John McCain's Daughter and Campaign Manager are Better than Most Democrats on Marriage

by Michael Jones · 2009-03-27 07:59:00 UTC
Topics:

Steve Schmidt

It feels almost weird saying this, but looking back on the week that was, two prominent Republicans came out in support of same-sex marriage.  First was Meghan McCain, who we wrote about earlier this week.  The latest Republican?  John McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt.

Schmidt told the Washington Blade this week:

I’m personally supportive of [marriage] equality for gay couples and I believe that it will happen over time. I think that more and more Americans are insistent that, at a minimum, gay couples should be treated with respect and when they see a political party trying to stigmatize a group of people who are hardworking, who play by the rules, who raise decent families, they’re troubled by it.

It almost feels like a parallel universe reading these words from Schmidt.  How is it that the guy who ran John McCain's campaign is better on the issue of same-sex marraige then (1) Barack Obama, and (2) the Democratic Governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, who said this week that he's against same-sex marriage?  That's annoying.

But kudos for Schmidt and Meghan McCain for creating the space in the Republican party for same-sex marriage advocates.  I still might disagree with them on most issues, but their words certainly speak to a younger generation of GOPers that may some day pull the party from the "cold, dead hands" of the radical rightwing.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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