I just ran across this story, fearfully predicting that Catholics could become “the next Mormons,” fighting on the gay marriage front in the state of Washington. Washington has not legalized gay marriage yet, but only today the governor signed a bill granting same-sex couples the same legal rights and benefits as married couples. Washington is one of ten states with a legislatively passed Defense of Marriage Act. (Twenty others have constitutional provisions of some sort specifying that marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman.) But the worry is that the court will soon overturn the DOMA, and that gay marriage will soon follow. The Knights of Columbus have already gotten a jump on the action, so this liberal writers unhappily speculates that Catholics might step into the role played by the Mormons last fall in the battle over California’s Proposition 8.

I have no idea how likely this is to be true, but wouldn’t it be lovely to see Catholics stepping up to the plate like that? I won’t get into the specifics of strategizing about the Washington case, but I’ve got to say, it just tickles me pink to see liberal journalists actually worrying that Catholics might be a driving force behind a positive political movement. For quite awhile now, Catholics have been more or less just like the rest of the population in their voting habits, which is a great way to show that our faith means nothing. It would be refreshing for a change to see the enemies of life and family hating and fearing us the way they did the Mormons in California. (And yes, I’ll confess, even as an apostate Mormon, that did make me proud. Also, my parents, who are residents of California, were quite involved in the rather remarkable campaign to pass Prop 8, which also made me proud.)

Anyway, the opponents of the new bill apparently need to gather more than 100,000 signatures of registered Washington voters before July 25th in order to get their referendum on the next ballot. So, if you’re a registered voter of the state of Washington, make your mark!

In other happy news that some may have heard, Gallup’s latest poll apparently shows that, for the first time since they began asking the question (in 1995) a majority of Americans now self-identify as pro-life. At 51%, the majority is slim… but still notably higher than the 44% who self-identify as pro-choice. What exactly people mean by that label is, of course, a further question. Still, let’s take what we can get.

One thing to note is that the increase seems to come almost entirely from the Republican side of the line — that is to say, Republicans are becoming more consistently pro-life than formerly. The number of pro-life Republicans in the poll rose from 60% to 70%. On the Democratic side of the line, there is no statistical change; approximately a third of Democrats identify as pro-life, and that number seems to be holding stable. Sixty-one percent of Democrats describe themselves as pro-choice, as compared to 26% of Republicans.

We just need to keep repeating it. The Democrats have made themselves into the party of death, and until that party line shows some sign of budging, Catholics should not support them.