When the National Organization for Marriage was established in 2007 to fight for passage of California's Proposition 8, Maggie Gallagher quickly made a name for herself as one of the most vocal activists to ever come down the pike against our struggle for marriage equality. Working for NOM as the co-founder and president, she eventually passed the mantle entirely over to Brian Brown. She is still very much associated with NOM and currently serves as an executive committee member for the organization.
While on one of my daily jaunts over to the National Review to check in on the dark side, I spotted a piece penned by Maggie Gallagher titled "Why the Democrats Lost." I steeled myself and read Brian Brown's gloating rant, heavily attributing Tuesday's sweeping red tide to a nation fed up with granting gays their civil rights.
Dear Marriage Supporter,
Yesterday, across the country—in red states and blue—America stood up and voted for marriage champions! The pundits in the media and the political insiders in Washington will call this a wave election, citing the unpopularity of the president and his administration as the main reasons for the victories Republicans gained in all kinds of races yesterday.
But make no mistake—marriage was a significant issue in this election... AND MARRIAGE WON!
Um, yeah Brian, no. Marriage equality had extraordinarily little to do with what went down last Tuesday, but NOM has never concerned itself much with facts or truth.
So, I girded my loins and clicked on Maggie's article expecting more of the same septic drivel. Peaking out between my fingers, I began to read. I was absolutely floored. Not only did Maggie not mention same-sex marriage once in her article, she actually made some cogent points, delivering a sound warning to the Republican party about the perils of ignoring the middle class.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
And here is the biggest red flag for Republicans moving forward: After six years of Obama, these voters broke for the GOP by just 2 points, 48 percent to 50 percent.
After every election, whether Republicans win or lose, social issues get a disproportionate share of the “problem defining” blame. But the GOP’s biggest branding problem, even in victory, is clearly the economy. GOP candidates are not yet naming the biggest problem voters are facing: wage stagnation and a pervasive decline in the average household’s standard of living.
For more than a decade Americans have been losing ground financially, and the GOP has yet to address the issue.
The Democrats offer increases in the minimum wage. While popular, including among Republicans, this is not a very good answer, since most workers do not have or want minimum-wage jobs. But at least it is a policy prescription that addresses voters’ key concern.
Since Tuesday's drubbing, the punditry has exploded, trying to pin down exactly why the Republicans handed us our ass so handily. Leaving the gay boogeyman entirely out of the equation, Maggie's take on Tuesday is surprisingly astute, pointedly telling the Republican party that "For more than a decade Americans have been losing ground financially, and the GOP has yet to address the issue."
Last May, Maggie made it clear that she believed that they had lost the marriage equality argument. In her National Review piece today, she tacitly acknowledged it isn't even an argument worth having within her own political party any longer.
Unlike her counterpart, Brian Brown, Maggie Gallagher has stopped the charade of insisting marriage equality is still a driving wedge in American politics. It is time for her greedy, bigoted colleagues to grow up and follow suit. At this point in time, our national dialogue has never been more divided. The last thing it needs now is petty, homophobic distractions that serve no purpose other than personal animus.
I never thought I would type these words, but, for a conservative Republican, well done, Maggie Gallagher.