Gay-bashers finally get it

The New York Times reports on the failure of the religious right to mobilize support for the amendment to ban same-sex marrage:

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, said: "I don't see any traction. The calls aren't coming in and I am not sure why."

[...]

The amendment's backers contend that the reason people are not responding more vocally is that many grass-roots conservatives do not yet understand how same-sex marriages affect them personally.

Finally, the anti-gay movement has figured it out. Nobody understands how same-sex marriage affects them personally. This is why the marriage movement will eventually win: nobody has yet come up with an objection to it that has anything to do with empirical reality.

But for perennial optimist Gary Bauer, the glass is half full. The glass of crazy, that is:

"The thing that we keep focusing on is, there is no place that people have voted for same-sex marriage," said Gary Bauer, a social conservative who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000. Mr. Bauer, the founder of the organization American Values, noted that it was a court that ordered Massachusetts to recognize same-sex marriage.

Right. In which southern state did people vote for desegregation?

Anyway, the supporters of this amendment, who think their time is better spent on the Rosie O'Donnell threat than on the al-Qaeda threat, prepare to sally forth:

In an interview, Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who supports the amendment, put the chances that the Senate might try to bring it up for a vote at "better than 50-50."

I hope Cornyn is right; it would be a major embarassment for the President and his supporters. Either the President would actually do something to support this great walloping monstrosity of an amendment, effectively renouncing what's left of "compassionate conservatism" and alienating moderates everywhere, or he'd stay quiet and lose the support of his kooky base.

"I think people are in shock," Senator Cornyn said. "I think people are still having a hard time believing this is real."

Indeed. Cornyn goes on:

"One of the most common responses I hear is, `This is just in Massachusetts, why does it concern us in other states?' ""When people understand that there are same-sex couples that will get married under Massachusetts law and then move to other states and demand that those marriages are recognized by the laws of other states, that is when people will understand this," he said.

Because those gay married couples will immediately start trying to undermine the foundation of marriage in the states they move to. Or something.

You see, Senator Cornyn holds in his hand a list of 207 ways that same-sex marriage will harm traditional families. He just can't name any of them right now.