John Kerry's opinion on the Federal Marriage Amendment: Bush is causing unemployment.
Kerry is cowering on gay marriage just like he cowers on the Patriot Act. He's a wimp, he likes to stay non-controversial. That's why he constantly shifts position and has even less sense of himself than Clark and Dean - who were also big position shifters.
We cannot trust Kerry to defend the Constitution from the Patriot Act if he can't even side with a 75% Democratic constituency: gay people. If he won't defend the Constitution for the left-wing, why would he do it on a much harder issue? Simple, he won't because it's a very effective wedge issue.
Democrats since FDR (1930s and 1940s) have pulled the voters with less formal education. This group only went GOP in primary 3 times since FDR: 1972, 1988, and 2000. This is a large demographic (usually 1/4th of the vote) that the Democrats need, and polls show it's a big gain for Bush on the gay marriage issue. They don't like it, and even Democratic pollsters admit it most of the time. The issue is not who will gain but how much Bush will gain from the FMA. This is the area of his pick-up, this is the demographic that prefers voting for socially center-right, fiscally centrist or center-left (Christian Democrat or populist, in other words) candidates. The Democrats are often not so far left as to lose this group, and economics more than picks them up. With Bush moving left on budget, spending and social programs he is in a great position, and putting up a social wedge issue like this one makes him seem a) like a leader with convictions and b) like he's not nearly so crazy as Kerry.
He'll win votes from it. It's very sad that it happens, it's a stupid issue, but he will pick up from it. We have to counter this issue by a strong turnout for a Presidential candidate against the FMA: Badnarik!
Bush proposed it and Kerry is waffling big time, but Badnarik is against it and marching in the gay pride parade in support of self-determination.
