A newish vanguard of more reasonable (or realistic) Republican donors is trying to catch up with history by funding lobbying efforts to get GOP lawmakers to support same-sex marriage. That's right, American voters — some Republicans are actually self-aware enough to realize that their party is straddling a chasm of political obsolescence that it will certainly fall into unless they do something to convince people that the entire GOP isn't really as febrile as some of its more narrow-minded members.
Billionaire hedge-fund manager Paul Singer formed American Unity PAC last year to support (with serious cash-money) Republican politicians who support same-sex marriage. Singer, along with the other founders of the PAC, has now launched a new lobbying organization called American Unity Fund, which has spread about $500,000 worth of lobbying over the last month across states like Rhode Island, West Virginia, Delaware, Indiana, and Utah. In the near-term, the most significant expenditure might be the $250,000 the Fund has spent in Minnesota, where the legislature, according to the Washington Post, could vote on same-sex marriage as early as next week.
Impressed? Or do you feel a tar pit of cynicism bubbling up from your reptilian brain stem? American Unity PAC's spokesman, Jeff Cook-McCormac was at least pretty honest about the organization's insistence that more Republicans come out in support of gay marriage:
What you have is this network of influential Republicans who really want to see the party embrace the freedom to marry, and believe it’s not only the right thing for the country but also good politics.
In other words, Republicans better get on the right side of the chasm before their continent breaks off and falls into the ocean. American voters are increasingly cool with same-sex marriage, and having the freedom to marry whomever you want without the gubmint interfering sounds an awful lot like it could be an intrinsic Republican belief, until you realize that politicians don't really have any intrinsic beliefs other than the belief that they are all totally awesome and particularly deserving of the enormous power that the voting public vests in them each election cycle. If it's convenient for Republicans to suddenly support gay marriage, well, by golly, that's what they'll do.
New conservative lobbying push for gay marriage [WaPo]
Image via AP, Jim Mone