IGF CultureWatch

David Boaz parses recent survey data that finds about 13% of the electorate consists of independent “deliberators” who are highly likely to vote but as of yet remain undecided. Among this small group who will determine the election:

64% support “smaller government with fewer services,” and 63% favor gay marriage. The former position, of course, puts them closer to Republicans, and the latter closer to Democrats. These are the true swing voters, and they might well be described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

Boaz has more to say about (small “l”) libertarian-minded voters—and why they are a leading indicator of how the much larger number of self-identified “independents” are likely to vote—in this video interview with reason.tv.

You might expect that given the importance of these voters both Democrats and Republicans would try to woo them. Yet the Democrats remain captive to the big government left as the Republicans remain captive to the socially conservative right. That may please the ideologues and party operatives of the left and right, but it leaves the broad swath of the country in despair.

Increasingly, we’re going to see social conservatives act as a drag on the GOP, as demonstrated by Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s idiotic statements about rape and abortion, which in all likely have assured that Missouri’s senate seat will remain in big-spending Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill’s hands.

And then there was Pat Robertson’s recent warning about adopting foreign-born kids who might have been sexually abused and thus might turn out “weird.”

More. Democrats spent $1.5 million to help Akin win the GOP primary because they believed he gave incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill her best shot at retaining her seat. They must be chortling now. But it has a corrupting influence on the (small “d”) democratic process. You see this as well when some LGBT progressives oppose gay Republicans running for office because a GOP that remains vehemently anti-gay is in their own partisan self-interest.

“Have you ever wondered why conservatives are so opposed to government interference in the marketplace yet so tolerant, even welcoming, of its role in our personal lives?” asks Bloomberg columnist Caroline Baum. She observes:

The idea that government knows best is anathema to fiscal conservatives, who believe in a limited government of enumerated powers. How is it that same government can be the ultimate authority on how we live our lives, whom we can marry, how we raise our children, where we worship, what we inhale and ingest, and what we do behind closed doors?

When Baum asks the question of Cato Institute libertarian David Boaz and Heritage Institute conservative David Azerrad, she gets illuminating responses.

In response to the shooting at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Log Cabin Republicans strike the right tone:

“As fellow conservatives, Log Cabin Republicans are often in the same room with the Family Research Council. Though we rarely see eye to eye, we absolutely condemn the violence that occurred today,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director. “Keeping in mind that at this time we know little about the shooter or his motives, whatever our political disagreements, in this country, we use ballots, not bullets, to address them. We offer prayers for the injured security guard, his family, and everybody at the FRC building, barely a fifteen minute walk away from Log Cabin Republicans national headquarters. In many ways, this is a reminder that we aren’t so far apart.”

More. The shooter was identified as a volunteer at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. A coalition of 25 gay rights groups released a statement through GLAAD condemning the shooting.

Furthermore. Conservative pundit John Hinderaker blogs:

There seems to be no doubt that he wanted to shoot up the Family Research Council because he disagrees with the FRC’s position on gay marriage. It is also reasonable to suspect–although presumably more will be known about this in due course–that he was influenced by the many left-wing and gay activist organizations that labeled the FRC a “hate group.”

And a roundup from The Hill: Shooting spurs heated debate on gay rights, ‘hate group’ label.

The shooting plays into the narrative of intolerant gays, the same as the Chick-fil-A zoning blowback. And many LGBT gay progressive activists can be, in fact, hatefully intolerant — something this blog, gay Republicans and others have experienced first hand. But that doesn’t obscure the fact that the Family Research Council has earned our antipathy not simply because it opposes marriage equality, but because (as The Hill story points out), it has used extreme language and cast spurious allegations to demean gay people. This gets lost, however, just as the story became Chick-fil-A being targeted by liberal politicians instead of Chick-fil-A’s corporate donations to organizations—such as the Family Research Council—that work every day to deny gay people legal equality.

That being said, labeling the Family Research Council a “hate group” was never going to convince anyone of anything if they were not already in our camp. Too often, the left and the right turn to incendiary rhetoric instead of sound argument and debate. Emotions get inflamed, but little light is shed.

Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney’s veep pick, while not a social conservative fire-breather, supported the anti-gay (and anti-federalist) federal marriage amendment and opposed repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But he is one of the few politicos to have shown any sanity and courage about the entitlement and deficit crises, which liberal Democrats continue to shamefully demagogue for political advantage.

The political challenge of our time is to push the Democratic party back toward relative Clintonian fiscal moderation (imposed on Bill Clinton by a Republican congress), while continuing the struggle within the GOP to counter the pernicious control of hidebound social conservatives who will otherwise doom the party’s prospects among the next generation of voters.

More. From the Log Cabin Republicans, “Congressman Ryan’s 2007 vote in favor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and his consistent willingness to engage with Log Cabin on a range of issues speaks to his record as a fair-minded policymaker.” From GOProud, “Paul Ryan is one of the few political leaders anywhere in the country willing to tell the American people the truth about the unprecedented budget crisis we are facing, and – more importantly – willing to put forward bold plans to put this country back on the road to fiscal solvency.”

Social conservatives have pushed both Romney and Ryan to the right on gay issues. Should the ticket win, we’d have to see where they situate themselves.

However, if the issue of gay equality dominates all others, you won’t be voting for the GOP ticket. But those who believe the economic well-being of future generations of Americans is at severe risk given another four years of the present administration, support for the GOP is not an indication of self-loathing, as LGBT Democratic operatives would have it.

Another option: lodging a protest against both parties by voting for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who strongly favors both marriage equality and deficit reduction with real entitlement reform. Third-party candidates don’t get elected nationally, but their forward-looking agendas can, in time, change the terms of the debate.

Furthermore. Reader JamesR comments:

“Both Ryan and Romney once supported ENDA. They were, of course, pushed to the right — politicians respond to the prevailing political winds. Neither is hardcore anti-gay — it’s not what they want to talk about, and never has been. They are not Santorum or Huckabee.

So, if the winds can be changed — yes, probably in the GOP they can’t be, but IF they could — I don’t doubt that Romney and Ryan would again be supportive on gay issues.

And that remains the challenge.

Everything is relative. Social rightists are incensed that Romney hasn’t taken a rhetorically harder anti-gay line. This, in short, is what we’re up against within the GOP.

Which is not to say, as some LGBT Democratic operatives/activists imply, that we should give up and all embrace the party of bigger, more intrusive and redistributionist government that has brought us four years of such prosperity (and, at the same time, let us know it’s all George Bush’s fault and forever will be). The battle must be joined on both fronts.

updated from bottom, Aug. 6, 2012

Aug. 1 was Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, even in Massachusetts.

As Instapundit Glenn Reynolds blogs:

I don’t think this can be interpreted as opposition to gay marriage, so much as a response to bullying. But I do think that the bullying has probably tainted the gay-marriage brand, which is too bad. The gay-marriage argument is already winning — there’s no need to engage in Rahm Emanuel-style attacks, and doing so merely invites pushback.

But I think that’s far too optimistic, given the reported comments by the lined-up out-the-door patrons of the fast food chain, which donates millions to anti-gay groups. And it’s not so good for gay employees at the outlets these days, either.

On a more hopeful note, David Boaz blogs at Politico:

As Timothy Kincaid writes at Box Turtle Bulletin, “The company has a new label: ‘the brand of choice for anti-gay people.’”

That was good for the company on Wednesday. But I can’t believe it will be a good brand in the long run. Watch for an increase in sales of McDonald’s chicken sandwiches this week.

Let’s hope.

Further thoughts. I’ve reflected a bit more on what the Chick-fil-A eruption signifies, and I think it points to some gaping problems for us. As I’ve argued for many years, the fight for gay legal equality and liberty, while in obvious ways advanced by support from liberal Democrats, is also undermined by the close identification of our struggle with those who advocate ever-larger, more intrusive government and more control over the lives of America’s citizens by liberal government elites. The Obama mandate requiring employers, including those with religious affiliations, to provide contraceptive coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs is an example of left-liberal arrogance and over-reach. The efforts by Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanual and a handful of other Democratic officeholders in various liberal jurisdictions to use zoning laws against Chick-fil-A is now being seen as part of the ongoing “attack on religious liberty.” The anti-gay bigots are lined up at Chick-fil-A, but so are large numbers of conservative leaners who don’t want liberal government dictating what people can say and think (lost in all this, of course, is the fact that Chick-fil-A, as a corporation, gives millions of dollars to anti-gay organizations).

The efforts by just a handful of our erstwhile friends (or, less charitably, pandering politicians), has cost us dearly and could very well undermine efforts in Maryland, Minnesota and elsewhere to fight anti-gay-marriage initiatives. We know who are enemies are; but with friends like these, we could be sunk.

Furthermore. Josh Barro writes in the Boston Globe How Boston Mayor Tom Menino turned bullies into martyrs with his Chick-fil-A stance. Along with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn:

these city officials changed the subject, and not in a good way for advocates of gay marriage. Chick-fil-A no longer has to answer for its CEO’s position on gay marriage and its owners’ support of organizations that oppose gay rights. Instead, the company is on the much more comfortable ground of simply defending its CEO’s right to express a constitutionally protected opinion without reprisal from the government.

As Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner, “GOP Sees Opportunity in Dems’ Support of Gay Marriage“:

On Monday, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., told the Washington Blade that the Democratic Party’s 15-member platform drafting committee has approved a plank supporting gay marriage for the party’s upcoming convention. … It didn’t take Republicans long to see opportunity in the Democrats’ decision. Shortly after the news came out, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent a press email highlighting a recent Wall Street Journal article that listed some Democratic senators running for re-election who have publicly distanced themselves from President Obama’s support of gay marriage. Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Florida’s Bill Nelson — all have laid low on the issue. Now that will be harder to do.

Republicans were perfectly happy to watch Democrats raise the profile of gay marriage…

At some point, the culture shifts and parties can find themselves on the wrong side of history. That may not be true in 2012—we’ll see how this one plays out—but it will be in the not too far future.

Incidently, York mischaracterizes the Democrats’ likely position on the Defense of Marriage Act, stating they want to force recognition of “gay marriage everywhere, now.” In fact, the challenges to DOMA currently consists of repealing the section that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages that are already recognized by individual states. This widespread misrepresentation is also certain to be ubiquitous on the right.

Much blogosphere discussion on suggestions (now somewhat walked back) by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other Democratic politicos on using the zoning laws against Chick-fil-A due to the company’s anti-gay-marriage views (the company says it does not discriminate against gay customers or employees). Writes James Peron at the Huffington Post:

Boycott the hell out of them; even drive them into liquidation by popular refusal to support the company, if you wish, but when the law is used selectively to punish a business because of the owner’s opinions and donations, then the law is overstepping its bounds. If anything, the moral case against Chick-fil-A is tainted by such actions.

More from Glen Greenwald at Salon:

You can’t cheer when political officials punish the expression of views you dislike and then expect to be taken seriously when you wrap yourself in the banner of free speech in order to protest state punishment of views you like and share.

James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal:

The mayors were playing something of a game of chicken: making a threat they lacked the authority to back up in the hope of both scoring political points and intimidating Chick-fil-A into backing down. The latter might well have succeeded if public reaction had been favorable to the mayors’ efforts.

And Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy:

A government official [Chicago Alderman Proco “Joe” Moreno] thinks that the proper “consequence” for a business owner’s “statements and beliefs” is the denial of the ability to do business.

A story in the Advocate asserts that Right Wing Uses Colo. Tragedy to Vilify Gays, Secularism.

However, it’s not clear that the examples given are blaming gay people for the tragedy. What’s reported is that:

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association is apparently the first to play the gay card this time. Reacting to news that the Aurora Chick-fil-A was providing free food to police and other emergency personnel on the scene, Fischer tweeted, “Chick-fil-A provides free meals to first responders in CO. Let’s see Big Gay demonize that.”

A thoroughly churlish comment, but more about the LGBT boycott of the anti-gay rights fast food chain (see posting below) than about culpability for the shooting.

The Advocate further reports that:

Without mentioning LGBT people specifically, Fischer cites these phenomena as among the consequences [of ending school prayer]: “The nuclear family is breaking apart at culture-destroying rates. One of out every five adults in America has a lifelong, incurable sexually transmitted disease.”

Blaming the end of mandatory school prayer may be reactionary and theocratic, but I’m still not seeing the “vilify gays” part here. But the piece continues:

Also blaming the tragedy on “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” was Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, who appeared on a Heritage Foundation radio show hosted by former congressman Ernest Istook of Oklahoma. “We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country,” Gohmert said.

That’s closer to, but not quite saying, that same-sex marriage (for example) has degraded society and is thus responsible for the shooting. But less than “vilify gays” in my book. In addition, I’m open to the argument that a general move away from a widely shared focus on the importance of teaching ethics and morality, in their true sense, has, in fact, degraded our culture.

Even if the above veers on scapegoating, let’s note that it’s not just the rightwing that can be accused of making spurious accusations. Moments after the suspect’s name became known, Brian Ross of ABC News drew a possible, but ultimately specious, Tea Party connection with the shooter. And in fact, leftwing activists have been quick to accuse tea party activists of all manner of hate-incitement, with little or no evidence.

In a highly polarized political world, everything is seen as fodder for political gain.