Just the first question:
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is marriage winning? Some days it sure doesn’t feel that way.
MAGGIE GALLAGHER: Actually, marriage was on a big roll last week. A marriage amendment passed the Wyoming senate 20 to 10 (a two-thirds vote was required), after moving through the house judiciary committee, also by a two-thirds margin. In Indiana, a marriage amendment just passed the critical hurdle of the house judiciary committee, which had bottled up marriage amendments for years. In Rhode Island, neither the speaker nor the governor showed up at the hearings — even though Governor Chafee has (absurdly) called gay marriage a key part of his economic-development plan. Legislators are getting hammered with phone calls from constituents in both Maryland and Rhode Island, and things the Left once considered “done deals” in those states are now in danger.
That’s not what you hear, of course, because most of the media — and functionally, even much of the conservative media — is pro-gay-marriage, or at least anti-anti-gay-marriage.
For instance, what was the big news about gay marriage this week? Historic new victories in Wyoming and Indiana? Huge new crowds turning out against same-sex marriage in Rhode Island and Maryland? Legislators getting slammed with phone calls from constituents opposing SSM?
No. The big story was that one Maryland senator changed his vote to favor gay marriage. Gay-marriage advocates are still several votes shy of what they need, even though Maryland is one of the bluest states in the nation, but never mind the facts: “Big victory inevitable” is always the message you hear, no matter what the facts are.
James Davison Hunter is right: Cultural power is the power to name reality. They have far more cultural power than we do, and they name our realities.
Read the rest here.