How dense and forgetful does Newsweek think socially conservative voters are?
Apparently so much so that the magazine's Ben Adler predicts yesterday's stay on Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling permitting same-sex marriages in California will blunt the hopes Republicans have of social conservatives coming out in force on Election Day to help push the GOP to victory in the midterms on Election Day.
In his August 17 The Gaggle blog post, "9th Circuit Stays Pro-Gay Marriage Ruling, Takes Away GOP Issue," Adler argues that:
Social conservatives were set to use the images of gay couples getting married in California as grist to motivate their base to turn out in the midterm elections. Republicans look certain to gain seats in both Houses of Congress in November, as opposition parties typically do during midterms. Whether they will pull the inside straight they need to take over either, or both, the House and Senate, will depend on any number of factors, but turnout is sure to be one of them.
Further, Adler maintained, because "the Democrats have not done much to invite images of an American Gomorrah" what with President Obama moving "very gingerly" and tentatively on issues like repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," social conservatives need the visual impact of gay and lesbian couples at the altar this fall to incense social conservatives and drive them like angry hornets to the ballot box.
Of course Adler's argument completely leaves out a crucial driving force for social conservatives this November: ObamaCare and its pro-choice measures.
Social conservatives are well aware that the president's executive order was a fig leaf that supposedly pro-life "conservative" Democrats hid behind to vote for final passage on the president's health care bill.
Yet nowhere in his article does Adler consider ObamaCare's unpopularity as a huge motivating factor for social conservative voters in a year when many Republican candidates are calling for outright repeal of the overhaul, including its abortion-subsidizing measures.
