(Tim) "Marriage Matters" on National Review Online is by my good friend, Bob Patterson, who writes:
presence of social conservatives in the party and, even more, the fact
that in 30 states social conservatives have succeeded in defending the
legal status of matrimony against elites who want America to be more
like socially liberal Europe.
...In 1776, (Adam Smith) noticed how men and women on this side of the Atlantic were twice as likely to marry — and at younger ages — and had twice as many children as their European counterparts.
Bob ends with this warning:
Of course, insisting that
marriage law should reflect what nature, history, and reason affirm
risks offending not so much homosexuals as cultural elites who care
little about America. For these reasons, the effort to preserve a
social institution that is a critical part of American exceptionalism,
including this country’s economic prowess, deserves greater support
from the GOP establishment and from Republican business interests.
Given how a rejection of the marriage ideal would make the U.S. look
like Europe, the stakes could not be higher.