The American Politics thread

[Burgey]

Will the evangelical Right in the South swing behind Romney, who's a Mormon? Be interesting how this plays out.

[Spark]

You shouldn't underestimate how much the core right despise Obama.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by Spark

You shouldn't underestimate how much the core right despise Obama.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by Burgey

Will the evangelical Right in the South swing behind Romney, who's a Mormon? Be interesting how this plays out.

Yes, because at least he still professes the same general believes as them. Also, the Mormon thing is not as big a deal anymore. Keep in mind that Glen Beck, one of the biggest and most popular right-wing personalities in the country, is a Mormon himself. Obama, on the other hand, is considered a Muslim by a lot of them (which is a lot worse than being part of a Christian "sect" as some evangelicals view Mormonism).

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by Burgey

Will the evangelical Right in the South swing behind Romney, who's a Mormon? Be interesting how this plays out.

Yea, I don't think there's any doubt. I think he just lost North Carolina, Indiana, etc. He definitely put himself behind in Ohio and Florida too, but interestingly, independents support gay marriage by a decent margin (57% I think) too. The problem is how many democrats he'll lose. The people who supported gay marriage would have voted for Obama anyway, so he's not getting any 'new' votes. On the other hand, if you look at West Virginia - a guy that is in federal prison got 40% of the democratic vote against Obama in the primary - he's had a lot of trouble connecting with the 'blue collar' workers in states like West Virginia, and I don't think this helps him at all.

[Cevno]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Yea, I don't think there's any doubt. I think he just lost North Carolina, Indiana, etc. He definitely put himself behind in Ohio and Florida too, but interestingly, independents support gay marriage by a decent margin (57% I think) too. The problem is how many democrats he'll lose. The people who supported gay marriage would have voted for Obama anyway, so he's not getting any 'new' votes. On the other hand, if you look at West Virginia - a guy that is in federal prison got 40% of the democratic vote against Obama in the primary - he's had a lot of trouble connecting with the 'blue collar' workers in states like West Virginia, and I don't think this helps him at all.

Wouldn't people who care enough about this to vote based on it, have voted against him anyway?

[Spark]

Every little bit counts.

[Spikey]

Originally Posted by Jono

Awesome stuff.

Joe Biden deserves some credit for this lol.

"Voice your support, or else"

[silentstriker]

Originally Posted by Cevno

Wouldn't people who care enough about this to vote based on it, have voted against him anyway?

Possibly not, especially the more conservative democrats. I think this is definitely a net loss of votes. It's the right thing to do as far as I'm concerned, and while I don't think the repercussions are nearly as much as when Lyndon Johnson supported the civil rights act (he said the democrats would lose the south for a generation - they lost it for longer than that) - that's because democrats don't have the south anyway. But they do get votes in rural areas of swing states - for example, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida who have a lot of blue collar democrats who agree with the Republicans on many social issues. They voted for Hillary over Obama in droves (look at that W.Va. primary - he just can't seem to connect with this segment), and this doesn't help Obama with them - those voting blocs are key.

[Spikey]

OBAMA FLIP FLOPS, DECLARES WAR ON MARRIAGE

Fox took it better than I expected

[Spikey]

anyway he's just voiced his support, he hasn't said he'll be introducing the legislation. As pointed out in the politico article most people suspected Obama supported gay marriage. So I'm not quite sure if this will have much impact. I mean, I think they learned from 2004 or w/ever when a couple of states ran gay marriage votes on the same day of the election, driving up the turn-up for bush.

[Fusion]

The problem for Obama and Democrats is that the people who oppose gay marriage are much more passionate about the issue than the majority of people who support it. This is the kind of issue that gets the religious right to turn out the vote. Generally speaking, the support for gay marriage comes from the younger segment of the US population. That segment is notorious for not turning up to vote.

I have to say I grudgingly admire the tactics of the religious right on this issue. They know that support for gay marriage is increasing and in a decade or two the vast majority of Americans will support it. Therefore they introduce constitutional amendments at the State level now, when they can still control the outcome. Once these amendments are passed, it becomes extremely hard to overturn them (as no matter the increasing support for gay marriage, the Southern state legislators and Governorships will still be controlled by social conservatives who will not make moves to reverse these amendments). Thereby, the religious right kills a movement in the South before it even has a chance to take off. Damn evil geniuses.

[Burgey]

How did he drink his own urine if he was handcuffed?

[Burgey]

The bloke who was falsely imprisoned, not Obama.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by Burgey

How did he drink his own urine if he was handcuffed?

He was able to reposition his hands to the front of his body, while still handcuffed.