by Steve Timmer

Mar 29, 2013, 4:30 PM

The self-excising tumors

If only medicine was this easy

As you have probably read, there has been some movement toward the acceptance of gay marriage among Republicans, as well as the acceptance of immigration law changes that will permit, inter alia, a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

You might call it a genuine epiphany, or you might call it craven political calculation. (I would call it the latter.)

But some people in the Republican party are having none of it. I speak, of course, of the evangelicals, who have held the Republican party in thrall for thirty years.

After the Republican National Committee (RNC) released a report which called for less vocal opposition to gay rights, several conservatives reacted angrily.

“The vast majority of the GOP base believes that marriage is a non-negotiable plank of the national platform,” said [Tony] Perkins, president of the Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC) [one of the most truly Orwellian-named organizations around]. “If the RNC abandons marriage, evangelicals will either sit the elections out completely, or move to create a third party. Either option puts Republicans on the path to a permanent minority.”

I suspect that Perkins regards himself and his organization a little too well. I also suspect that the RNC “doctors” made the calculation that the patient, that is the Republican Party, has a better chance of survival without the tumors.

Maybe this is even the work of St. Patrick.

Update 3/30/13: And just taking a stroll down memory lane, I chanced across this: Fritz whistles past the graveyard.