As if to prove Rauch’s point about social conservatives feeling alienated and angry about elite conservative support or indifference towards same-sex marriage, Joe Carter, a well-regarded evangelical blogger, wrote an exasperated blog post on Mehlman’s interview with Ambinder for First Things. After excerpting a passage about how Mehlman voiced support for civil unions while serving as RNC chairman, Carter asks, “why do we continue to financially support institutions that actively work to undermine our values?” And even more pointedly, Carter writes, “How long will we let the minority within the conservative movement treat the majority like chumps before we say, ‘No more’?”
However much Republicans like Mehlman want their party to embrace gay rights, Joe Carter really does speak for the party’s rank-and-file, and that will continue to be true for years to come. But it won’t be true forever. In an essay published in the Washington Post’s Outlook section last spring, James Forsyth, political columnist at the London-based conservative weekly The Spectator, made the case that the British right had revived social conservatism by embracing gay rights and focusing on abortion and support for struggling married couples—gay or straight—with children. That is at least one vision for the Republican future. There are, of course, other possibilities.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member