Gay Marriage-Bashing Not on Red Meat Menu Served by Cruz, Paul at Value Voters Summit

The annual Value Voters Summit,
taking place right now in Washington, D.C., and hosted by the
Family Research Council (FRC), gives Republican politicians the
opportunity to fire up the party’s social conservatives with a
heaping helping of red meat.

Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Kentucky), both
potential (I suppose “likely” would be more accurate) presidential
candidates for 2016 gave big speeches today focusing on religious
liberty for Christians, both abroad at home. The big targets were
Muslim radicals and governments who were attacking Christians in
the Middle East, and Obamacare for attempting to force
Christian-owned businesses to fund birth control options that they
find immoral.

Left entirely out of both men’s speeches was any mention of
opposing same-sex marriage, a major hobgoblin of the Family
Research Council.  Cruz did say that Americans “stand for
marriage” at one point, obviously sort of intended as a call to
traditional values, but he went no further on the issue.
According to the Associated Press, the “future of marriage” is
the focus of a panel discussion there, and Tony Perkins, president
of the FRC said that he thought that evangelical voters would still
focus on issues like traditional marriage on Election Day.

It would silly to believe that Cruz and Paul are going to become
major pro-gay-marriage conservatives. Cruz and Paul are both on the
record as personally opposing same-sex marriage, but both prefer to
leave the matter to the states. Paul would really like the GOP to
kind of just leave it alone entirely, given that it’s pretty much a
settled
issue for the growing millennial voting bloc, even for those
who identify as Republicans. It’s not a sign of a shift in belief
that the two of them avoided one of the major issues the FRC exists
to fight, but it may well be a sign that both realize it’s not a
position they can campaign on, even in front of a room of social
conservatives.

Mediaite has both speeches posted. Watch Cruz
here and Paul
here.