LGBT News Senator Rob Portman comes out in support of gay marriage.

Fabulous. This is great news. Every single person who comes on board is a help. Thanks for sharing.

 

he just destroyed any chance of being a president or VP pick for the republican party. The fundementalist anti-jesus, anti-consitution, anti-america right wing will never let him get close. we will see if he can keep his congressional seat. Ohio can be hard to read.

 

I am going to disagree with you. I think he Republicans will be divided on the issue for the first time in 2016. I personally dont think he will run for President, I hope he continues to serve the people of Ohio. Its awesome to see that Ohio has two wonderful senators who are now both LGBT friendly.

 

just a shame he's terrible apart from that

 

compaired to most of the republican feild, he is actually been a fairly reasonable person.

 

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason, in my opinion. All of the oppression and discrimination he helped perpetuate before this doesn't just wash away.

 

As I said in the other thread, Portman's stance on gay marriage won't matter because the Republican pool is going to be so deep in 2016.

By the way, a good portion of the "right wing" isn't that far off from the "left wing," so you should probably choose your words more carefully. Unless you're talking about the religious portion of the party, which makes up only 1/4 of it.

 

No, they won't. The Republicans are a thoroughly homophobic hateful vicious disgusting excuse for a political party and they will never embrace equality unless forced to, just like the South had to be forced kicking and screaming into accepting civil rights for African-Americans.

Portman is a low-profile nobody in the GOP, Romney didn't choose him for VP because he wouldn't have excited the Republican base even before supporting marriage equality, and all he has done is opened himself to an even further right-wing primary challenge, funded by NOM and the rest of the conservative Christian hate industry.

Here's some reactions to this news from Republicans at the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) where Rubio, Romney, Paul, Cruz, Jindal, Santorum, etc. are speaking:

CPAC Responses To Rob Portman Supporting Marriage Equality - YouTube

VIDEO: CPAC Attendees Blast GOP Senator Who Announced Support For Marriage Equality | ThinkProgress

Note that, as mentioned, CPAC used to allow gay Republican groups like GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans to attend, but for the past two years now they've been forbidden. The Republican Party is moving backwards, and further off the deep end of the far-right. Any LGBTQ person who would vote for that hateful monstrosity of a party is either a self-hater or just not very bright.

 

I am going to tell you this... They are going to have to change on this subject or their will be no republican party. I'm saying that honestly. I mean I don't understand it. I mean the Republicans are going more to the right when the country is going move to the left. I mean it doesn't make much sense. I still expect them to be divided on the issue.

It is impossible for Conservative Republicans to win the at national level. They might be able to be supported in their states, but other states will have something to say about that. I mean maybe Todd Akin would have won if he was in a more republican state than Missouri. The truth is that the Republicans are hurting themselves. They should embrace this not stand in the way of it.

 

america isn't going to be anywhere near the left until a proletarian revolution. which is very unlikely to happen & even less so to work

 

Definitely disagree on this.

The Republican party won't lose elections (at least national ones) based solely on the issue of gay marriage. But they will lose if they keep supporting a collection of things that are unpopular such as abortion, gun control, gay marriage, and immigration (which will be a more important issue than gay marriage in 2016 in terms of election importance). Candidates can still win elections supporting something that's unpopular.

And the country isn't that left, either. Yes, the demographics are changing, but Mitt Romney still won independents.

 

Mitt Romney won "independents" because lots of conservative Republicans call themselves "independents" now because they are so embarrassed to be associated with the presidency of George W. Bush and think of themselves as independent Tea Partiers rather than Republicans- but they are Republicans and they always vote Republican.

The self-proclaimed "independent" vote is absolutely meaningless.

The swing vote that decides elections now is the moderate vote- and Obama won the moderates by double digits both times.

The country is moving to the left while the Republican Party is moving to the right. If the current course continues, the far-right GOP will go the way of the Whigs and a new centrist party will rise to take it's place.

 

They are changing. Social issues are killing the party. Completely killing it.

 

While social issues are definitely striking the death blow to the GOP, especially among moderates and the young, I think it's a mistake to think it's only social issues that are killing the GOP. The Republican Party's far-right "fuck the poor and middle class" economic philosophy is also increasingly out-of-touch with a centre-left nation, especially with the growing Hispanic population that values an activist government to oversee the economy.

 

Killing? I'm not sure I would go that far, but it does fit into the Democrats' strategy of attempting to paint all Republicans as heartless/out of touch. The most important issue to voters during the last presidential election was the economy, and it wasn't close. Not to mention Mitt Romney didn't exactly have a high approval rating (which wasn't completely warranted). And, really, Obama and Romney aren't that different. But had a Republican candidate like Christie run during the last election, Obama would have lost.

 

Romney was pushing the failed idea of top down, and obama was pushing the proven valid idea of middle out.

 

Yeah, that's quite debatable.

But I'm not even about to derail this thread.

 

but those are both horrible liberal capitalist theories

 

Well the only choices in the U.S. are the centre-right Democrats and the far-right Republicans. Under the current system the Democrats will always win by default since everyone to the left of Mussolini will vote for them.