Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
That's the thing though. Do they feel its the right thing to do, or are they doing it because they know this battle is lost and it makes them un-electable? I'm sure some feel the former, but I get the feeling for a lot it is the latter.
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To me, "conservatism" in the social sense is the idea that we don't change things just because someone thinks it's a good idea. We value what we've built, and we are very judicious when it comes to changing that because quite often these changes have unintended consequences. We didn't invent "marriage," so we should be very careful changing the definition of what it is.
Conversely, "liberalism" believes in the idea that we should be willing to try anything, as long as there aren't any compelling reasons not to. Personal freedom trumps our fear of the unknown.
Presently, we have survived 11 (apparently) years of gay marriage without a breakdown of society, legalization of bestiality or polygamy, etc. The concept has proven itself relatively benign. Therefore, although dropping the opposition to gay marriage may not be a Christian right-wing thing to do, it is not necessarily an "anti-conservative" thing to do.