Where are they going?

According to the LA Times, Arnold Schwarzenegger “urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first.” In relation to the protests against the ban on gay marriage in his state, the Governor of California publicly declared his support for the fervent opposition to Prop 8. “I learned that you should never ever give up,” the governor said. Schwarzenegger also assured that the legality of the gay marriages that preceded the propositions is not in jeopardy.

As expected, Schwarzenegger’s statement outraged religious and social conservatives throughout the country. The Family Research Council has urged its supporters to let “Gov. Schwarzenegger [know that he] is playing a dangerous game, and it needs to stop. Now.”

This social controversy emerges at a bad time for the governor’s party. As a press release of the Liberty Counsel reveals, conservative groups have started to look at some political figures of the Republican Party with contempt. According to this statement, “conservatives have not governed well and have forsaken conservative values.”

The Republicans are having a hard time bringing a solid party coalition back to life. Arnold Schwarzenegger is not making it any easier. The governor’s statement has further alienated religious and socially conservative groups that had previously constituted the party’s strongest base of supporters. This makes me wonder, where are the Republicans going? While Schwarzenegger might become an important figure of bipartisan politics in the near future, I doubt the GOP will play the maverick card once more.