…and it wasn’t my side:
According to a March edition of the Marist poll, 54 percent of Americans agreed with “allowing First Amendment religious liberty protection or exemptions for faith based organizations and individuals even when it conflicts with government laws.” By a two-point margin, 47-45, even a plurality of Democratic voters agreed with that.
The margins were even larger in opposition to laws that proposed “penalties or fines for individuals who refuse to provide wedding-related services to same sex couples even if their refusal is based on their religious beliefs.” …Americans oppose penalties on businesses like Memories by a 65-31 margin. The margin among Democrats: 62-34 against.
Come, I will tell you a secret. Do you know what has fueled Americans’ increasing tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality? A long-term PR campaign that successfully convinced the populace that gay people weren’t really all that weird or dangerous after all. Do you know what will gut-shoot that campaign with frightening speed? More businesses being attacked or shut down because they don’t want to cater a gay wedding.
And don’t tell me that can’t happen. Or, rather, don’t tell the pro-choicers and anti-gun people. They’ll give you an earful about how well demonization as a strategy has worked for them over the last few decades.
Exactly.
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I’m gonna be optimistic and watch as the Elton John long-term-PR gays flail around trying to figure out how to stomp the short-term-angry gays back into silence…
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Mew
Nice of Mark Kirk to side with the outrage mongers though. Seriously though who exactly advised him to do that?
Kirk was and is a North Shore WTTW** conservative .. he’s not a DuPage or Downstate conservative.
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Put another way, Kirk is a defense-conservative, and maybe sometimes a fiscal-conservative, but almost never a social-conservative. This is not “advised”, this is what he chose.
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Mew
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** WTTW is the primary Chicago PBS affiliate, they claim the letters are “Window To The World”, but it’s an old joke that they really mean “Wilmette talks to Winetka” ..
He was my congress critter when I lived in Arlington Heights. Classic, better than the Dem alternative situation. Illinois R’s really embody the general party split. Those near the cities have a poorly hidden contempt of those from the rural areas and those from the rural areas don’t trust those from the cities but go along because of lack of options.
Which is why I hold out precisely zero hope of the Illinois GOP ever creating long-term reforms.
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Mew
I understand he’s a moderate, and I didn’t expect some sort of full throated defense of IN’s RFRA but wouldn’t keeping silent been better? I mean he just took a dump on a not insignificant part of his 2010 coalition, on behalf of a group of voters who didn’t vote for him in 2010, and probably won’t vote for him in 2016.
“Do you know what will gut-shoot that campaign with frightening speed? More businesses being attacked or shut down because they don’t want to cater a gay wedding.”
Too late. Being a sore winner really does backfire sometimes.
http://www.gofundme.com/MemoriesPizza
$445,220. In one day. Just before I called it a night, with more on the way for sure. That’s a few hundred thousand middle fingers from people who at some point might have been a squish on this issue. No more.
And now they are going after the guy who started that gofundme. http://twitchy.com/2015/04/02/these-lib-threats-to-man-who-launched-gofundme-for-memories-pizza-will-make-your-blood-boil-screenshots/
How long till they start badgering gofundme.com to shut down that campaign if they can’t intimidate him. How long till they get a copy of the donors list and start harassing every person who gave? They did it to Prop 8 supporters.
I am legitimately scared.
Reading their privacy policy… there’s no wiggle room even if it got ‘leaked.’ The company would get promptly sued into oblivion if it came out that it was giving away subscription lists. Seriously, it’d be a class action suit waiting to happen. Also, whatever group published the information would be liable for criminal charges: the Prop 8 list that you’re probably thinking of was based on public information under Californian law. This… is not.
Exactly right. Must be frustrating for them. We could be living right next door!
Someone tell Republicans, or specifically, someone tell the yahoos who advise the Republicans, because they apparently don’t listen to anyone else.
Going after the little guy really doesn’t sit well in American culture. Ralphie punching out Scott Farkas in “A Christmas Story” is the sort of thing americans approve of, not state senators condemning a mom-and-pop store, nor billionaire CEOs of GlobalBigCo. denouncing a family-owned business.
Personally, I’m very happy that the Left seems to be unfamiliar with this aspect of the culture.
The people you describe made a very bad mistake. The majority of folks in this country have a burning desire: “Leave me the Hell alone.” They do not care about the Holy Cause of a tiny minority and they really don’t like being told that they will care or they will be targeted.
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If malcontents like that keep pushing those of us who don’t want to be bothered, there will come a very ugly push back and the gains made over the last few decades will screech to a halt.
All the comments in your two posts (thus far) about Memories Pizza and the radical LGBT miscalculation about Americans, who do prefer “live and let live” deserve “up” arrows, including your posts, Moe.