Conservatives really don’t get it. They look at younger people who by and large disagree with them and naturally think the disagreement must therefore be a matter of style over substance. It doesn’t even occur to them how incredibly disrespectful it is to assume that the last three or so generations care more about snark and clever, sarcastic one liners than they do about the actual crux of any particular issue. You can’t win younger voters over by acting like even bigger dicks and trying to ramp up reverse psychology through stylistic insincerity, because that’s just an affectation. The fact that they see through it is the entire point, more than any generation before them they’re actually arguing on the basis of merits, on fundamental rights and wrongs.

Travis Korson, the grass-roots director of the Virginia chapter, suggested framing marriage as an economic issue. “Gay marriage undermines that basic family unit,” he said, and that, in turn, hurts the economy.

The first thing the GOP needs to do is stop lying, to others and themselves. In the real world when you frame marriage equality in the above terms the immediate followup question from younger people is HOW?! And guess what, you can’t answer how. The Prop 8 and DOMA case defenders weren’t able to articulate any kind of persuasive answer because there is no answer. It’s all a lie rooted in unthinking dogmatic bigotry, and no amount of snark or clever disaffected bullshit can make that convincing anymore. Sorry GOP, your ideology has exceeded its sell-by date.