I found this really interesting article about Murray, which talks about his speech at the conference CPAC, which Republicans gathered after the 2012 election. Many came to talk about a way to move the party forward after the defeat, and Murray surprised him with his remarks. He encouraged the GOP to "accept the legalization of both gay marriage and abortion."
Murray is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and considers himself a libertarian. Yet many Republicans praise his writing, especially Murray's argument that social programs worsen poverty. Murray, however, said that he was inspired to talk about these issues on his drive to the conference, and decided then to change the topic of his speech.
Murray's pro-gay marriage argrees with his arguments about the importance of marriage. If marriage correlates with stable homes and higher prosperity, than the sexual orientation of the couple that marries should not be a factor. Murray spoke about the evolvement of his beliefs based on personal experience and other's arguments. He also talked about the fact that none of his four children (whom agree with Murray on many points) even considered voting for a Republican because of their stances on social and religious views. I really encourage everyone to read the article because it explains his stance farther and it is interesting to have this thought in mind when reading Coming Apart.
1 comment:
This was a really interesting read, thanks for posting it! I thought it was interesting at the end how he mentions the "litmus test" for GOP candidates on social issues- it reminded me of our discussion on primaries and how polarizing and difficult they can be, considering that candidates need to be very conservative in the primaries in order to win over the party base, then more moderate in the general election so they do not alienate the public. I completely agree with his analysis of younger voters being somewhat turned off by the Republican Party due to their stance on social issues, as many young adults tend to be more socially liberal. Murray has a lot of interesting things to say; I really hope he can come to campus next semester!
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