Tony Perkins | May 19, 2014
The courts aren’t the only ones making a judgment call on marriage — so are American voters. And in the court of public opinion, the outcome isn’t nearly as one-sided. With gavels striking down state amendments faster than you can say “judicial activism,” most Americans haven’t budged from their support of natural marriage. If anything, the more openly liberals attack, the stronger the opposition becomes.
A new survey of battleground districts shows that a majority of voters are solidly in the pro-marriage camp, edging out the far-Left by four points. While the media looked the other way on the first two polls (Rasmussen’s and FRC’s), it will have a difficult time doing so here. This latest survey, commissioned by Politico, is already catching the attention of the chattering class, which wrongly assumed the debate was dead and buried. Unlike other outlets, Politico’s questioning was fairly straight-forward, asking simply, “Do you support or oppose allowing same-sex couples to marry?”
By 52-48%, voters opposed — but it may be the strength of their answers that’s telling. Conservatives had a seven-point advantage among those who felt “strongly” about their position. As a follow-up, Politico asked how much the issue of marriage would impact who they voted for in November. Sixty-two percent said it was “important” in determining which candidate they supported. In other words, marriage isn’t just a hot issue this election — it could be a deciding one.
Indiana State Rep. Kreg Battles (D) obviously thought so. After watching so many of his colleagues pay for their same-sex “marriage” support, the four-term leader dropped out of his reelection race late last week to avoid embarrassment. Battles, who outraged his district when he switched sides on marriage, was locked in a tight race with former state Rep. Bruce Borders (R), a pro-family conservative who was making Kreg’s betrayal a centerpiece of his campaign. As FRC found (and Rep. Battles learned), voters — especially Republican and Republican-leaning Independents, are looking for politicians who will stand up and fight the cultural elites and their radical agenda to redefine marriage. Obviously the media, the Left’s ring bearer in this debate, is a false measure of public opinion. Like too many moderate Republicans, the press is only seeing what it wants to see.
Everyone else’s eyes are wide open, thanks to the avalanche of attacks thundering down on anyone with a natural view on marriage — from network television and bank brokers to Internet companies and city councils. Even the President of the United States, who only recently hopped aboard the same-sex “marriage” express, is piling on with outlandish public statements against a sentiment he used to share. On the 10th anniversary of Massachusetts’s court-imposed same-sex “marriage,” the White House marked the day by railing against “homophobia” and “transphobia.” The same President who couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge Armed Forces Day found more than enough time to lecture Americans on an agenda tearing apart the very military he ignored. And if these polls are any indication, his heavy-handed approach is already backfiring — a fact the GOP would be wise to capitalize on.