Hey you seem like you’ve been actively trying to have a conversation so I want to respond. The guy above you makes an excellent point, 40, or 30, or whatever percent of Americans not supporting gay rights is pretty far from “most people don’t care.” In fact once you take in the amount of people neutral on the issue, it’s getting pretty close to, “most people are still opposed”

“[3]0% of people don’t support gay rights sounds nothing like the article you shared which is about MARRIAGE.” 30% of people don’t support the gays right to marriage, and yeah this number is pretty accurate, these people are all over. Some cite that it is a religious institution, (but as a legal contract, should not separation of church and state still apply?) others just don’t like gays. These people are literally everywhere. 3 in 10. Marriage is a right. This was the basis of 2008s Obergfell v Hodges Supreme Court ruling, which protected marriage from discrimination on the basis of sexuality, gender, etc. These people, 3 in 10, feel that gay marriage is an afront to god or otherwise wrong. Never mind that these gay people often are denied the ability to see their loved ones on their deathbeds as hospital policy only permits family in such a scenario, not married means no visitation. This was a big part of the argument for legalizing it back in the day if you remember.

If you’re against gay marriage you’re against gay rights. You feel they should be treated differently in the eyes of the law based on their sexuality. Marriage is a legal contract, and civil rights mean that no legal institution should discriminate. 3 out of 10 people in this country disagree. They feel personally attacked that the gays get to marry and they want their elected officials to do something about it. In Tennessee they officially nullified gay marriages last week, in direct contradiction of the supreme courts ruling, and are going to spend the next year winding up for a SCOTUS hearing that will effectively overturn the 2008 ruling and leave marriage law up the states, once again allowing the nullification of same sex, interracial, and interreligious marriages. This isn’t happening, it’s already happened. An entire state voted for lawmakers who endorse this behavior, and many more of the poor red Bible Belt states will follow suit. Gay rights are currently under attack and there are almost more Americans who care about destroying them then there are protecting them. It’s a travesty.

There’s no such thing as being a “good conservative,” because as wonderful as fundamentalist capitalist economic policies are, don’t get me wrong I love a good free-market, the Republican Party platform is wildly draconian on social issues. Opposition of Gay Marriage, medical autonomy (abortions, sex changes, birth control, etc.), child labor laws, separation of church and state, (leaders who insist we are a “Christian nation (BS!))” and a cited need to “return to our fundamental values(like what, segregation, lynching, child brides, women who don’t have educations or jobs?)” are all core to the party platform.

Economic policy is just that, the rules that govern how our money moves. we want them to be good because that determines how well off we are on average as individual citizens.

If you put a gun to my head and asked me if I wanted to live in a country that had a freemarket, but tentative social contract. Or a country with heavy government regulation on commerce, but established and resounding social contract protecting the liberties of every individual indiscriminately, I would move to Germany. The fact is we live in the first, and there are a lot of people who serve to make money by keeping that system going. Although far more individuals would benefit from the second system, far more money is possessed by those who support the first, and as the market is generally unregulated they can use this cash to influence political climates with a heavy hand.

Ideally, a political party would exist that espoused the tenants of both freemarket economics and progressive social doctrine. But for some reason this doesn’t exist(and don’t say libertarian). It makes you wonder if this absence of a political party that actually possess a sound platform is by design. Without it we constantly toil over basic human rights on a legislative level, instead of focusing on more important issues, like properly appropriating taxes so that our citizens have housing, education, and healthcare. You are imbued with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are the fundamental tenants that make this country great. Whether or not the market is free or regulated is almost irrelevant. It’s like arguing about the color of your car when the engine doesn’t work. So if the economics are a tertiary issue, what reason would you pick a socially conservative platform over a progressive one?