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fmfclwu -> RE: Indiana passes first part of vote to ban same sex marriage and civil unions (4/2/2011 6:06:56 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: IrishMist
I truly did not want this to become a discussion over 'personal' feelings about this. I really am interested in the political side of the proposal here.
From the pieces I can remember hearing on the news, it is my understanding that the general population within Indiana ( and I am not referring to the fuckhead politicians, I mean the actual general population) does NOT want this to become a part of the constitution. In fact, they are adamantly opposed to it.
YET, it has passed the first phase to becoming an amendment. Which to me, means that our wonderful elected officials are not following what WE, the general public want; they are following some other political agenda.
I just don't understand politics enough to understand how this could have even gotten as far as it has. THAT is what I am trying to understand.
What possible political agenda could be important enough for these elected officials to jepordize their seats by passing something that nobody wants passed? And yes, this is a hot issue in the state of Indiana.
Confusion and me do not sit well [>:]
There are a few reasons why voting to ban gay marriage is still a "winning" political move, even though most Americans are against banning it, and polls are now popping up showing outright majorities in favor of legalizing it.
1. Primaries matter, and force politicians away from the center. Especially in states with closed primaries, the center, even though it contains most Americans, is a political "dead zone," where a politician can't win either primary, so his or her theoretical popularity with most Americans is meaningless.
2. Most Americans don't really care about gay marriage. It should be the unanimous view, but it's only the large majority view, that most heterosexual Americans think "I'm not gay, so I'm not affected by this." Even though most straight Americans don't feel gay marriage should be banned, they also don't care enough about it to penalize a politician who does think so.
3. On the other hand, the collective boner the Religious Right gets from being legally allowed to discriminate against a group of people and then tell them they're the ones going to hell for it DOES make a big difference. Fight to ban gay marriage, and you'll immediately pick up a fundraising and gotv organization behind you for free!
4. Not everyone votes. We tend to think of an election as a fixed group of people picking between candidate A and candidate B, but that's not how elections work in the United States. Instead you have a group of people supporting candidate A that may or may not vote, a group supporting candidate B that may or may not vote, and a group of undecided voters who, if they show up at all, will probably vote for the guy with the better hair or cooler name, or simply the first name on the ballot. More Americans might support legalizing gay marriage, but voting against gay marriage gets the social conservatives much more excited to vote then voting for gay marriage gets the majority excited to vote.
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