Mechanics: Inclusion Wins and Woes

Gay Marriage: A civil right? from Talking Eyes Media on Vimeo.

[VIDEO] In general, I'm not supportive of gay marriage. I do accept civil unions and in this state they've been only legal since 2011. Overtime even though civil unions are legal here, we still see a push in this state for outright gay marriage.

While for the most part you still have to get the votes to make it happen in the General Assembly the blue tilt of this state could make gay marriage a reality in Illinois. Recently at the Capitol Fax we see that coalitions are forming in favor of this policy goal. It's very interesting looking at who is in favor from lawyers to public employees to even labor. Seems like your typical liberal groups.

Then over at Mechanics where I found the video above, we know one other group fighting for gay marriage - Log Cabin Republicans. It seems we never hear about that group until it's about convention time and we find out about all these various groups that are under the tent of the major parties. Log Cabin Republicans are basically a group of gay and lesbian Republicans.

I'm going to go a long way from saying they're a factor in politics. Surely only they can measure their impact in politics wherever they may have a chapter. The fact that they seem to be taking a stand on gay marriage may have an impact in their community who knows.

We already see analysis that the Republican Party may have trouble in the current political environment they do seek out more "minorities" to either represent the Republicans or at least seek office. That's fine, but it seems that if being more inclusive is the answer perhaps we need to hear more from the Log Cabin Republicans.

This is one step and I recognize that gay marriage isn't popular everywhere. At least they're arguing for some semblance of federalism here. It's not wrong that every state should be able to follow their path on any particular public policy. That's the nature of this republic.

Another nature of this republic is the various groups who are pursuing policy goals. No matter how black and white we attempt to make our two major parties, both of them have minorities of their own fighting for their own policies. Democrats may have a group of conservatives in their ranks who may not differ philosophy wise with the Republicans and then we can point to the Log Cabin Republicans who differ with their party on the issue of gay marriage for example.

I suppose what we have to look at here is how these groups could influence their particular party or their role in helping to shape policy. Perhaps we will never hear more about the Log Cabins beyond this Mechanics article, but hopefully they can help shape the direction the Illinois Republican Party would go.