The above headline isn't some rhetorical trick or hyperbole. It's fact.
Agema, a former state rep and current Republican National Committeeman, has been in hot water for posting a factually inaccurate column to Facebook that calls gays and lesbians "filthy."
At today's Republican National Committee meeting in Los Angeles, Agema introduced a resolution to reaffirm the party's opposition to gay marriage. It passed unanimously.
Time: RNC officials collected the resolutions, which were opposed privately by some committee members, together with a resolution honoring Ron Paul and another calling for a sustained investment in the U.S. space program — an effort to avoid debate on the floor.
The very fact that the vote took place was seen by some Republicans as flying in the face of one recommendation in the RNC’s Growth and Opportunity Project report.
“There is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays — and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be,” the report stated. ”If our Party is not welcoming and inclusive, young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out.”
Dave Agema
National Review: Passage of this resolution would please a vocal but shrinking faction of activists. However, committee members must be accountable to rank-and-file Republicans, among whom support for same-sex marriage has been consistently growing for as long as polling has been conducted on the subject. According to recent ABC News/Washington Post polling, 52 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under the age of 50 support same-sex marriage. Among Republicans under 30, a majority also support same-sex marriage. Among evangelical Millennials, recent polling shows 64 percent support.
But, really, the fact that Agema is behind this resolution pretty much invalidates the efforts by Republicans like Michigan Speaker Jase Bolger to distance Agema's tone from the party's general opposition to gay marriage. As a matter of record, the GOP's stance against gay marriage has been written by Dave Agema.
