Marc Ambinder noted yesterday that the Republican Party greeted the California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage with near total silence (except for a statement from second-in-command House Republican Roy Blount that denounced the ruling.)
Twenty four hours later, the silence continues. No statement from John McCain himself (his deputy communications director has weighed in) the Republican National Committee, or the Republican Senate or House election committees.
And yet major Christian Right groups are reacting with fury with statements of their own:
Focus on the Family:

California Triggers Cultural Earthquake
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, is outraged by the court’s blatant disregard for marriage and the voters of California.
“The will of the people has now arrogantly been declared null and void,” he said. “In so doing, the justices have undermined and endangered the basic building block of society, which has been honored and preserved in every nation on earth through most of human history.”

Family Research Council Action:

…California voters watched in horror this afternoon as judicial activism returned with a vengeance in one of the most egregious rulings in American jurisprudence…. This outcome is even more troubling than Massachusetts’, in that California voters had already won the right to put a marriage protection amendment on the ballot in November. If the court cared at all about the democratic process, it would have stayed its decision until the people’s voice was heard on the November amendment. Instead, these justices trampled on the legislature and created same-sex marriage by judicial fiat. This is nothing more than a judicial shotgun wedding that forces a redefinition of marriage on the people of California and potentially the rest of the nation…

These groups constitute the base of the GOP. If the party, from McCain on down, turns its back on them, who does it represent? Just economic and defense conservatives? Anyone else think that its current silence on an issue that’s a top concerns for social conservatives represents a major turning point for the Republican Party?

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