Gay Marriage, the GOP, and a Looming Disaster

Ken Blackwell is scared.

Blackwell, the man in charge of creating the GOP's 2008 platform, doesn't want former Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign manager and RNC Chair Ken Mehlman's coming out to change one damn thing. Like, the Republican party's position on marriage equality, or civil rights for the LGBT community.

In a FOX op-ed, "Disaster Looms If GOP Changes Course On Gay Marriage," published the day after the Mehlman "outing," Blackwell wrote, "The GOP platform could not be more explicit: Marriage is the union of one man and one woman. The fundamental institution of human civilization should be preserved as it has been known through the entirety of American history and Western civilization. Supporters of same-sex marriage had the full opportunity to make their case to the party. They made it, and they lost."

Of course, it smacks of juvenile hysteria and reeks of biblical fear-mongering. But what Blackwell, an Evangelical Christian and graduate of Xavier University, one of the oldest Jesuit schools in the country, is really upset about is that his pièce de résistance, the GOP platform, might possibly be amended as well.

In the FOX piece, Blackwell continues with, "A person can support same sex marriage, but admit that it’s a state issue to be decided locally, not a right that can be imposed on a state — or the nation — by federal judges."

"Republicans demand that judges interpret the Constitution as written, not rewrite it from the bench."

"The same judicial activism that Judge Walker in San Francisco displayed in declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage is the same activism that Republicans decry on every other front. It’s the same activism found in Roe v. Wade, declaring a right to abortion."

It's pretty clear Blackwell is not a fan of judges — or civil rights — such as marriage, abortion, or voting.

Accused of voter disenfranchisement in the 2004 election, Blackwell, who successfully led the charge to amend Ohio's constitution to ban same-sex marriage in 2004, threatened to go to jail rather than obey a federal judge's order against his policy of effectively denying voters the right to vote if they could not confirm their voter registration.

Blackwell, the man who himself lost the election for chairmanship of the Republican National Committee to Michael Steele in early 2009, has a long history of losing elections. But he also has long ties to the Bush family, serving as the first Bush's undersecretary of HUD and as the second Bush's honorary reelection committee co-chair.

(One really has to wonder if at the core of Blackwell's opposition to Mehlman is the fact the Mehlman was the RNC Chair, a position Blackwell ran for but lost?)

But back to marriage, and Mehlman.

Despite the mixed feelings of the LGBT community at large, Mehlman's coming out does change the game. He brings credibility, fund-raising resources, and something the current de facto leaders of today's Republican Party fear most: a modern-day, under-fifty, politically well-regarded bridge from the GOP of the Bush dynasty to today's out-of-control, Tea Party infested buffoonery that is the Republican Party.

Mehlman has promised to advocate, and fund-raise, for marriage equality, and this scares Blackwell.

Blackwell is scared that the onslaught of Republicans who are coming out in favor of marriage equality and civil rights for all LGBT Americans will be the death knell of the Republican Party and the Tea Party he has worked so hard to inject with his special brand of homophobia. A brand of homophobia perhaps best exemplified by Blackwell's position as a Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council, the very group that boasts among its founders James Dobson and George Alan Rekers.

Consider the fact that Ken Mehlman, whom Marc Ambinder — the man whom Mehlman told his coming out story to — designates as "the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay," is the cream of the crop in a recent lineup of marriage equality-supporting GOP bigwigs.

GOP bigwigs like Former First Lady Laura Bush. Cindy McCain and her daughter, Meghan. Steve Schmidt, Senator McCain's chief presidential campaign strategist. Federal judge Vaughn Walker. Former Vice President Dick Cheney. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. GOP strategist Mary Matalin.

These are highly-regarded stalwarts of the GOP, not lower-level, out-of-control Tea Party extremists like Ken Blackwell.

Yes, Ken Blackwell is scared. Scared his beloved GOP Tea Party will fall into the hands of more moderate voices. Scared that same-sex marriage is becoming accepted. Scared that others will agree with Schmidt, who said, "The attitudes of voters about gay marriage and about domestic partnership benefits for gay couples are changing very rapidly and for voters under the age of 30, they are completely disconnected from what has been Republican orthodoxy on these issues."

Blackwell, now 62, is afraid of these changes.

Which leads us back to "Disaster Looms If GOP Changes Course On Gay Marriage."

The disaster of which Blackwell speaks is not for the GOP. It is disaster for Blackwell, who will be seen as out-of-touch, old hat, a bigot, and a homophobe when the GOP finally accepts marriage equality, and when marriage equality becomes the law of the land.

In fact, should the GOP "change course on gay marriage," the winner would actually be the GOP, and the effective loser would be the Democratic Party, who would lose votes to the GOP. The other loser?

Ken Blackwell.

Photo credit: Two Ladies & Two Cats