The Meteoric Rise of Good Republicans

After Windsor, I predicted we would see the rise of “Good Republicans” who backed away from social issues, and from defending marriage in particular. The Good Republican Watch continues apace.

The New York Times reported earlier this week on the “tidal” shift in the culture wars. Republicans are on the defensive, Democrats aggressive. Democrats want to talk social issues; Republicans cannot squirm away soon enough.

“Increasingly assured that public opinion supports their positions, Democrats have become more aggressive in challenging Republicans about their beliefs. . . . The decision to go on the offensive is in part designed to incite the anger of women and draw support in the November elections, particularly that of single women, who tend to vote in small numbers in midterms. But it is also a reflection of the growing obsolescence of traditional Republican wedge issues in state after state. For a younger generation of voters, the old right-wing nostrums about the ‘sanctity of life’ and the ‘sanctity of marriage’ have lost their power, revealed as intrusions on human freedom.”

More and more Republicans are “bucking conservative activists and trying to soft-pedal or even retreat from their ideology.”

Some GOP candidates – Senate candidates in Louisiana and Arkansas are mentioned – sideline the issue. Others trumpet their support for same-sex marriage: “In Oregon, the Republican candidate for the Senate, Monica Wehby, is running an ad promoting her support of same-sex marriage.”