When did Rob Portman really change his mind on gay marriage?
In any case, my question for and about Portman, a decent and thoughtful man I’ve known for many years, isn’t why it took a gay son to move him to his current stance, but whether it really took a gay son to do that, and whether he was here or almost here a while back, but just didn’t say so.
What’s too infrequently noted or written is how many Republicans who aren’t on the party’s far right have privately, silently accepted and supported gays and lesbians but have stayed publicly mum, and articulated contrary positions, in the interests of political survival. A big part of what’s changing now isn’t their hearts. It’s their belief that they can be true to their hearts without committing political suicide, because America has made extraordinary progress, and because there’s no turning back.
Blowback
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Probably when he realized how toothless the modern social “conservative” has become. Their ship is sinking fast and fewer and fewer politicians are going to feel the need to show them any deference.
Armin Tamzarian on March 16, 2013 at 7:21 PM
So in other words, its all about optics. Who could have seen this coming? Let It Burn.
nobar on March 16, 2013 at 7:24 PM
Just remember, when the Christians go, the Muslims will go for you next. Have fun in ushering in a theocracy you claim to be running away from (or you go full communist trying to stop Islamists).
nobar on March 16, 2013 at 7:27 PM
When he figured it wasn’t politically worth it.
Muslims have more spine than this.
MelonCollie on March 16, 2013 at 7:28 PM
It’s disturbing Portman changed his vote on a major policy issue because of the life experience of his son. It’s equally disturbing that a conservative, who’s supposed to be realistic about the cause and effect of actions, can so easily gloss over the reality of the male homosexual sex act, which is unhealthy, unnatural, and frankly, disgusting, and then decide to enshrine that central act of male homosexuality in law under “gay marriage”, with its inevitable approbation by society, including children and those who oppose homosexual acts for religious reasons.
I don’t know why he changed his mind. But it makes me question his commitment to any policy position he currently has, or to any of his principles. I still haven’t heard how he reconciles his new position with the religious faith he said was the reason for his old position.
Paul-Cincy on March 16, 2013 at 7:30 PM
Oh it’s not that infrequent. They’re proclaiming it at the top of their lungs every opportunity they get.
And for his betrayal, yes, it’s time to primary Portman. I look forward to kicking him out in 2016.
Stoic Patriot on March 16, 2013 at 7:32 PM
i silently accept them too. but don’t try to change a 2000+ institution for these darwinian freaks of nature.
newrouter on March 16, 2013 at 7:41 PM
It should never have been decriminalized.
OldEnglish on March 16, 2013 at 7:41 PM
Yup, I’m just terrified of the Muslims, all, what, 50,000 of them in the US? Get real.
Armin Tamzarian on March 16, 2013 at 7:43 PM
It? I’m assuming you’re referring to sodomy or something.
Maybe if “it” was still criminalized people would have a different opinion of “it” or something.
aryeung on March 16, 2013 at 7:44 PM
Perversion in total.
OldEnglish on March 16, 2013 at 7:45 PM
Dearborn and London said the same thing. Virtually taken over now. Just wait, there won’t be a blood jihad, but a overthrow of the natives by birthrates (as it is happening in the rest of Europe now).
nobar on March 16, 2013 at 7:47 PM
I’m not sure if criminalization is appropriate, but it should be readily apparent that the human intestine wasn’t designed to be a s3x organ.
obladioblada on March 16, 2013 at 7:51 PM
Portman’s son: I decided I’m not really gay. It was just a period of experimentation. I have a girlfriend now.
Portman: Forget what I said about gay marriage. My religious exception to it still stands.
Paul-Cincy on March 16, 2013 at 7:58 PM
Say, when did Obama really change his mind?
Crickets.
BuckeyeSam on March 16, 2013 at 8:23 PM
It’s also nice that Portman timed this just as the GOP had the heat turned on Obama, as it should be.
Now, we’ll have a month leading up to Tax Day of, first, analyzing the ins and outs of his decision and the effect on the inevitable movement and, second, running down every GOP member of Congress to get his or her reaction and to cast as bigots those who object.
Timing? Someone probably started threatening Portman with knowledge about his son. Oh, there’s currently a petition drive to get SSM on a ballot in November in Ohio.
BuckeyeSam on March 16, 2013 at 8:35 PM
The reason for criminalization is to prevent exactly what is happening right now: every manner of mentally-malformed liberal crawling out from their cesspits and trying to get their perversions normalized.
Yes, on the surface, it doesn’t appear than anything more than classifying that desire as a mental illness (which it is) is needed. But I assure you that law was not made simply because the lawmakers were stodgy Puritans.
MelonCollie on March 16, 2013 at 8:35 PM
Can’t change what you don’t have.
As was pointed out to me, every time Obama has gone off-script he’s made a laughingstock of himself to anyone with a brain. His capability to think independently is just THAT minimal.
Obama never really had a mind of his own (I hope that makes sense)…like everything else in his life, he’s been affirmative-actioned past it.
MelonCollie on March 16, 2013 at 8:38 PM
This could be applied to any group – how many does it take to push a button. Obama kills people by remote control.
It only took 20 (?) to take out the twin towers/pentagon and crash into a field.
It’s not the numbers, but the will. We have no will.
kim roy on March 16, 2013 at 8:43 PM
The little libtard has been watching too much Lord of the Rings and thinks anything short of a recreation of the siege of Helm’s Deep is irrelevant.
It took less than two dozen to cause 9/11, and a single one standing in the street with an AK-47 would have an entire liberal neighborhood out desperately shouting praises to Allah.
MelonCollie on March 16, 2013 at 9:03 PM
I agree with you all the way. I love to watch Obama try to think on his feet. It’s hilarious. Too listen to and watch people argue that Obama is some intellectual giant is beyond belief. It’s not a racial matter, but I do believe blacks, in particular, are promoted or hired into situations in which their far too unprepared. I get that from Thomas Sowell, who reminded me in an interview with Tucker Carlson last night that black graduation rates from college improved in California after it eliminated race as a factor for administration. As a result, less-prepared blacks weren’t flunking out of Berkley and UCLA but were graduating from UC-Davis and other schools in the state’s university system that weren’t quite so competitive.
Anyway, I’m finding the non-stop reporting and analysis of Portman’s flip by liberals when, in response to Obama’s “flip,” all they could say was “Kudos. Of course. Nothing to see here.”
BuckeyeSam on March 16, 2013 at 9:41 PM
Not sure if he’s a liberal – more like an anti-interventionist who thinks that if we leave them along they’ll leave us alone. I could be wrong, though.
Problem is they hate us regardless. 50K true believers being told by their religion that we should die scares me. 50K also would do just fine in Helm’s Deep.
kim roy on March 16, 2013 at 9:51 PM
supporting gays and lesbians =/= supporting gay marriage.
alwaysfiredup on March 16, 2013 at 10:14 PM
Yes, I too remember Dick Cheney being thrown out of the party for just exactly this.
andycanuck on March 16, 2013 at 11:05 PM