Those clever devils at Quinnipiac thought to ask people whether they thought the same sex marriage issue should be settled by the Constitution or by the states. The results were: 56-36 in favor of Ye Good Ol’ Constitution. Everyone wants the Constitution to decide this one. Except… Are you ready for a shocker?! Republicans think the states should decide by the relatively narrow margin 49-45. What does that tell us?

Primarily, it tells us that people who know they are losing a battle grab onto states rights. The argument goes like this: Sure, you godless homo huggers can have your gay-boy marriage, but leave me and mine here in our intolerant state alone! And so what we have here is the conservative movement hunkering down and trying to stop the inevitable march of progress from touching them. They’re probably hoping North Korea bombs us back to the stone age before they have to give in on one of the two issues that God really cares about. (The other is that every zygote is sacred.)

The sad thing is that the conservative clowns on the Supreme Court are most likely going to do the same thing. “Oh, this is a state issue; why are we even talking about it?” I wonder if they really think that future Americans will find this dodge compelling. Certainly, when we see some person on the TV from years ago talking about “states rights” we don’t hesitate from thinking, “Bigot!” I suspect people like John Roberts think that their faith will protect them—that people will give them a pass because they were just following their religion. Of course, so were the bigots of the civil rights era.

It has been no secret that we are heading at breakneck speed toward sexual orientation equality. What is interesting about the Quinnipiac poll is that it shows that the Republicans understand it too.

Welcome to the 21th century guys! We look forward to you catching up!