That Wedge Works Both Ways

A Miami Herald poll from November 2006 found that 49 percent opposed gay marriage and 45 percent support. Contrary to what social conservatives say, there isn't an overwhelming desire by the public to ban gay marriages. There is a backlash happening to to Republicans using gay rights as a wedge.

In 2006, seven states ratified same-sex marriage bans. But a gay marriage ban failed for the first time, in Arizona. It barely passed in South Dakota. And Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay rights group, argued that opposition to the Virginia amendment helped push people to the polls who narrowly elected Democratic Sen. James Webb over conservative Republican George Allen.

The sooner the Democratic Party figures out that they bring their base out when they oppose gay marriage the better. Democrats are not going to win over the followers of James Dobson. They can bring out the people turned off by the Christian Right.