Wow. Steve Scmidt is kind of a big deal. He wasn't just some flunky on the campaign. He drove us mad on a regular basis. And today he's giving a speech to a gay Republican group and arguing why the party should embrace marriage rights for gay couples.
Schmidt argues that, first, there's a moral reason to embrace marriage for gay couples, and compares being pro-gay to being pro-life (that should spin some heads). Then Schmidt argues that politically the party needs to grow its coalition, not shrink it - and that embracing gay civil rights will help the party attract more voters. Schmidt also notes, implicitly, that by wooing the religious right the Republicans are alienating lots of other voters.
From CNN:
Schmidt makes both policy and political arguments for a Republican embrace of same-sex marriage.Think about it. In 2000, Howard Dean was a maverick for endorsing civil unions. It was thought by many that this made Dean too liberal to win the presidency. Now civil unions is the fallback position that bigots use to prove that they're not homophobic. More and more mainstream conservatives, including John McCain's own daughter, are coming out for marriage. This is about far more than gay civil rights. It's about the Republican party trying to figure out what it wants to be in the future, with the far-right in control, and the moderate left finally starting to show signs of life.
On the policy front, Schmidt likens the fight for gay rights to civil rights and women's rights, and he admonishes conservatives who argue for the protection of the unborn as a God-given right, but against protections for same-sex couples....
Politically, he will say that becoming more open and accepting is critical to reversing an alarming trend for Republicans — a shrinking coalition. He will note that Republicans should be especially concerned that McCain got crushed by Barack Obama among voters under 30, who are generally more accepting of gay couples and at odds with the GOP.
"Some Republicans believe the period of self-examination within the party necessitated by the loss of our majority status is mostly a question of whether the party should become more moderate or conservative. I think that's a false choice. We need to grow our coalition, but as I said, that's hard to do if we lose some votes while gaining others," says Schmidt.
