Is the Anti-Gay-Marriage Movement Dead?
The Times’ Frank Rich, in his gloating obituary of the anti-gay-marriage movement, got a little ahead of himself on Sunday. Rich is right that, as Paul Waldman demonstrated last week, public opinion is trending toward legalization of marriage equality. Still, fundamentalist religious movements should never be counted out of American politics. Nor should their gentler cousins, whom the new president has embraced, be written off. Even John McCain’s campaign manager Steve Schmidt and the senator’s daughter Meghan, who just adores her gay hair stylist (and really, who doesn’t?), are saying the fundamentalist obsession with gay marriage will be the GOP’s downfall. But those who argue that the issue of gay marriage is done miss the same point: Democrats are nervous that their new evangelical friends are opposed to gay marriage. That is why, despite the public-opinion trends, the president and many other prominent Democrats are too timid to promote marriage equality. In other words, the oppos
