Michael Steele's Foot-in-Mouth Disease

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-17 14:02:00 UTC
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Do not take a sip of your beverage before reading the latest commentary from Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, or you might just spit it out all over your screen.  You see, Michael Steele has been brainstorming ways that the GOP can "reframe" its position on gay marriage, since the country is increasingly getting behind the idea of marriage equality.  Not that the GOP wants to support marriage equality, mind you.  No, they'd rather come up with a new framework of opposition to equality, while still trying to attract new voters.  Here's Steele's thesis (h/t The Erratic Synapse):

Republicans can reach a broader base by recasting gay marriage as an issue that could dent pocketbooks as small businesses spend more on health care and other benefits, GOP Chairman Michael Steele said Saturday.

Steele said that was just an example of how the party can retool its message to appeal to young voters and minorities without sacrificing core conservative principles. Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

"Now all of a sudden I've got someone who wasn't a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for," Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. "So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money."

Say what?  Is Michael Steele really saying that same-sex spouses are going to cost employers and taxpayers boatloads of money?

Boy, if he thinks gay and lesbian couples are expensive, he ought to turn his eyes toward the straight couples getting married.  And the children that they keep popping out.  I mean, if Michael Steele really wants to head down this road of "fiscal responsibility," why doesn't he argue for the GOP to abandon the concept of marriage altogether?  Given how Steele sees the world, that would certainly save everyone some money.

The fact of the matter is that Michael Steele is a vision-less wingnut who thinks that if the GOP can't cast LGBT people as Godless figures, they might as well try and cast LGBT people as an expensive blight on society.  And that position stands about as much a chance of attracting new voters as renewing the call for prohibition.

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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