Ted Cruz is surging in Iowa. Surging in Iowa doesn't mean winning the nomination—Santorum famously surged from behind in Iowa in 2012 (best headline ever)—but Cruz's Iowa surge is forcing Marco Rubio to wiggle his tongue further up evangelical butt in Iowa:
Asked about same-sex marriage, Rubio tells Brody same-sex marriage "is current law, it is not settled law." He then compares it to another iconic Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which the Christian right is also trying to overturn. Both are considered settled law. Rubio offers up a biblical mandate. "We are clearly called to adhere to our civil authorities," he says. But then adds that when "that conflicts with our requirement to adhere to God's rules," he concludes, "God's rules always win." The Florida U.S. Senator also fear-mongers, saying, "if we're ever ordered to perform a same-sex marriage, as someone presiding over it, we are called to ignore that."
God's rules always win?
God has a hard-and-fast rule against divorce—and somehow Donald Trump may win the GOP nomination, Ronald Reagan wins every "greatest president ever" poll among Republicans, Mark Sanford won a seat in Congress, Karl Rove won one national election (and stole another), Bill O'Reilly is still winning the cable news ratings race, his boss Rupert Murdoch won control of (and will soon destroy) National Geographic...
Rubio doesn't really give a shit about God's rules. Rubio is promising to wage a long war against the constitutional rights (and civil marriages) of gay and lesbian Americans—a war modeled on the right's war on the constitutional rights (and reproductive freedom) of American women—in a transparent effort to win evangelical support. But this is a case where winning the primary could mean losing the general.
Remember 2012? NYT:
While President Obama’s lopsided support among Latino and other minority voters has been a focus of postelection analysis, the overwhelming support he received from another growing demographic group—Americans who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual—has received much less attention. But the backing Mr. Obama received from gay voters also has a claim on having been decisive. Mitt Romney and Mr. Obama won roughly an equal share of votes among straight voters nationwide, exit polls showed. And, a study argues, Mr. Romney appears to have won a narrow victory among straight voters in the swing states of Ohio and Florida. Mr. Obama’s more than three-to-one edge in exit polls among the 5 percent of voters who identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual was more than enough to give him the ultimate advantage, according to the study, by Gary J. Gates of the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law, in conjunction with Gallup. The results are consistent with earlier research on the number and political beliefs of gay voters.
Keep it up, Marco. Keep pandering to the anti-gay bigots in Iowa and the GOP base. Keep attacking LGBT voters, keep attacking our marriages, keep attacking our children. That shit might win you the GOP nomination—but it's going to win the White House for the Democratic nominee.
