GOP Building 'Coalition of the Old' on Gay Issues

Republicans are making a deliberate push to attract minorities to the party, belatedly waking up to the demographic realities of America, writes Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast. But the GOP is "going to need more than merely black and brown spokespeople" to compete in the modern world, writes Beinart. "It’s going to need openly gay and lesbian ones, too." More importantly, it needs to embrace gay marriage—now. Sure, Republicans can cobble together a coalition of "whites, Hispanics, and blacks" in opposition to same-sex marriage, and it will probably work in the short term. This is a generational issue, however.

"Since younger Americans of virtually every ethnic and racial group are far more supportive of gay rights than are their elders, stitching together a multi-ethnic coalition against gay rights means building a coalition of the old," writes Beinart. It is not a contradiction to embrace both cultural conservatism and committed gay marriages. The rest of the country is coming to realize it, and the faster the GOP does so, "the faster it will make itself nationally competitive again." Click for the full column. (More Republicans stories.)