In 1990, Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams was leading his Democrat opponent in the polls by a comfortable 20-point margin — until he stuck his Texas-sized boot in his mouth by likening rape to bad weather.
“If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it,” the Texas oilman joked, dooming his campaign.
I guess it’s a good thing Williams doesn’t live here in Nevada, because there are three political inevitables on the horizon that we surely would not want him commenting on.
The first is gay marriage, which has actually been inevitable for a long time; it’s just that a lot of people are only now beginning to realize it. When the notion was first put forward in Hawaii in the 1990s, it was a state issue. But once Congress and President Bill Clinton got involved and passed the Defense of Marriage Act, it became a federal issue.
And the 1960s Supreme Court decision in the “Loving” case , which declared marriage a “right,” all but guarantees that gay marriage will soon no longer be a state issue, but the law of the land … the entire land, including Nevada.
Indeed, as long as the government extends special benefits to married couples, the argument is no longer about defending the “traditional definition of marriage,” but equal protection under the law. So the big mistake for traditional marriage supporters isn’t in letting gays into the institution of marriage, it was letting the government into it.
The second inevitable in Nevada is the lawful use and possession of marijuana. Not just medicinal marijuana, recreational as well. It’s a generational thing. The “Reefer Madness” generation is dying off and the largest segment of the voting-age population is baby boomers who grew up smoking weed in the 1960-70s (long before Barack Obama started snorting coke).
Although marijuana advocates certainly aren’t about to admit it, “medical” marijuana was just the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent. And once smoking a doobie became acceptable for cancer patients, it was a short, inevitable step to general acceptance. Of course, it hasn’t hurt that the nation’s drug war has been an expensive, miserable failure.
The third inevitability is the re-election of Gov. Brian Sandoval (R&R Advertising). Upon recent announcements that State Sen. Tick Segerblom and Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, both Democrats, would not challenge the incumbent, the left and much of the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) bemoaned the fact that Democrats wouldn’t have a gubernatorial candidate this year.
I beg to differ.
Sandoval has raised taxes, increased spending, grown government, implemented Obamacare, expanded Medicaid, given driver’s licenses to unlawful immigrants and done absolutely nothing for school choice. In reality it’s conservative Republicans who don’t have a gubernatorial candidate this year!
Relax and enjoy it.
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a conservative grass-roots advocacy organization. He can be reached at www.muthstruths.com.