The Supreme Court will hear two sides of a debate on gay marriage this week. But if the liberal media had their way, the debate would be over, and the social conservatives would have to sit down and shut up. Take this headline from The Washington Post today: "Political debate on same-sex marriage is over."
Chris Cillizza, who is usually careful to avoid taking a side on issues, made a passionate argument claiming the smart Republicans are already waving a rainbow flag of surrender:
[N]o matter how the high court rules later this year on California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act, one thing is already clear: The political debate over gay marriage is over.
“There’s no putting this genie back in the bottle,” Florida-based Republican strategist Ana Navarro said Sunday on CNN. “This is now undeniable. The shift is here. We’re not going back.”
That's spoken just like a CNN Republican. But here’s where the Post headline is bizarre: Cillizza admits that Republicans are not expected to shift dramatically to the left on this issue any time soon. He quotes Speaker John Boehner and Ralph Reed to that point. So how is the debate over?
That's why online, the Post says the debate is "arguably over." Cillizza concluded:
But, the trajectory of the data suggests that ambitious Republicans who want to win statewide in swing states or get elected president in 2016 and beyond simply won’t proactively talk about the issue. Outside of Republican primary fights, gay marriage will disappear from the national political dialogue as an issue.
The video accompanying this article online is a....debate that included Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation. It's nice that someone at The Washington Post can acknowledge there's still a debate, and not try to shut it down -- even if there's only one conservative out of five panelists.
