A leading GOP pollster recommends that party leaders come out in favor of basic civil protections for homosexual couples.

It was my strong belief that the campaign against A1 should have focused more on the civil unions ban.

It's hard to look at a landslide result and argue that a better campaign would have changed the outcome, but clearly A1 opponents lost the framing war early -- a lot of people were voting to support marriage, period, and never read past the comma.  

But support for civil rights/civil unions is strong and growing. My guess is that my as-yet-unborn grandchildren will live in a country where such rights are a given, and they'll look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

Comments

[Ged]

I agree Ed. Its clear the wording on the ballot was designed to appeal to emotion rather than the real-world implications of its passing represented. I spoke to several people that had to re-read the amendment at the booth in order to understand it properly. This in itself doesn't mean anything of course, it's anecdotal, but I'm fairly positive it played a significant role in the passing of A1, and probably accounted for such a wide margin.

All the side issues that opponents raised that didn't deal with the banning of civil unions were misguided IMHO. this, more than anything else in my opinion, was why A1 passed. I also agree that this will all be moot within 15 years. The support for gay marriage is increasing each year, and not just slowly. As more and more of today's kids see how their LGBT friends are treated by state and local governments, the tide will turn and the issue will finally be decided, perhaps even on a federal level. There are questions to be answered, but none so complex that would keep it from happening. New England is proof enough of that.

[Bill Yaner]

Time is on our side.

[Jim Langer]

I read New England wanted to secede back around 1800. I'm guessing many in the rest of the country wish it would.

[Billy Jones]

Farmers in Western New York, Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and much of the Mid West considered succession with some Southern states along about 1890-1900. It led to the end of the Gilded Age and lots of reform and regulation on Wall Street.