EMAIL FROM MASSACHUSETTS

“Yesterday was primary day in Massachusetts and it was a good day for marriage equality. Every incumbent who voted for equality and who faced an opponent won. In addition, two anti-equality incumbents lost to equality challengers. Neither will face an opponent in November. And a pro-equality candidate won an open seat being vacated by an anti-equality representative.
In a related couple of stories, today’s polls in the Boston Globe show that gay marriage is not high on the voters’ priority list here and that Gov. Romney’s popularity continues a slow but steady decline. Maybe because of this, Romney has been saying that gay marriage will not be a Republican theme in this year’s November elections here. He has decided that Republicans have a wide range of opinions on the topic and it is best left to each individual to decide. Sounds to me like he’s discovered that anti-marriage equality is a loosing proposition here.” I have a feeling that marriage equality forces are going to win a popular mandate in Massachusetts. And then the roundhead right will have to make their case not on the judicial activism point but on the substantive argument that gay people must be kept out of marriage for the institution to survive. They’ll lose that argument, because they have no hard evidence to support it. And against the appeal of formal equality and states’ rights, they will have an uphill struggle.