Politics

Why Trump Appeals To Gay Republicans

REUTERS

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
Font Size:

In the wake of Orlando, a bunch of stories in emerged arguing that Republicans who favor gay rights like Donald Trump. Nobody is arguing that Trump will win with gays, but it certainly seems plausible that he will do better than Mitt Romney.

To be sure, political activists and leaders in the LGBT community will not support him. If sexual orientation defines your identity then the odds are pretty good that Hillary Clinton can count on your vote. But what if you’re also a small business owner, taxpayer, homeowner, father, etc.? Or what if you’re a guy who’d simply prefer not to get blown up by radical Islamists at a nightclub? (For what it’s worth, anecdotally speaking, most of the gay Republicans I know are foreign policy hawks, and they have a special incentive to be “militaristic” when it comes to battling radical Islam.)

There’s an argument about ethnic minorities which basically says that they vote Democratic until they economically reach the middle class. It took until 1980 before Republicans started winning “ethnics” like Italians and the Irish. While not a perfect analogy, isn’t it likely that a lot of average gay Americans will become bourgeois suburbanites now that gay marriage is legal? (I realize that this argument runs contrary to the argument that progressives are never satisfied, but I’m talking about rank and file people here, not agitators or activists. What if Andrew Sullivan was right in 1989?)

So let’s assume that this trend is at least partly true, that—by pushing through gay marriage—liberals inadvertently and ironically removed an issue that favored them. Rather than being forever grateful, some members of the erstwhile victimized group now say, “But what about taxes and national security?”

Enter Donald Trump, who has zero social conservative moorings. There are many reasons why conservatives should be concerned about a guy who lacks a conservative worldview. But being a chameleon is also a political advantage. Donald Trump can now appeal to LGBT Americans in a way that any other generic Republican, brought up in the conservative movement or the GOP—having spoken at various social conservative events like the Value Voters Summit—could never convincingly flip.

Again, I’m not suggesting Trump wins “the gay vote,” just that he might surprisingly (if you don’t consider the aforementioned arguments) outperform Mitt Romney—or any other 2016 Republican. This is yet another example of how he shifts the paradigm and brings about a potential political reordering.

Matt K. Lewis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel