National Organization for Marriage (NOM) president Brian S. Brown appeared on Breitbart News Sunday to talk about the legalization of same-sex marriage as a result of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.
He told Breitbart News senior political reporter Mathew Boyle, hosting the program that airs on Sirius XM Patriot radio, that most of the GOP candidates got out in front of the issue and condemned the ruling. Most said that they support a constitutional amendment to allow the people to decide the issue.
Gov. Walker, former Gov. Huckabee, former Senator Rick Santorum, all stood up for traditional marriage. Yet, Brown pointed out that Republican Senator Marco Rubio was “very disappointing” on the issue.
Brown said Rubio’s stance is, “look I don’t want to amend the Constitution. I don’t want to do the one thing that is a clear path towards overturning the Supreme Court decision.”
Brown, who Boyle referred to as one of the “key social conservatives in the nation,” accused Rubio of wanting Americans to simply deal with the effects of the decision. The NOM leader said that the effects of the same-sex marriage ruling will spur infringements on religious liberty. He doesn’t see how Rubio has faith in the Supreme Court to deal with religious liberty issues when they can “willy-nilly create a right to same-sex marriage out of thin air and force it on the entire country. That is just not acceptable.”
Brown added that it is also unacceptable to have a Republican candidate running for president “who are so weak they’re not willing to stand up for their own party platform, which calls for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage.”
The conservative repeated that he was very disappointed in Rubio, acknowledging that it was a “big failure” for the senator.
Brown added that 2016 presidential aspirant and former Florida governor Jeb Bush also failed to support a clear path to overturning this decision.
Boyle asked Brown to weigh in on what the candidates need to be talking about in 2016 when it comes to vetting judicial appointments.
“The upcoming presidential election is everything for the issue of marriage,” Brown responded. “There’s two ways to overturn this decision. One is through a constitutional amendment. That would be a long, hard fight but it would be a fight worth having. The second is electing a president who will nominate constitutional justices to the Supreme Court. Anyone who looks can see that Republicans have not done very well at this.”
Contrarily, Brown says the Democrats are doing very well at this: “They’re basically getting it right 100% of the time, ideologically, who they want.” Brown believes that this Republican failure has to change.
Significantly, the National Organization of Marriage is asking for a pledge from each of the 2016 candidates. One of the key points is a to commit to overturning the same-sex marriage decision. Moreover, they are asking candidates to pledge that they will nominate constitutionalist judges to the Supreme Court.
Brown explained that they are only going to get a commitment from someone who is willing to be a leader on the marriage issue. “Not someone who just gives lip service to it,” he insisted.
“We have an imperial judiciary. So we need presidential candidates able to articulate that, oppose that, and be very clear in their judicial philosophy,” he said. “We have to make sure that they’re not going to appoint another justice who betrays the core principles of the Constitution, which happened with Justice Kennedy in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee have all been leaders on this issue, Brown stated. Moreover Brown said that Gov. Walker has been “tremendously good” on this issue lately. He has supported a constitutional amendment to overturn this decision and allow the people to decide the issue of marriage. “I’ve been impressed with Gov. Walker reaching out in the meeting with social conservatives,” he added.
In public referendums on marriage, traditional marriage supporters enjoy an incredible record of winning 32 out of 35 elections. “We still show very strong support for marriage by Republican voters,” Brown added. “It’s clear we are in the 80-90% range. Even in the broader public voting, we’re still over 50%.”
Brown believes that voters want people who “will stand for the truth, who will stand up for what they believe. They don’t want people waffling away. Republican voters are not going to stand for a candidate that runs away from the marriage issue.”
The over arching question, Brown asks, “are we going to live under a government where people get to decide, or do we live under a government where Justice Kennedy gets to decide something as important as the very nature of marriage?”
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