First, the good news:
Oregon Republicans have stripped anti-gay language from their 2012 party platform, a shift toward the political center in a state where the GOP has struggled mightily in recent years.
Wording that essentially condemned same-sex marriage and civil unions, and that stated such couples were unfit to be parents, was removed from the official party platform during a weekend convention in Bend.
“We want the public to take another look at the Republican Party and our policies,” said Greg Leo, spokesman for the state party. “It’s fair to say we’re more centrist.”
The North Carolina Senate on Tuesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state, sending it to voters for their approval.
After less than two hours of debate, senators decided to send the proposed amendment to voters during the May primary election. The House gave its approval with a 75 to 42 vote on Monday.
Senators approved the bill with a narrow 30 to 16 vote. Constitutional bans require a three-fifths majority for passage.
They’ve managed to avoid this in the past because the Democrats in the state were able to kill it, but with the GOP in charge in NC, things done changed:
North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast without a gay marriage ban in its constitution. The idea has gone nowhere in the last decade because Democratic leaders quashed Republican efforts to debate amendment referenda.
Now with Republicans in charge of the Legislature for the first time in 140 years, conservatives are making their move. Lawmakers return Monday to Raleigh to debate proposed amendments, including one to let voters next year decide if a state law already on the books defining marriage as between one man and one woman should be imprinted into the state constitution as well.
Two thoughts. While it is nice that the Oregon GOP is making itself more centrist, the simple fact of the matter is if you are a Republican in Oregon, and you vote for a Republican candidate, you are still supporting the bigot party because a vote for a Republican Speaker or Senate Majority Leader in Washington is a vote for the homophobes. It’s nice and all that you’ve decided to be more centrist and all, but it won’t matter one bit.
Second, as the second article on NC goes on to state, this is right out of the Rove playbook. Get wedge issues on the ballot to motivate and bring out the troglodyte vote for the GOP, and help put the state in play. This is no different from all the gay-bashing amendments that mysteriously appeared on ballots across the country during the Bush years to help get out the wingnut vote, and considering Obama won NC in 2008, the Republicans are desperate to fix that.
We live in Lee Atwater’s America.
*** Update ***
As has been pointed out in the comments, I am wrong on point two. This will be voted on in the primary, not the general.