HOW YOU KNOW THE RIGHT'S HEART REALLY ISN'T IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE

Adam Serwer on yesterday's oral arguments in the Supreme Court Prop 8 case:

When it came to same-sex couples who already have children, [plaintiffs' lawyer Charles] Cooper argued that some nebulous harm could come to children raised in same-sex families. But California already has thousands of children with same-sex parents, and it is unclear what interest is served by preventing those parents from marrying. Finally, Cooper argued, the tradition of marriage is really old and you never know what might happen if it is "redefin[ed]... as a genderless institution." Kagan asked Cooper what harm he could see happening to opposite-sex marriages. Once again, Cooper couldn't answer. Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote will likely decide the fate of Proposition 8, impatiently asked Cooper, "Are you conceding the point that there is no harm or denigration to traditional opposite-sex marriage couples?"

No, Cooper said, without providing any examples of harm. When asked by Justice Sonia Sotomayor whether states would also have an interest in legalizing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, Cooper, his voice trailing off, said, "I do not have anything to offer you in that regard." It felt like he had left the room.

Justice Antonin Scalia, trying to throw Cooper a life preserver, contended that there is "considerable disagreement among sociologists" whether or not being raised by same-sex couples is bad for kids. Actually, there's only disagreement if you count the work of sociologists hired by same-sex marriage opponents. The American Psychological Association has found that "lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children." And Scalia ... added the disclaimer, "I take no position on whether it is harmful or not."

If the wingers' hearts were really in this fight, they'd have massive amounts of evidence that gay marriage causes harm -- because they'd have made it up. They'd have done what they've done on climate change and guns. They'd be lavishly funding think tanks that are to gay marriage what the Heartland Institute and other well-funded climate-denial groups are to global warming. The disinformation generated by these groups would be on Fox News and in other winger media outlets every few days year round, and would flood the zone at key moments in the national debate. They'd try to groom a go-to "expert" who'd be on gay marriage what John Lott is on guns -- a tireless figures-lie-and-liars-figure propagandist who'll reliably show up whenever needed to reinforce the narrative with pseudo-science.

As Adam says, there is some effort to generate phony facts on this subjects -- but the big kahunas of the right-wing media don't seem motivated to catapult this propaganda at every possible opportunity. (Maybe the GOP doesn't want to lose too much of that sweet, sweet cash from gay-friendly Wall Streeters.) If the right really wanted to fight on this issue in its usual way, there'd be so many lies being promulgated that we'd barely be able to keep up.