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Former RNC Chair To GOP: Same-Sex Marriage Is A Conservative Value

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var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Ken Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman who propelled George W. Bush to re-election, is telling the GOP that same-sex marriage equality is consistent with conservative values. And he’s apparently putting his money where his mouth is.

Mehlman, who was Bush’s field director in 2000 and then drove anti-gay Republicans to the polls in 2004 by ensuring gay marriage bans were on the ballots in many states, himself came out as gay just two years ago and has been attempting to right what many in the LGBT community still see as his unforgivable sin.

WATCH: Mehlman: How Can GOPs Reach Out To Gays When Their Policies Restrict LGBT Rights?

Preferring to work behind the scenes, Mehlman was instrumental in helping same-sex marriage become law in New York, where he now makes his home, and lobbied for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The 46-year old former Bush and GOP strategist is the founder of Project Right Side, which bills itself as a “non-profit providing research and analysis to improve the political climate for gay and lesbian issues across the political spectrum.”

“Some misperceive the issue of marriage equality as exclusively progressive,” Mehlman writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday evening. “Yet what could be more conservative than support for more freedom and less government? And what freedom is more basic than the right to marry the person you love? Smaller, less intrusive government surely includes an individual deciding whom to marry. Allowing civil marriage for same-sex couples will cultivate community stability, encourage fidelity and commitment, and foster family values.”

Mehlman’s WSJ op-ed, “Making the Same-Sex Case,” (subscription) touts polling data that most Democrats, progressives, and LGBT people are familiar with, including, “A majority of Americans favor civil marriage for same-sex couples,” the “marriage-equality issue is more important to supporters than to opponents,” a “majority of independents favor marriage equality,” and “Republicans are increasingly supportive of legal protections for gay Americans.”

Like most GOP strategists, Mehlman attributes this month’s widespread GOP losses to “a failure to embrace some of America’s fastest-growing constituencies” — an utterly insincere perception that “America’s fastest-growing constituencies” see as nothing more than strategy. Hispanics and the LGBT community are absolutely not going to be won over by GOP “outreach” or “messaging.”

But unlike many in the GOP, Mehlman offers reasons why embracing minorities, like the LGBT community, is the right thing to do. Which is far different than any Republican has done post-election. Mehlman admitted, since coming out, “one of the things I’ve learned is how many people were harmed by the campaigns in which I was involved.”

Mehlman offers his GOP friends important words, the same ones we’ve been saying for years:

Same-sex couples today lack the estate-tax protections, Social Security spousal benefits, and joint-filing options available to heterosexual couples. This can mean the difference between staying in the family home or losing it when a partner dies. In 29 states, individuals can be fired based on their sexual orientation. Conservatives believe that individuals should be judged at work based on performance, so shouldn’t we fix this?

Conservatives don’t need to change core convictions to embrace the growing support for equal rights for gay Americans. It is sufficient to recognize the inherent conservatism in citizens’ desire to marry, to be judged on their work, and not to be singled out for higher taxes or bullying at school. These objectives can be achieved while also protecting religious liberty, as demonstrated by states enacting civil marriage with exemptions for religious institutions.

Mehlman isn’t telling the GOP anything new. But that he — the highest ranking Republican Party official to come out as gay — is the messenger hopefully will allow some on the right to actually hear, and accept, his call for equality.

 

Related:

Romney Wanted Gay Former RNC Chairman To Lead Campaign Claims Politico

On Our Radar – Out On The Street: LGBT Friends In High Places.

Mehlman “wasn’t ready to admit to anyone that he was a supporter of gay rights”

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White House Teases Out What Trump Will Say in Rare Oval Office Address

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President Donald Trump has delivered only two Oval Office addresses this term, with a third set for Wednesday night. He announced the speech on social media but offered few details. The White House has since teased additional information, fueling speculation.

“My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the White House, at 9 P.M. EST. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and the best is yet to come!” Trump wrote in a mixture of all-caps and standard lettering.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently offered a few more details, suggesting the speech will pump up the administration’s political messaging.

READ MORE: How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

“We greatly look forward to President Trump addressing the nation tomorrow night, 9 o’clock Eastern,” she told Fox News. “I hope your audience will tune in, and Americans across the country will tune in to hear from their president, as well, about the historic accomplishments that he has garnered for our country over the past year.”

“If you look at the security of our border, if you look at stopping Joe Biden’s inflation right in its tracks, bringing down gas prices to the lowest level in five years, President Trump will be talking about what’s to come. The best is truly yet to come, as he often says.”

Inflation is officially at about 3% currently, where it was for the month of January when Trump took office. As of Tuesday morning, unemployment jumped up to 4.6%, a four-year high. One economist warned the nation is in a “hiring recession.” Trump’s poll numbers, especially on the economy, are at or near his second-term lows.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

Leavitt added that the president will also give remarks “about all of his historic accomplishments over the past year, and maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the new year, as well, as we head into this Christmas season.”

According to The Independent, Leavitt told reporters it would be a “really good speech.”

“He’s going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over the past 11 months, all that he’s done to bring our country back to greatness, and all he continues to plan to do to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

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How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

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On Monday, President Donald Trump signed his 221st executive order, surpassing his entire four-year first term record of 220. Unlike many other presidents who partnered with Congress to pass legislation to advance their agenda, President Trump has opted to “dramatically expand presidential authority with moves that have tested the bounds of the Constitution,” according to The Washington Post.

“American presidents have consolidated executive power to skirt Congress since the beginning of the 20th century. But Trump has accelerated the trend that intensified in recent decades amid a decline in legislative activity and rising partisan brinkmanship.”

Continuing at his current rate, Trump would finish this four-year term with more than 880 executive orders to his name.

According to The American Presidency Project, President Joe Biden signed a total of 162 executive orders in four years. President Barack Obama signed 276 across eight years. President George W. Bush signed 291 in eight years, and President Bill Clinton, 364.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

“Trump has used the orders to impose sweeping tariffs, seek retribution against his perceived enemies and weigh in on cultural issues big and small, from challenging immigration laws to regulating water pressure from showerheads,” the Post reported.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has “major influence” over Trump’s executive orders. The Post reported that one White House official said that every executive order is “fully vetted and reviewed” by the White House Counsel, the president’s staff secretary’s office, and Miller.

Trump’s approach is distinguished by both the volume of executive orders and the scope. They reflect a strong effort to shift power away from Congress and toward the Oval Office — an expansion of presidential authority that courts are now being asked to rein in.

The courts, according to the Post, have stepped in numerous times, halting Trump “from unilaterally changing federal election-registration rules, banning care for transgender people and punishing law firms who have represented causes or clients that he opposes. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments last month, and the high court said it would hear a case examining Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

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‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

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Moderate House Republicans concerned about re-election next year have been pushing for a vote to extend the Obamacare premium subsidies, but Speaker Mike Johnson is strongly opposed. House Democrats need only four Republicans to cross the aisle and sign their discharge petition, which would force a vote on the House floor — and Democrats may get exactly what they want.

That’s according to Punchbowl News and its co-founder, Jake Sherman.

“This week,” Sherman wrote, “was designed to give House Republicans a way to push back on Democratic attacks that they’re indifferent to skyrocketing health care costs hitting millions of Americans. Instead, the House GOP leadership has facilitated an untimely — and particularly nasty — intraparty brawl, pitting moderates against Republican Party leaders and further strengthening Democrats’ political hand as the Obamacare cliff looms.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

Speaker Johnson is “pushing” moderate Republicans “into the arms of Democrats,” Sherman added, “as the House Republican leadership refuses to allow the centrists a vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.”

One moderate Republican, Sherman also reported, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) “stood up in a House Republican Conference meeting and said that not having an up-or-down vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies is malpractice.”

He also reported that many moderate Republicans “share this sentiment.”

“They feel like they have to have a vote and the conference won’t give it to them. Driving them into the arms of democrats.”

Sherman explained that by refusing to allow the vote, Republicans have delivered a “political advantage” to the Democrats. If just four House Republicans sign Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, “Democrats have exacted the precise policy win they’ve been seeking, even if that never becomes law.”

READ MORE: ‘Grifters’: A MAGA Civil War Is Eating Away at Its Own Power

 

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