Pamela Paul: Don't let Republicans off the hook on same-sex marriage

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : It's the moment for those Republicans who are in favor of same-sex marriage to stand up for what has become a clear majority position in the country, or to cave spectacularly to the prejudices of their base.
50% : Over the past seven short years and after the course of many long ones, same-sex marriage has reached the status of a basic and bedrock civil right.
49% : On Thursday, the bipartisan group of senators behind the Respect for Marriage Act, which would have enshrined federal protections for same-sex marriage, announced a delay on putting the measure to a vote, which had been expected to take place this week.
49% : Currently, 71% of Americans support same-sex marriage.
47% : And they're doing this at the expense of the many Americans in same-sex relationships -- married, engaged or on the cusp of commitment -- for whom this just makes life harder and more precarious.
46% : But those who do support same-sex marriage need to act.
43% : This just makes things easier on Republican lawmakers: A vote would force them to dissatisfy either swing voters, with whom same-sex marriage is highly popular, or their extremist base, with whom (to put it mildly) it is not.
42% : When it comes to polarizing culture war issues, same-sex marriage may be the most unifying policy there is.
40% : Particularly given the ominous words of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which many interpreted as a threat to revisit the landmark 2015 decision establishing the right to same-sex marriage.
31% : In theory, I'm as much in favor of bipartisanship as the next pragmatist, despite the consistent battering the practice has gotten, especially from then-President Barack Obama's failed efforts to woo Republicans on the Affordable Care Act onward.
27% : Even under the capacious LGBTQ umbrella, where disparate issues around sexual orientation, gay rights and gender identity split Americans across the political spectrum, you can't get much closer to consensus than same-sex marriage.
17% : Easier for Republicans to scurry away from a proposal that's politically risky, just as they did earlier last week with Lindsey Graham's unpopular bill on abortion.

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