WASHINGTON (AP) – For the second time in two days, the Supreme Court struck at the heart of the Republican Party platform.
Yet the wave of outrage that followed the high court’s decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s health care law wasn’t nearly as intense after Friday’s ruling to give same-sex couples the right to marry. Friday’s ruling instead drew tepid responses from several Republicans who, in many cases, would like that issue to fade away.
The sharp contrast highlights the political challenges for a Republican Party searching for a winning playbook in 2016.
The GOP’s presidential class is ready to bet big their opposition to Obama’s health care law will resonate with voters for a third straight election. But facing a seismic shift in public opinion on gay marriage, several of the party’s most ambitious appear ready to turn the page on a social issue the GOP used for a generation to motivate its most passionate voters to turn out and vote at the polls.
Perhaps no Republican presidential candidate better illustrated the contrast than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was ready with a fiery statement and a video entitled, “This is not the end of the fight,” to decry the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the Affordable Care Act.