Pro Same Sex Marriage GOP Candidate.......Maybe?

With Rob Portman, the senator from Ohio along with the many prominent Republicans like Dick Cheney, Meg Whitman and Laura Bush supporting gay marriage is it possible to see a GOP candidate in 2016 run supporting gay marriage.

In 2012 all the GOP candidates where opposed to same sex marriage. Most in fact supported a constitutional amendment prohibiting the marriage of anyone other than a man and a women. Only John Hutsman supported civil unions. And it should be noted that Ron Paul said that the government should get out of marriage and let everyone pretty much define it for themselves.

Currently most of the candidates that may run don't support marriage equality. John Hutsman who now supports marriage equality may be the only candidate in the 2016 republican primary to support same sex marriage. But the question shouldn't be if a pro same sex marriage candidate is possible, but whether the position is winnable.

Currently most republicans 61% according to current polls are against same sex marriage. But this is also generational, among republicans ages 18-44 46% support and oppose same sex marriage. While 45 and up oppose same sex marriage by a margin of 64%-25%. Considering big major donors of the Republican party come from an older generation it is fair to say a pro gay marriage GOP candidate may find it hard to find influential friends in this party.

The Republicans have only started to warm up to this issue and yes in three years more Republicans will probably change their minds. Especially with the supreme court ruling coming in June  but also in the some 8 states that will have a vote on this issue in the next 2 years.

Anyways the 2016 GOP primaries and Caucuses should be interesting. A fight between the younger Republican generation and the older. The tug of war if you will. Santorum will most likely champion the cause for social conservative, but it will be interesting to see which major candidate will take his challenge. If any?

Same Sex Marriage..... About Time!

This week the U.S supreme court has been hearing oral arguments for and against same sex marriage as well as the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). The answers to these cases will come in at the end of June. Quite frankly I am hopeful, but know that the supreme court will probably not make a national consensus on this issue.

The Supreme court of the U.S unlike our own is very politically motivated. It is relatively safe to assume that their our 4 justices on both sides of bench for and against same sex marriage and Anthony Kennedy in the middle is left to decide. What I suspect will probably occur is that the Supreme court will strike down Prop 8 claiming it is unconstitutional. Therefore re-legalizing same sex marriage in the California, and California only. This unfortunately I don`t believe will be a Rov Vs Wade decision, where the entire country is effected by the ruling.

California if the supreme court strikes Prop 8 down will be the 10th state to legalize same sex marriage. Currently there is a push to legalize same sex marriage in Illinois, Hawaii, Ohio, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Delaware. As new polls show that a clear majority of Americans believe that we should let all people marry. Then Marriage equality will only be a matter of time. The supreme court could settle this problem once and for all, or continue this inevitable fight for marriage equality. If DOMA is repealed it will give the thousands of Gay and Lesbians couples already married in 9 states and DC all the rights of marriage.

In the meantime France, New Zealand and the U.K are putting this issue to bed. It`s only a matter of time... it`s only a matter of time.

America Moving Forward!

No previous president while in office has ever stated that he is for the legal recognition of gay marriages. And Today the U.S not only has a president , but also a Vice President that support the people of the same sex getting married. America on the other hand is divided. 50% according to a new poll support gay marriage while 48% of Americans don't. This may show that only a marginal majority of Americans support gay marriage, but the number is rising. Two years ago I wrote a blog post showing only 42% of Americans supporting gay marriage. 

Romney on the other hand supports a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. So as it can be seen this is a very divisive issue in the election. But the Republicans don't want to talk about it. Why? because they have nothing to gain but the support of their base. The Republicans would rather continue the discussion on the economy where their Republican candidate is for some reason according to some polls better to handle the economy.

I say all in all the election won't be effected much by this, but the big win I take away from this is Americans are becoming more tolerant of having people of the same sex marry each other. In Canada gay marriage has been legal for quite some time now, and well the sky hasn't fallen down!

Sixty percent of Americans polled were unchanged in their support of the president after he publicly backed same-sex marriage.

 Read more here

We are More Genourose Then I thought.

According to a new poll done recently a vast Majority of Canadians are willing to pay higher taxes to combat income inequality. As we know income inequality has risen over the past 30 years in Canada and it is something we must tackle and apparently the country as a whole believes that as well.

The survey showed that 77 per cent of respondents agree that widening income gaps are a big problem for Canada that will have long-term consequences and 71 per cent agreed that income inequality undermines Canadian values.

Liberals and New Democrats are the strongest supporters of paying more taxes to combat inequality, and interesting enough 58% (that a majority!) of Conservatives also believe in paying more taxes to combat inequality. The poll also asked what Canadians thought about higher Corporate taxes. No surprise 73% of Canadians support making Corporations pay the previous 2008 corporate tax rate. That was Ignatieff's plan in the election (ain't so radical was it) In fact a majority of Conservatives agree in making the corporate tax rate go back to the 2008 level. It seems even Harper's Conservatives don't like to the Harper policy.

The Broadbent Institute says the poll shows that the problem of income inequality is not an ideological one and that even the wealthy agree that they should play their part in addressing it.

 Read more Here

Illinois Has a Lot More to Go

As of today homosexual couples will now have some of the rights as a heterosexual couple does, but it is no were near enough. It may be a step in the right direction, but nowhere near full equality. I think that Gay marriage should be legal in all 50 states. I don't think Civil Unions are the way to go, because civil unions first of all give the impression that Homosexuals aren't equal to heterosexual when it comes to marriage or even rights of married people. Many countries in the world have already legalized Gay Marriage and guess what the sky didn't fall down. Countries like Canada have had Gay marriage for years nothing significant and detrimental happened except maybe that Gay people in Canada feel more like equals and less afraid of being judged. Harper actually promised to make Gay marriage illegal. Now Illinois seems to be moving in the right direction, but the governor can't call civil unions as full equality. apparently some in the U.S appose to civil unions

Illinois Family Institute, a nonprofit group that says it wants to reaffirm marriage in the state, called the law "divisive."

"Gov. Quinn should reject this anti-family bill and reject the efforts of the homosexual lobby to impose this highly contentious and controversial policy on the people of Illinois," David E. Smith, executive director of the group, said earlier.

First how is giving some rights to people who should be given all marriage rights imposing on the people of Illinois. Second this bill would still  make gay marriage look inferior to heterosexual marriage

Bloc Against Multicuturelism!

On Wednesday the Parti Quebecois put a vote in the national assembly to ban the Kirpan in the national assembly. The Liberals and the ADQ voted in favor of this. This is crazy Canada is a multicultural country that believes in tolerance and Quebec is no exception. The kirpan must be allowed it is not a weapon it is a religious symbol I was very glad that Micheal Ignatieff went for the freedom of religion. It is a religious symbol that should be allowed in all public area like the national assembly. The Bloc Quebecois and the Parti Quebecois and even I regret to hear the Liberals of Quebec are against multiculturalism. These sort of policies tell immigrants that they aren't welcome in our free democratic country. This decision must be reversed and I think all the leaders of the Political parties should apologize to the people who live and pay taxes like any other Quebecer, and should have the same freedom as any other person.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2011/02/09/pq-kirpan-measure.html

Iran Lost Seat on UN Women's Board.

Iran a country that has one of the worst humane rights record in the world specially on women's Rights tried to get a seat in the UN board of Women's rights. Iran got trampled by another Asian East Timor. The vote was 36 for East Timor 19 Iran. Now East Timor is no angle when it comes to human rights although in there recent UN checkup on Women's rights it has done some work. Although I would rather have another country on this seat, but I would rather have a country like East Timor who is actually doing something to increase equality rather than a country that has absolutely no desire to do anything about Women's rights and has a even worse record than East Timor. Now If only we could kick out other countries like Saudi Arabia and Congo out of the women's rights Board. They to must be gone if equality is to be achieved.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/iran-thwarted-in-bid-to-join-un-women-board/article1793523/