About 17% of voters surveyed report that gay marriage is a "very important" issue for them. That's 17% total including both for and against so it's just not of sufficient weight to be all that useful as a wedge issue for either the Dems or the Repubs.

So why are the Dems all embracing the Supreme Court ruling and so many Repubs are trying to back away from the issue?

You think maybe their deeply held personal convictions have suddenly evolved like a certain South Carolina governor 'evolved' last week on the issue of the Confederate battle flag?

Yea, me neither.

Which still begs the question of what environmental factor might be driving this evolution of views by so many pols. Why are Dems rushing to embrace us and so many Repubs rushing for the door?

This statistician thinks he's found the answer.

He thinks that while gay marriage is no longer useful as a wedge issue, it does act as an important threshold issue. Seems that even those people for whom our issue is of minor importance in and of itself find folks who carry on against it off-putting. Rant on against gay marriage and they just tune you out on other issues you might well expect to be able to reach them on.

Don't know if that is right but it does kinda explain the recent behavior of our pols.

Marriage in and of itself is NOT an issue for me. I never had the need to be married, just to be married. But I learned that the status is necessary for spousal benefits and rights should I enter into a relationship with a long term partner.

Which means that marriage has been a political and federal issue for a long time. If those who say there is nothing in the Constitution about marriage are correct, then there never should have been "rights and benefits" for anyone, should there?

Best regards,

RA1