Kim Davis was annoying at worst. The people who are supporting her are terrifying for America at best.
You may have heard Davis’ name over the course of the last few months. Davis has gained notoriety over the last few months due to her refusal to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples in her Kentucky county. She was taken into contempt of court, then arrested last Thursday for not obeying a federal court's order to issue same-sex marriage licenses, due to her religious belief that marriage should remain between a man and a woman.
Davis is out of prison now, but she is still becoming a symbol for the so-called "war on Christianity," which is in all reality the only power she has at a county level in a podunk town in Kentucky. In the grand scheme of things, Davis is not really a problem.
However, some people who will potentially have more power in the next few years are turning the Davis issue into a real problem.
To compare Kim Davis to Dr. King is to ignore everything he fought for: compassion, inclusion, enlargement of rights for oppressed groups.
— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) September 9, 2015
Many GOP candidates running for the office of president have stated their anger over the “persecution” of Davis and her religious beliefs.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) wrote in a press release Saturday: “Having Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity in our country.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) told the Huffington Post: "We are seeing government today discriminate against whether it's clerks, florists, musicians or others. I think that's wrong. I think you should be able to keep your job and follow your conscience."
Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas said in a press release Thursday: “For the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America.”
Guess who is one of the only GOP candidates to fully condemn Davis for not following the law? Donald Trump. In an interview with MSNBC, he said, "You have to go with it. The decision's been made, and that is the law of the land."
This simple case in Kentucky has the opportunity to be a huge blow against the GOP candidates for president. Why? Because it shows their present mindset.
The Republican Party is in trouble as years go by because the traditional mindset followers that support them are dying out as a new open-minded generation of voters gets ushered in the door.
Despite this, Republicans still pander to the more traditional voting block. In cases like these, a simple problem of a woman not doing her job has been blown up into a religious-versus-marital freedom fight to the death.
To be clear, you are entitled to your own religious beliefs. You are NOT, however, entitled to impose those beliefs on others. #KimDavis
— Tiya Sircar (@tiyasircar) September 9, 2015
The GOP candidates support what they think will win them votes in the upcoming primaries. And right now, that is speaking out against anything and everything having to do with gay marriage to make the voters feel like, come the primaries, they will be able to stop the “war on Christianity." In the future, when one of these candidates gets backed by the GOP and faces off against the Democrats for the 2016 race for the presidency, they won’t just be trying to go for their target demographic anymore.
There will be an even mix of races, ages, religions, sexual orientations and genders — or in other words, America. People who have fought for equality will look at the statements made today about religious persecution for not doing your job and will get angry at the idea of such discrimination, even if they were just said to get the votes to be the Republican nominee. The candidate's words then will do little to draw in new, more diverse voters to win the election.
If there’s one thing that voters don’t like, it is a candidate that changes his or her mind.
The story of Davis shows that the GOP is becoming more detached from the diverse mindset of America, and that gap will only widen as more preside.
Related Links:
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SB 1062 offers warped view of religious freedom
Reach the columnist at baileyvogt@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @VogtOut
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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