has "strong bipartisan support" is a joke. They still aren't sure they can get 10 Republicans in the Senate to vote for it.

salon.com
Republicans run head first into the same-sex marriage trap
Same-sex marriage doesn't have "strong bipartisan support." Most Republicans in Congress reject it
10:29 AM · Sep 8, 2022

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/08/stuck-with-pandoras-box-after-roe-run-head-first-into-the-same-marriage-trap/

The Senate is back from recess, and legislators are facing down a daunting to-do list to complete before the November election, including passing appropriations bill and confirming more of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees. Additionally, there's now increasing pressure to make time for a vote on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would offer limited protection to bolster previous Supreme Court decisions legalizing interracial and same-sex marriage in the face of this summer's blockbuster decision from the court striking down Roe v. Wade's landmark legalization of abortion.

The bill was passed in the House earlier this summer in response to the court's unprecedented move of taking away a right once granted. Such a move on its own would have raised fears that the court would next overturn other decisions that granted rights like same-sex marriage and birth control, but Justice Clarence Thomas erased any lingering doubts that such things are next on the religious right's wish list by explicitly inviting lawsuits challenging those previous decisions.

So Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, called on their colleagues to pass new protections by arguing in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday that such legislation is "bipartisan." After arguing that "a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents" support same-sex marriage rights, the two note that the legislation already passed through the Democratic-led House with "strong bipartisan support." The goal of these two senators isn't mysterious. Passing the bill through the Senate requires getting past the filibuster. That, in turn, means convincing 10 Republicans to join the slim 50-vote Democratic majority in the Senate to back the bill. Their op-ed was about persuading wary Republicans that it's safe and, in fact, savvy to back this politically popular view.

But to call the bipartisan support for same-sex marriage "strong" is, at best, political embroidery.

Same-sex marriage has strong Democratic support. In fact, it's unanimous, with all 220 House Democrats backing the bill and the expectation that all 50 Democrats in the Senate will. Only 22% of House Republicans, however, were willing to vote for same-sex marriage. Digging into the numbers, things look even worse on the GOP side. As an analysis from the Washington Post shows, a significant number of those Republicans who did support the bill "are retiring or represent districts in Democrats' sights in the midterms."

*snip*

[Meadowoak]

1. let them go on record then.