Rare News Desk
Last week, GOProud founder Jimmy LaSalvia publicly left the Republican Party over what he saw as leadership “kowtowing” to that “sliver of their base who are anti-gay.”
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I can’t say I blame Jimmy and even share his frustration. I only wish he hadn’t left so soon.
There is a civil war happening in the Republican Party over the issue of same-sex marriage. There are two sides—the winning side and the losing side.
The winning side are those who believe the time for same-sex marriage has come. They are winning because the entire country is rapidly heading in that direction. It is a massive generational shift. Even among Christians, the younger you go, the more support you will find for gay marriage.
The losing side are those who believe the country will somehow reverse course on this issue despite every single cultural indicator showing otherwise. Obviously, simply being in the majority does not automatically make something right. In fact, until just recently most Americans still opposed gay marriage.
And many of them realized they were mistaken, changed their minds and our public discourse.
Radio host Glenn Beck has expressed different levels of openness to same-sex marriage and gay acceptance for a number of years now. Beck has even expressed the libertarian view that government shouldn’t be involved in the business of marriage at all.
But this week he took it step further, blasting homophobia in no uncertain terms, “If you hate people because they’re gay… I don’t want to have anything to do with you.”
Said Beck, “Anybody within the sound of my voice that hates a gay person because they’re gay, you have no place calling yourself a fan of mine… you have no friendship here, if you hate people because they’re gay… You have no place claiming that you’re a fan of this show…”
Republican Congressman Justin Amash, who rose to national prominence last year in his fight against the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance policies, issued the following statement on Tuesday, “Defending civil liberties is at the heart of the Republican Party and our Constitution. As I’ve demonstrated with my words and record, I am trying to grow a new generation of Republicans that includes more gays and lesbians, racial-ethnic minorities, women, and young people.”
Amash’s statement was in reaction to a Republican National Committeeman in Michigan who called homosexuals “filthy,” and insulted Muslims.
When Jimmy LaSalvia left the GOP, he mentioned “Just recently a member of the RNC who has a long history of saying many anti-gay statements went on an anti-Muslim screed on his Facebook page, and the best that the RNC chairman can do is say we need to treat everybody with respect. He can’t say that that’s wrong and denounce it.”
Well, Rep. Amash just said that RNC leader was wrong and denounced him. That leader, Dave Agema, is the same person LaSalvia was talking about. Said Amash, “I hope Dave will do the right thing for the next generation of conservatives and step down.”
LaSalvia is right that Republican leadership should have the guts to do the same. But it is also quite significant that two of the most prominent libertarian conservative voices in the country are embracing tolerance and rejecting hate. The RNC doesn’t have the ear of the conservative base. But Beck certainly does. Amash is a hero to countless young conservatives, libertarians and tea partiers.
These are some pretty prominent conservative voices who are now doing the exact opposite of demagoguing by promoting tolerance to the masses.
There are reasonable religious objections to same-sex marriage, and religious tolerance has always been among the many virtues that has made America great. Gay advocates and people of goodwill who want homosexuals to be free to marry will continue to find great support. But if they ever want to use government force to demand churches and private institutions embrace definitions some theologically oppose, that support will drop.
I know few, if any, advocates of same sex marriage who seek this. But even beyond the issue of marriage, what they do seek is an end to the kind of open hate towards gay Americans Beck, Amash and LaSalvia address.
There was a time in this country when it was socially acceptable to be prejudiced against someone for the color of their skin. Today, thankfully, this is no longer acceptable.
The same is now true of sexual orientation, or at least truer than ever. There are many holdovers, as I’m sure Mr. LaSalvia can attest to, but I can remember when slurs like “fag” were tossed around in 1980’s movies in ways that would never be tolerated today. Times have changed. The culture’s changed.
America has changed. Now, its time for the Republican Party to follow suit.
Says LaSalvia, “I am every bit as conservative as I’ve always been, but I just can’t bring myself to carry the Republican label any longer… they are turning off millions more Americans by kowtowing to a group that frankly is losing and who most Americans think are wrong.”
LaSalvia is right. How many Americans want to embrace individualism, free markets and constitutional liberty, but do not because they believe it also means embracing a rightwing package that includes bigotry? A Gallup poll this month showed that record numbers of Americans now identify as independents while the number of people calling themselves Republicans is the lowest in 25 years.
Most Americans could give a rip about the Republican Party but if the GOP wants to win again it had better start caring about them and their changing attitudes.
Beck and Amash both identify as libertarian conservatives, and it should be no surprise that their brand of conservatism is far more in tune with where the majority of Americans are than some of the obstinate, possibly archaic GOP leadership LaSalvia has had to contend with.
The best aspects of conservatism have always been related to smaller government, something Beck and Amash both stand for, tall and true. But some of the worst parts of conservatism have included anti-gay bigotry of the sort that prompted Jimmy LaSalvia to leave the GOP.
Glenn Beck and Justin Amash now reject that bigotry forthright. As both a practical matter and moral imperative, more conservatives will have to do that too.
