Unexpected allies

It’s a little hard to believe, but this week, former Vice President Dick Cheney again said he supported gay marriage.

During an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., he said that “people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.”

While it is well-known that Cheney’s daughter Mary is a lesbian (with a longtime partner and 2-year-old son) and the family now publicly supports her, it is notable that Cheney’s statement puts him to the left of President Obama, who has publicly backed civil unions, not marrige, for same-sex couples.

During his appearance, Cheney reiterated his assertion that the issue should be left to the states, saying, “Historically, the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis.”

Cheney spent the majority of his speech defending President Bush’s wartime policies.

Interestingly, Cheney’s marriage position — a distinct departure from traditional Republican rhetoric — is actually compatible, or even more consistent, with Republican tenets of small government, federalism and personal responsibility.

Despite the fact that the 2004 Republican Party platform expressed support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have modified the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, the party’s ideals of small government and self-determination are at odds with its social-conservative ideals.

Socially conservative Republicans oppose same-sex marriage and reproductive choice, yet want smaller government and more personal liberties. However, personal liberties, by default, include the freedom to marry whom you choose and the freedom to have reproductive control over your own body.

Certainly, the Republican Party is suffering from internal strife between economic conservatives and libertarians and the newer faction of social conservatives and religious right.

That Cheney publicly disagreed with the 2004 Republican platform on the gay-marriage issue could be seen as a foreshadowing of the party’s continued fracturing.

Perhaps Cheney’s position on same-sex marriage will, in turn, foreshadow the evolution of the party’s position on the issue.

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