Pressure

By Miss Kubelik

It's interesting how various political figures respond when outside forces bring pressure to bear.

Take the United States Senate, for example. A mere week ago, all of Pundit World was bullish on an expected GOP/teabagger filibuster of gun reform. But then a group of parents with moral authority came to Capitol Hill — and pinch-hit for the President in his weekly address — and suddenly, we have a debate on our hands. On the question of whether or not any more six-year-olds should be shot to pieces by madmen, Senators will have to vote yes or no.

Another example: lefty Canadians. With the Liberal Party set to announce a new leader tomorrow — a leader that everyone seems to expect will be Justin Trudeau — NDP chief Thomas Mulcair gave a real anti-Grit stemwinder at his party convention today. We cats wonder if Mulcair would have been quite so animated if the Liberals were set to choose someone in the mold of, say, Stephane Dion (who, bless his heart, always looked like a pharmacist in bad glasses).

However, count the Republican National Committee as a group of folks who refuse to respond to the changing world around them. In fact, quite the opposite. With a majority of Americans now in favor of gay marriage — with a high-profile Republican Senator committing a very public change of mind — with a former party chair coming out and strenuously lobbying fellow Republicans behind the scenes — and with a post-2012 GOP "autopsy" report recommending more tolerance and inclusiveness — RNC members meeting in California this week dug in and voted  168 to zero against marriage equality.

That's a unanimous vote, folks: 168 to zero. No "yes" votes from any Republican committee members from anywhere in America. No "yes" votes from New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, D.C., Washington State or any other places where gay marriage is legal; no "yes" votes from committee members who hail from cities with big gay communities like Atlanta, Miami Beach, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin or Asheville. No "yes" votes at all.

In short, it's RNC to Gays: Drop Dead.

We're not complaining, because it's good for Democrats. But we'll see how long these RNC folks can keep their resistance up. In the meantime, we cats PURR.