Trotting out the Roe playbook
I am convinced that same sex marriage is on the agenda. If people are fooling themselves into believing that a Supreme Court decision that’s only 8 years old and opposed by the religious right isn’t in danger of being overturned by this new majority I think they need to wake up.
It may take them a while. And that works well for the GOP. They can do things like this, secure in the knowledge that the law will stand for now and they can use it to pander to their far right without having to face the consequences. That was, after all, the Roe playbook for decades.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s vote on a bill to codify same-sex marriage has been in question since the Wisconsin Republican initially said he saw “no reason to oppose” the legislation.
Johnson in recent weeks has noted he “never said” he would support the bill and indicated he has reservations over how the legislation could impact religious protections.
But speaking at a public meeting in Hartford last week, the Oshkosh Republican was definitive — saying he would not support the Respect for Marriage Act in its current form and indicating he believes the Supreme Court case giving same-sex couples the right to marry was “wrongly decided.”
Ted Cruz:
Ted Cruz says he’ll vote against bill protecting same-sex marriage. Cruz said in a Tuesday episode of his podcast The Verdict that the bill would threaten religious liberties if passed. The U.S. senator recently said he would support repealing a Texas state law from the 1970’s criminalizing gay sex.
Johnson is desperately trying to shore up his base because he’s losing. Cruz has his finger in the wind. They are both signaling where this is going for the far right. Keep in mind that it’s the far right that runs the GOP. And even more importantly, keep in mind that the majority on the Supreme Court today is composed of the most hardcore conservative Catholics in the country.