The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll has some really good news on public support for marriage equality—not only does the public as a whole strongly back the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow same-sex marriages to proceed in 11 states where it had previously been banned, but the court’s decision even has plurality support in the 20 states that currently ban same-sex marriage. The numbers:
Supreme Court Decision (support/oppose)
All: 56/38
Previously legal states: 66/30
Changed states: 51/42
States with bans: 48/44
The tide is no longer turning—it’s turned. Now it’s just stragglers left behind, like Gov. Sean Parnell of Alaska, whose last minute attempt to continue his state’s ban on same-sex marriages was rejected Friday by the Supreme Court.
Gone are the days when George W. Bush won an election by promising a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—the public is firmly pro-equality and becoming more so with every passing day.
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But even though the public at large—even in states with bans—has changed its mind, the base of the Republican Party still clings to the same old views. According to the poll, “seven in 10 strong conservatives, nearly two-thirds of Republicans and 72 percent of evangelical white Protestants oppose the court action.”
These numbers add up to one big problem for Republicans who want to run for president in 2016. On the one hand, they know that for most Americans, there is no more debate about marriage equality—it’s here, and it’s here to stay. But their base couldn’t disagree more, which means the GOP is bound to nominate someone out of step with the rest of the country on one of the fundamental civil rights issues of our time.
