...And nobody cared.
Well, that's not strictly true. The Republicans who won a couple of close elections cared. And both opponents and supporters of Maine's same-sex marriage law cared.
On that note, same-sex marriage is now 0-for-31 in popular elections across the country. Are people really that afraid?
What exactly is the deal here? I acknowledge that poll numbers are always inaccurate concerning this issue: nobody wants to appear intolerant over the phone three months before the election, but when they're by themselves in that voting booth appearances don't seem as important. That suggests that people really are that afraid, and that they are voting their fears on election day.
But is that enough to explain this phenomenon? 0-for-31 is shockingly bad! That's the kind of percentage that converts an outfielder into a pitcher. (Yes, I'm deliberately tying this in for fans of my other blogs:P) So why is the outcome so consistent? Is it really just latent fear? Or is it the result of someone stirring that latent fear; in some cases even someone turning that natural human fear of what's "different" into a frenzy of political outrage?
And who's behind this outrage? Religions.
Yes, you heard me correctly. The vast majority of contributions (monetary or otherwise) toward opposing same-sex marriage efforts comes from religious groups.
iBear will even go one step farther and give them an accurate name: Religious Lobbyists.
And yet these religious lobbyists are tax-exempt. Does that strike anyone else as odd?
