For those who lived in Massachusetts during Mitt Romney’s term as governor, his rise to the national stage can feel a little like watching your ex with someone new — you want to tell everyone about the side of them you know before they get into trouble. In Romney’s case, this means being hyperaware that while Romney is courting voters on every part of the conservatism spectrum from “doesn’t like Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim” to “doesn’t think women should vote,” he has a very specific history with gay marriage and gay rights in MA that his conservative base may not approve of.
"what do i do if my girlfriend and i accidentally wear the same shirt and it's too late to change?"
As the LA Times points out, while Romney’s anti-marriage equality stance is common knowledge as part of his platform for the GOP candidacy, back when he was governor of MA, his opinion on the matter wasn’t quite as clear-cut. While Romney has always opposed same-sex marriage, he also “vowed while running [for governor] in Massachusetts to defend and expand the rights of gays and lesbians.” Perhaps most importantly, when marriage equality was made law in 2004 in Massachusetts, Romney initially promised to honor the decision, despite the agitation of conservative groups in-state. Of course, Romney later went on to attempt to block the ruling and, in the process, invoked a law dating back virtually to Massachusetts’ colonial days that barred out-of-state couples from getting married in MA. But his reversal came off as calculated (especially in light of his 2008 presidential run), and may illustrate something important about Romney as a candidate: whatever his actual personal or political values might be, they come second to what Romney thinks voters want from him.
Of course, all politicians edit and evolve their beliefs in order to get into or stay in office; one could make an argument that that is in fact what politics (or campaigning) is. But for a politician who’s attempting to become president in one of the most polarized political environments in history, it could be significant. Right now, Romney is trying to appeal to the conservative vote, but the tide is shifting on gay marriage — it seems likely that in the near future, supporting gay marriage will be the more politically expedient move than opposing it. Of course, a more ideal situation might be not having a Republican in the White House at all. But if Romney is that Republican, having a conservative in office with a history of changing his mind to be more popular might be a game-changer.
Wait, wait, wait. “Doesn’t like Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim”. So is he out there complaining about the abusive amount of Seth MacFarlane product or the lack of late night anime? Cause if Romney is campaigning for more ‘Harvey Birdman’ I might just have to slightly less enthusiastically vote for Obama.
He probably just saw the name of it and thought Adult Swim was porn
let’s just hope if we ever see him in office he brings his etch-a-sketch.
The Republicans genuinely terrify me
Sometimes I wonder how they even exist.
are you a scripting language?
Mitt was considered a Moderate Republican in most places and in Utah a borderline Democrat. All he is doing is trying to pull votes from Ron Paul and keep the strong conservative base that he thinks he has. It’s going to be interesting to see how his views oscillate throughout this campaign.
So I know that this is Romney post and that Rick Santorum dropped out, but this blog is too entertaining for me not to share http://fuckyeahricksantorum.tumblr.com
Well, parts of it are at least.
I have an easier time believing a unicorn will show up at my front door with the woman of my dreams and that we would ride off together in the sunset than believing Mitt Romney will ever be a candidate for gay rights. Strategically or not. Even if he give subtle hints in our favour. I wonder how gullible the GOP thinks the LGBTQ community is to even consider giving them a vote.
I’m kind of interested in what prompted this article because when I saw the title I was expecting a longer feature of some sort. Mitt’s changing opinion has been well documented, so I expected a new piece of information and actually this was a little thin. Can we get a more in depth look at this topic and others in the run up to the election?
I actually wrote an article on this in a new start up called Equal Magazine.
http://www.equalmag.com
I kind of rip Mittens a new one for saying that he supports gay rights, but not gay marriage. He’s nothing but a flip flopping Yes Man for whoever he needs votes from at the moment.