Eschaton on the gay marriage issue:
There’s something that Democrats need to realize – we’re going to be the party of those icky gay people no matter what we do. The Dems have three basic choices. One, they can fall all over each other to condemn the evils of gays and gay marriage more loudly than the Republicans. Two, they can take an incomprehensibly muddled position and hope the issue just goes away. And, three, they can take a strong and unequivocal pro gay rights position.
The first choice does nothing for them except repel voters. The second ensures that the issue will be brought up constantly. The third is the only way out.
As we all know, Democrats are the party of homosexuality, adultery, and divorce. They’re also soft on crime and they hate the military. For some of these issues you can try and out-Republican the Republicans – propose giant military budgets, police budgets, minimum sentences, etc… – to neutralize that perception. There is nothing Democrats can do to recast themselves as they anti-gay party without completely abandoning their place as the party of Civil Rights. Besides, I don’t think that even putting execution for homosexuality into the Dem platform would be enough to change the perception.