… Across the cultural landscape, the national consensus is evolving rapidly, epitomized by this year’s convulsions of celebrity, social issues and politics — from the acceptance of Caitlyn Jenner’s gender identity to Pope Francis’s climate-change decree to the widespread shunning of the Confederate flag. Then came Friday’s landmark Supreme Court […] Read more »
G.O.P. Hopefuls Denounce Marriage Equality Ruling
Across the country, among people of all ages and religions, the acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown with stunning speed. But not in the leadership of the Republican Party. … With public opinion moving so unambiguously away from support for restricting marriage to heterosexual couples, the Republican National Committee has […] Read more »
A GOP conundrum: How does a 2016 candidate play the gay marriage ruling?
… Republicans running for president face a choice in responding to the court’s ruling. They could try to use the strong emotions same-sex marriages evoke as a way to mobilize conservative voters in primaries, but potentially at the cost of undermining their campaigns in next year’s general election. Or they […] Read more »
Change Doesn’t Usually Come This Fast
… At the time Andrew Sullivan wrote his now-famous essay in support of gay marriage in The New Republic in 1989, almost no polling firms even bothered asking questions about gay marriage. One that did — the General Social Survey — found that just 12 percent of the population was […] Read more »
Republicans noisily outraged — and quietly relieved — over court decision
… David Winston, a pollster who advises the GOP congressional leadership, said, “Ultimately, the challenge for Republicans is not just how to deal with this law, but where’s the direction? Where are the alternatives?” … The fact that Americans hold conflicted views of the law and the choice that was […] Read more »
A Turning Point for Health Care — and Its G.O.P. Opponents
For the second June in four years, the Supreme Court, led by its conservative chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr., has affirmed the legal framework of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 — the signature achievement of the Obama-era Democratic Party and a national social policy landmark. … Of course […] Read more »