According to an April 23, 2014, article by Washington Post reporter, Ed O’Keefe, there is growing momentum in the Republican Party to end its long-standing opposition to same-sex marriage.  I’m not sure how long-standing this position is, but I’m guessing it is only about 10 years longer than that of the Democratic party.  Additionally, I wouldn’t describe it as “opposition to same-sex marriage” as much as I would say that it is “supportive of the family”.

The media’s insistence on painting pro-family and pro-life advocates as “anti”, is very transparent.  This allows opponents of life and family to portray pro-life and pro-family individuals and organizations as close-minded and only interested in denying “rights”.  People who deny rights have angry looks and scowls on their faces and make angry gestures with clenched fists.  You know, like the group of anti-life activists who shouted down the Texas lawmakers as they tried to vote on a pro-life bill last year.

O’Keefe reports that activists inside the Republican party are gaining ground with the argument that Republican candidates should focus on popular economic themes in this year’s elections and help expand the party’s appeal before 2016.

Ah, there it is!  Progressives (when you hear “progressives”, think:  the LGBT activists, abortion activists and lobbyists who push for government as the answer to anything and everything).  Progressives want us to focus on fiscal policy, not on the serious social and cultural problems the country faces because government cannot adequately address the social and cultural problems.  Additionally, we face the serious social and cultural problems because we have been primarily basing our votes on fiscal policy for decades now, asking the government to cure all of our problems.  On top of that, our current economic struggles are made more problematic by social and cultural problems.   Of course the progressives are not concerned about social and cultural problems because they have a goal and they seem to be oblivious to all the dangers, risks and costs of achieving their goal.  Actually, they like the dangers and risks to become the costs, so they can justify more government involvement.  See?  It is a vicious cycle.

One thing the progressives never overlook is an opportunity.  They see that Americans are overly concerned (more like obsessed) with money, comfort, convenience, pleasure and all the other gods who grab our attention.  Therefore, they know that dangling the financial issue in front of any politician is going to be very enticing (nearly irresistible).  The politicians know that the votes follow the alleged fiscal policy promoted by the politician and that issues such as same-sex marriage, family, abortion, etc…, are issues which actually garner a lot of attention from Super PAC, PAC and progressive special interest groups who have little or no regard for honesty, integrity or the truth.  The politicians know that it is painful and ugly once they are targeted by the progressives.  It takes a very strong and principled candidate to withstand such attacks.

O’Keefe reports that Illinois Republicans recently ousted pro-family party officials in their state party, and Nevada Republicans just removed language from the party platform regarding same-sex marriage.

There is no question that simple minds and career politicians (I realize the redundancy) will take the progressive’s bait and climb all over the issues that won’t create any uncomfortable attention.  My hope is that Nebraska and other states still have leaders that take leadership seriously.  All but the simplest  political minds recognize the diversionary tactics, but only the true leaders are willing to hold to the truth and stand up to the aggressive bullying that is sure to follow any candidate or official who is not willing to be led around by a leash in the firm grip of the progressive lobby and activists.

The career politicians will see the easy way out that is being offered by the progressives.  This is their perfect opportunity to remain in office, appear slightly more effective than a toddler and avoid public ridicule by a very small but vocal and aggressive minority.  This is simply the brief extension of an olive branch to the politicians eager to serve no real purpose.

In all of this, we cannot forget the fact that the LGBT population of the U.S. is right at about 3.5%.  Most people believe it is much higher than that and I’d venture to guess that nearly every politician believes it is much closer to 30% (it seems like they believe it is about 90%).  This might help explain why progressive lobbyists and activists have had such an impact on the politicians.  We have been electing career politicians for decades.  The most important issue for each election has usually been economics.  We overlook severe character flaws of people like John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and thousands of other politicians with even more severe character flaws, who have said things like, “lower taxes, lower spending, bailout…”.  Therefore, our federal and state lawmakers, executives and staffers have slowly evolved into micro-cultures who truly believe that the end justifies the means.  A large majority of these micro-cultures believe that a little lie here and a little deception there, is worth it as long as the goal is achievable.  Integrity, courage and trust are fictions to such people.  The dishonesty and deception grows from minor to major before anyone can rein it in.

Because of our poor voting decisions over the years, we now have a sector of our society (government) in which traits such as character, integrity and courage are rare.  On top of that, you have the mainstream media who spends more resources on political correct speech than it does checking the accuracy of its message and confirming its sources.  Finally, you add a vocal, aggressive and well-funded progressive lobby to the mix and you have a perfect storm.  All of this allows 3.5% of our population to wield an enormous amount of influence on our lawmakers, media executives and reporters as well as the ignorant and apathetic majority of the American population.

This takes us to some statistics cited by O’Keefe in his article.  O’Keefe reported that 50% of Americans believe that gay people have a constitutional right to marry.  The poll he cites is a Washington Post-ABC News poll released in March, 2014.  We all know that statistics are only as solid as the poll that created them and only as impartial as the organization managing the poll.  So O’Keefe relies on a poll run by two major players in the mainstream media who are about as partial toward same-sex marriage as you can get.  On top of all that, I can’t find the size of the Post-ABC News poll.  Did they call five hundred, 1,000 or more people?  As we all know, there are many demographics that impact the accuracy of a poll and the smaller the sample, the less reliable the poll.

Maybe someone can get me the numbers of the poll, but even if the poll was done impartially and thoroughly, O’Keefe’s conclusion is still very misleading.  I say this because nearly 50% of Americans who are eligible to vote, do not vote.   Most of the Americans who do vote, fail to possess a firm understanding of issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, family, etc…  This is the apathetic and ignorant segment of the American population that relies on headlines, video segments and things they have heard from family and friends, in order to form their “opinion”.  Usually their only interest is in the financial issues.  Since the media (including news, music, television and movies) spends an enormous amount of effort promoting the progressive message, this large portion of Americans assumes that abortion and homosexuality are very popular and in many cases, perfectly normal.  This is how popular opinion is developed.  Popular opinion is not based on thorough research, critical thought and impartial or reliable facts.

Most Americans are too busy chasing their pursuit of pleasure…I mean happiness…, to stop and think deeply about the unpleasant state of our culture.  Most people don’t want to think deeply about homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, corrupt politicians, dishonest and unpleasant lobbyists and activists, etc…  But we are not too busy to watch popular t.v. shows that portray promiscuity, sexuality and immorality as forms of entertainment and totally normal behavior.  We are not too busy to glance over at the nightly news which tells us that the majority of Americans favor same-sex marriage.  So we simply shake our head and quietly decide we had better swim with the current (keep our mouth shut) if we want to keep our job, pay our cable bill and continue to afford all the other comforts we enjoy.

It is imperative that we vote with our conscience in every election from now on.  But in order to do that, we have to form our conscience.  In order to do that we must turn off the t.v. long enough to pick up some books on these issues and look to reliable sources.  This will allow us to think deeply about these difficult issues.  Once we have an understanding of the dangerous and damaging future promoted by the progressives, we need to learn about the candidates.  They are all going to vote for very similar financial measures once they get into office, so we must stop obsessing about their economic policies.

We need to vote for the candidate that has the strongest character, integrity and courage, not simply the one who sounds the most likely to protect our pocketbook.  A candidate with strong moral fiber and integrity is going to do much more for our long term financial health than a career politician who will cast his or her vote according to the popular trends and fads of the culture.  In the short term, the financial impact will be substantially the same from either candidate, but in the long run, only the strong leaders will improve America.  The feeble-minded politicians who are on the leash of the progressives will run the whole country into ruin unless we can replace them over the course of the next 20 years.

The government isn’t the answer to any of our problems.  However, the government is acting as a barrier to the solution and until we get good people in office, we will continue to see decline, decay and total disregard for the dignity of the human person as well as authentic love and compassion.  We used to have it.  We lost it.  Now it is time to get back to it again.