IGF CultureWatch

The fact that arch social conservative Ken Cuccinelli’s loss of the Virginia governor’s race to Democratic crony capitalist Terry McAuliffe was narrower than expected just makes clearer how social-issues extremism cost the GOP a winnable election. Political columnist Bart Hinkle explains why:

Early in his term as attorney general [Cuccinelli] told state universities they had no authority to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and he has defended with Ahab-like mania a state sodomy law doomed by the Supreme Court a decade ago….

To conservatives, economic freedom is paramount, the rest no big deal. But to libertarians, personal and civil liberties are no less vital: Big government has no place in either the boardroom or the bedroom. If Cuccinelli shared that view, then he would have a better chance of participating in the gubernatorial inauguration Jan. 8 — rather than merely watching it.

Although I haven’t shied away from criticizing N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s opposition to marriage equality, which came to the Garden State anyway with legislative and judicial support, Christie is nevertheless widely viewed as a social-issues moderate, and his large (as expected) reelection win in a solidly Democratic state is being viewed as another defeat for GOP social extremism.

Finally, the passage of marriage equality in Illinois makes it the 15th state to come onboard. Republican state Rep. Tom Cross, who stepped down from his position as House minority leader earlier this year, voted for the bill, stating, “For me, supporting marriage equality is not only the right decision, but also consistent with my belief in individual freedom, equality and limited government.” Meanwhile, the African American Clergy Coalition praised those who voted against the gay-marriage measure.

Yes, Democrats mostly supported the same-sex marriage bill and Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it, but the lines are not perfectly stark, and that presents an opportunity to expand support beyond the Democratic party, if that’s what’s actually wanted. A bad night for the GOP’s anti-gay “moral” crusaders could make that more likely.

Jon Stewart’s Daily Show finds Mississippi and Alabama are changing with the rest of the country. Without overstating things, I believe at least some of the bright red states that passed anti-gay-marriage amendments just a few years ago probably would not do so today.

Jonathan Rauch makes The Case for Hate Speech:

Our great blessing was to live in a society that understands where knowledge comes from: not from political authority or personal revelation, but from a public process of open-ended debate and discussion, in which every day millions of people venture and test billions of hypotheses. All but a few of those theories are found wanting, but some survive and flourish over time, and those comprise our knowledge. …

History shows that the more open the intellectual environment, the better minorities will do. … To make social learning possible, we need to criticize our adversaries, of course. But no less do we need them to criticize us.

Dale Carpenter shares why he agrees:

As a matter of history, Rauch is certainly right that gay-rights advocates and opponents have met repeatedly on the battlefield of ideas, and that the former have consistently bested the latter. Rauch’s case directly and powerfully supports the view that government should not ban hate speech.

All in all, a timely rebuke to the politically correct silencing of offensive ideas.

A new lobbying effort to move the GOP to the middle on gay rights. Good luck. However, many gay libertarians don’t think the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) should be a litmus test, but rather equality under the law. And beware those unintended consequences (such as passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act being correlated with a lower percentage of handicapped Americans being hired).

Another sign of the times: Evangelical Leader Preaches Pullback From Politics, Culture Wars. No change in the Southern Baptists’ opposition to marriage equality but plans to soft-pedal it a bit, as we’ve seen from the Mormons and from Pope Francis.

More. Long-time readers know that I am, and remain, equivocal about ENDA. Yes, other minorities subject to various degrees of employment discrimination are protected by federal statute, and thus so should gays, is an understandable argument. Also, it would send a strong message that the federal government views anti-gay discrimination in the workplace as unacceptable. I get that. On the other hand, we’ve seen over the past decades a huge rise in frivolous lawsuits charging minority or gender-based discrimination with little or no reasonable evidence, which are nonetheless typically settled by employers because of the cost of litigation and “you never know what a jury might rule.”

In the case of those with disabilities (who, like gay and transgender employees would be under ENDA, are not subject to hiring and promotion preferences based on statistical analysis), the risk of opening the door to an employee’s discrimination suit is correlated with a drop in hiring, the opposite of the anticipated result. Also, there is scant evidence that discrimination against gays in the workplace is widespread.

I’d welcome an executive order or law saying government contractors must not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And I wouldn’t lobby against ENDA; but I don’t see it as the priority activists have made it, either.

Let’s leave aside debate over the once and future shutdown, for which I hold both parties responsible (and award the mainstream media yet another badge of shame for its shamelessly partisan misreporting on fellow liberal elitists).

New Jersey will begin recognizing same-sex marriages on Oct. 21 pursuant to a superior court order; an appeal of that order is slated to be heard by the N.J. Supreme Court in January 2014. Also, the N.J. state legislature has until Jan. 14 to override Gov. Chris Christie’s 2012 veto of a same-sex marriage bill.

“The state’s statutory scheme effectively denies committed same-sex partners in New Jersey the ability to receive federal benefits not afforded to married partners,” said the state’s Supreme Court in denying Christie’s request to stay marriage equality until his appeal is heard.

Christie further showed himself unequipped for 21st century leadership by declaring he would tell a hypothetical gay child, “Dad believes marriage is between one man and one woman.”

Update 1: On Oct. 21, the Christie administration withdraw its appeal of the ruling requiring marriage equality and announced: “Although the Governor strongly disagrees with the Court substituting its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a vote of the people, the Court has now spoken clearly as to their view of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the law. The Governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his Administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme Court.”

This is a nod to reality (he wasn’t going to win in the NJ Supreme Court come January), but also a political move that tries to play it both ways. That is, Christie isn’t standing in the courthouse door pledging marriage inequality forever, as Virginia’s Ken Cuccinelli would likely do (see below).

Update 2: The National Organization for Marriage attacks and threatens “[Christie’s] surrender on marriage effectively surrenders any chance he might have had to secure the GOP nomination for president.” We’ll see.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, anti-gay social conservative Ken Cuccinelli, is trailing Democratic crony capitalist hack Terry McAuliffe. Will Cucc’s loss be a lesson to the GOP? Don’t count on it. Anti-gay activist Maggie Gallagher is already bloviating that Cuccinelli is losing because he’s not socially conservative enough.

Adding to the confusion in Virginia, where there is a fine Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate, Robert Sarvis, is the increasingly muddled reporting that describes Cucc as having “staked out strong libertarian positions.” As when he was supporting the state’s sodomy law? Of course, Cuccinelli is encouraging this laugh line by describing himself as “the most pro-liberty elected statewide official in my lifetime,” showing that this farce has become a travesty.

More. George Will in support of Robert Sarvis, Virginia’s Libertarian alternative. He quotes a Sarvis ad in which the candidate makes it clear:

“Like you, I can’t vote for Ken Cuccinelli’s narrow-minded social agenda. I want a Virginia that’s open-minded and welcoming to all. And like you, I don’t want Terry McAuliffe’s cronyism either, where government picks winners and losers. Join me, and together we can build a Virginia that’s open-minded and open for business.”

That would be nice.

Furthermore. This will be the meme: Tea Party Leader: Ultraconservative Ken Cuccinelli Is Not Conservative Enough. And to be fair, progressive activists have said the same thing (in reverse, that is) when they nominate leftwingers who go down to defeat.

Here’s another example of LGBT activists’ calcified partisanship and zombie “progressivism.” Via last week’s Washington Blade:

Two Democratic members of Congress—one gay and one bisexual—are incurring the wrath of LGBT activists for voting with House Republicans to delay certain portions of Obamacare in exchange for keeping the government in operation.

Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) were among nine Democrats on Monday who voted for a Republican-led resolution that provided funds for the government for fiscal year 2014, but included a provision delaying the individual mandate and requiring members of Congress and their staffs to pay the full cost of insurance without the government subsidy. …

Both Maloney and Sinema also joined Republicans on Sunday to vote for repeal of the tax on medical devices as part of Obamacare. …

Michael Rogers, a D.C.-based LGBT rights advocate, said the vote means Sinema and Maloney are Democrats in name only. … Michaelangelo Signorile, a gay New York activist and radio host on SiriusXM, took to Twitter to express his indignation.

Oh, the horror. Not marching in iron-booted lockstep with the party of PROGRESS. Shamelessly violating the precepts of Democratric centralism. Shun them NOW.

More. The Blade subsequently reports this week that furloughed gay federal employees “all blamed Congress—and Tea Party Republicans in particular—for the partial government shutdown,” and that:

“Their style of government is not geared toward compromise,” [a furloughed employee] said, referring to [GOP] efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare that took effect on Tuesday. “They’re basically holding the federal workers and contractors hostage.”

Let’s think about this. The House Republicans for over a week have retrenched from their demand to defund Obamacare and instead staked their position on a one-year delay in the individual mandate, matching the delay granted businesses, and no special exemption (to allow employer-provided pretax subsidies for exchange-based plans) for congressmembers and staff. Also on the table is a bipartisan-supported end to the counter-productive tax on medical devices. In response, President Obama has said he will not negotiate until the Republicans pass his spending resolution with no changes (rendering “negotiation” rather beside the point). As Charles Krauthammer notes:

For all the hyped indignation over GOP “anarchism,” there has been remarkable media reticence about the president’s intransigence. He has refused to negotiate anything unless the Republicans fully fund the government and raise the debt ceiling—unconditionally.

Just who is refusing to compromise here? And when moderate Democrats want to pursue that compromise, they get attacked as DINOs by the same folks who claim the Republicans are the no-compromise party.

Do the progressives ever bother to think through their bald-faced contradictions?

Furthermore. Lots of gratuitous insults aimed at yours truly by loyal Democrats earning their Media Matters points, without tackling the actual arguments made above.

Still more. Via instapundit:

MoveOn.Org petition demands GOP arrests for ‘conspiracy against US.’

They are making plain how they think, and what they’d do if they had the power to do it. Take this seriously, because they do.

Via the Wall Street Journal, “Some Businesses Balk at Gay Weddings” (subscription may be required):

The issue gained attention in August, when the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that an Albuquerque photography business violated state antidiscrimination laws after its owners declined to snap photos of a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony.

Similar cases are pending in Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon and Washington, and some experts think the underlying legal question—whether free-speech and religious rights should allow exceptions to state antidiscrimination laws—could ultimately wind its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

And then there’s this:

In Oregon, bakery owners Aaron and Melissa Klein learned in August that a state complaint had been filed against them because they had refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. A lawyer for the Kleins, who declined to comment, said the couple has done business with gay people for years, but didn’t want to be forced to participate in an event contrary to their Christian beliefs, especially given that same-sex marriage still isn’t legal in Oregon.

So, Oregon says gays can’t marry, but prosecutes those who balk at providing services for a same-sex nonlegal wedding. Both positions are profoundly anti-liberty.

Added: David Boaz comments on his Facebook page, more pithily than I, “The state of Oregon won’t issue a gay couple a marriage license, but it will prosecute you if you won’t bake ’em a cake.”

Related, via the Washiington Times, “Mormons try a more muted strategy against gay marriage second time around in Hawaii.” While the Mormon hierarchy still opposes same-sex marriage, instead of funding campaigns to defeat marriage equality they are attempting to secure a religious exemption for those whose beliefs prevent them from performing services for gay weddings.

We should accept that deal (“progressive” total statists, of course, won’t).

The arrogance and illegality reflected in IRS staffers giving the Human Rights Campaign the donor list of the National Organization for Marriage is pervasive in the Obama administration and its popular fronts, but covered only by the conservative press. It’s a black eye for the cause of gay legal equality, giving some very bigoted people and groups a legitimate platform to express outrage at an out-of-control and hyper-partisan Washington elite.

You know, progressives really aren’t above the law. Really, they aren’t. They just think they are.

The issue isn’t whether donor lists to advocacy groups should legally be made public (and I don’t believe they should). For staffers at the IRS to do so in order to expose donors to conservative groups is deeply corrupting, much like the denial of tax-exempt status and harassment audits unleashed against tea party organizations and limited-government advocates.

More. The argument has been made that I think religiously conservative small business owners are “above the law” because they are fighting against being forced to provide their services to same-sex weddings. The difference is that those business owners are facing litigation by the state; I argue these are bad laws (or badly interpreted laws) if they force people to engage in behavior that violates their religious beliefs, and that the laws should be changed.

In the case of the IRS selectively pursing conservative groups (or, in this case, illegally making their donor list public), the government is assuredly not bringing suit against the law violators, it’s protecting them. And the government is not arguing that the law is bad and should be changed, it’s just sanctioning corrupt partisan violations.

Furthermore. Only someone who gets “news” from MSNBC would fall for the manifestly false canard that liberal groups were equally targeted. Some facts:

Treasury IG: Liberal groups weren’t targeted by IRS like Tea Party

IRS scoreboard: 100 percent of “targeted” liberal groups were approved, conservatives languished

This is how change happens: “If most gays and lesbians in rural areas stay silent or bolt for the city, there’s no one and nothing to push back at ingrained prejudices.” In Pennsylvania, GOP state representative Mike Fleck is trying to change that.

And this is how change happens: “In this emotional video, David Stevens, a straight man, discusses what happened after he posted pictures of his gay brother’s wedding on Facebook.”

And this is also how changes happens, because there is a role for judicial action; it’s just far from the only thing that’s needed to achieve cultural change. In this case, the bipartisan legal team of Ted Olson and David Boies is seeking to have Virginia’s state constitutional amendment and related laws struck down as violating the fundamental right to marry and the equal protection of the laws.

Even if an eventual ruling doesn’t find that fundamental right, it would be great to see Justice Kennedy’s Romer decision extended to invalidate anti-gay-marriage amendments on the basis that they create an impermissible barrier to seeking remedies to discrimination through the legislative process. Many feel that this is what Justice Kennedy wanted to achieve in the Supreme Court’s Prop. 8 case, if he had been able to secure a majority.