Can Real Life Intrude on the GOP?

 Just some thoughts on the first day-and-a-half of the Democratic National Convention ...

In a strange way, it's almost like we've won something. The GOP was mostly mum on its pesky social issues -- Rep. Todd Akin had made abortion toxic, and new polling before the convention had shown that LGBT issues were just not working as a wedge issue anymore. As gay columnist Michelangelo Signorile put it, they stood by the rule "don't say gay." On the other hand, the Democrats almost can't say it enough -- and they aren't saying it with the apologetic "It's perfectly understandable why you wouldn't like this" or the too-clever-by-half "We're so cool for being hip enough to go there." They're grinning from ear to ear and saying, "They're here, they're queer, we're so over it!"

Now that doesn't mean we've already won civil rights protections or marriage equality or the ability to live without fear of violent repercussions because of who we are any more than Obama saying "hope and change" in 2008 meant we had already won single-payer health care or attained full employment or ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in a way that transcends those harsh realities, it feels kind of like we've won the hearts and minds and the whole playing field has changed.

Is that feeling something that will soon manifest on the policy level? Will it pass ENDA or repeal DOMA? Can the conservative power-brokers keep counting on the support of their constituents on these issues? I'm thinking that the ambiguity factor has taken hold: that, like with their failure to allow for exceptions for rape and incest survivors in their abortion laws, the Republicans have hit the wall where people stop thinking about those evil queers who want to eat your children and realize they're talking about Cousin Tommy and the woman at the next desk -- not to mention their own kid. What used to be black and white is now revealed to have many shades of gray -- and even a rainbow or two. Real life may finally be overtaking ideology.