Reply #3: The irony is that the more the GOP use this ploy

[salin]

to fire up their furthest rightwing supporters, the more the public sentiment has shifted to favor the perceived 'compromise' position of civil unions. In the short term the GOP will push this because they believe that for another election cycle or so it will get a firey part of their base to the ballots... but the shifting public opinion will likely, in the coming years, shepherd in a period of more states allowing civil unions - and the far religios right (which is being pandered to right now for political calculus) being left even more angry as their efforts become not only thwarted, but public policy that they are against starts becoming more common. The irony? That without these hard pushes right now (used to get folks to national election polls), the public sentiment probably would have remained more stagnant and less favorable (towards civil unions and same-sex marraige) - but the in the face legislative pushes - esp when done so at the expense of REAL pressing issues (such as local economies) - is the very thing shifting public opinion away from the far religious right.

In sum - short term we are likely to see more of this and it will get worse... but in the long term, I believe, much will be reversed, ironically because of the mad political pushing we see in the short term.