GOP is Not Able To Use Chick-fl-a Nor 'Where’s the Beef’ Nor 'OJ' NO MORE

August 10, 2012

GOP is Not Able To Use Chick-fl-a Nor 'Where’s the Beef’ Nor 'OJ' NO MORE

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An army travels on its stomach – and this campaign season, Republican cultural warriors are not being thrown the red that they're used to. For all the attention (and money) thrown Chik-fil-A's way this past week, among the GOP leadership, gay marriage has become "the other white meat". The outpouring of support for the relentlessly homey fast-food franchise no doubt reflects social conservatives' enthusiasm for so-called traditional marriage, but the meaning of the counter-protest buy-in doesn't mean they've advanced their cause: Americans' opinions on gay marriage have undergone a tidal shift, overwhelming the evangelical bulwarks that have held gay rights back in the past.

And faced with a breaking dam, Republicans tried to shore it up with sandwiches.

To be sure, "Chik-fil-a Appreciation Day" was the most significant sandwich-based political movement since Walter Mondale asked of Gary Hart in 1984, "Where's the beef?" But a win at the food court doesn't necessarily translate to a win in the court of public opinion.

There hasn't exactly been silence on the issue of marriage equality, but compared to 2004, when Republicans used the prospect of same-sex couples to terrify blue collars into the voting booth, the noise level of anti-equality rhetoric in the GOP establishment has been, according to a Politico report, no more than a low whine. And it reached its hysterical apex in North Carolina's affirmation of a needless constitutional amendment last spring.

In contrast, Republican headliners who support full civil rights for same-sex couples have been vocal and active: Steve Schmidt, John McCain's presidential campaign manager, has been pushing it as "conservative cause" since 2009; Bush v Gore lawyer and Bush solicitor general Ted Olson will argue against California's Prop 8 before the supreme courtcalls his work on the case "the most important thing we've done in our lives"; fellow Florida recount mastermind Benjamin Ginsberg has also signed on in support; a former Bush pollster circulated a memo earlier this year "advising Republican candidates to emphasize the conservative nature of gay marriage, to say how it encourages personal responsibility, commitment, stability and family values". It goes on: former RNC chairman Ken Mehlmann, who came out as gay in 2010, was a key supporter for the legalization of gay marriage in New York.

The loudest silence on the issue comes from Mitt Romney, who criticized Obama's use of his announcement of support for gay marriage as a campaign fundraising tool but has so far declined to use the issue to pry open the wallets of Republican voters.

In 2008, he wasn't so shy, sending out a direct mail flyer to boast "Of the four leading Republican candidates, only [Romney] supports a Federal Marriage Amendment." Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day certainly underscored how much money would be on the table for Republicans if they chose to fundraise on the issue. (According to noted campaign finance analyst Herman Cain, Chick-fil-A "is going to take a lot of the excess profits they got on that day and contribute it to the charitable organizations they support in even bigger numbers." Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy has yet to confirm Cain's assertion.)

In fact, financial realities have muffled the anti-equality agitators in more ways than one. First of all, social issues have fallen in voter priority so far that they're almost off the chart. A Pew poll in June found just 4% of respondents saying gay rights "matters the most" to them in making their presidential pick. (In 2004, the issue dangled at a comparatively vital 14% for single-issue voters, while 44% voters said the issue was "very important" in influencing their decision along with other issues.)

Even more to the point, the GOP's fundraising foundation needs to be built on a firmer foundation than Sheldon Adelson's roulette wheel. So, while the Romney campaign appears reluctant to make money out of opposing gay marriage, many of the GOP stars listed above have donated heavily to the cause of promoting it. Four Romney supporters (including Mehlman) bundled $2.5m for a conservative pro-gay marriage Super Pac – try imagining all those words in that order in the same sentence just eight years ago! – which launched in June.

And then, there's the inexorable march of history. Opponents of gay marriage are, literally, dying off; younger Republicans' views track the move toward acceptance of same-sex marriage by society at large. Some thirtysomething activists I've talked to roll their eyes when the subject comes up, showing the "just-about-up-to-here" grim impatience you might see with a family's racist uncle: "Oh, that's just Ray. Please ignore him."

Of course, ignoring the embarrassing behavior of an elder isn't necessarily the right thing to do, either. But, by all means, give him a chicken sandwich and hope he doesn't talk with his mouth full.

• Editor's note: this article originally attributed to Ronald Reagan, running against Walter Mondale in 1984, the campaign slogan "Where's the beef?" In fact, it was Mondale who used it to attack Gary Hart in the Democratic primaries that year. The article was amended on 8 August at 5pm (ET).