Did Marriage Equality Kill The Economy?

Is same-sex marriage the root cause of America’s economic woes? According to Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, the answer is yes. Over the past two days, both conservative candidates made the case that marriage equality posed a grave threat to the future of the American economy.

On Tuesday, Gingrich argued that there is a clear connection between the “attack” on the traditional family and the struggling economy.

“The very basis of our belief and freedom is that we believe we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights. The very source of our strength is that we believe these are truths…and so there’s a core absolute overlap between free enterprise, freedom and freedom of faith. And if you don’t have freedom of faith in the end you’re not going to have free enterprise because there’s no moral force that defends and protects you.”

Not to be outdone, on Wednesday Santorum argued that “moral failings” are at the heart of our economic problems.

“If you think that we can be a society that kills our own, and that disregards the family and the important role it plays, and doesn’t teach moral values and the important role of faith in the public square, and then expect people to be good, decent and moral when they behave economically, if you look at the root cause of the economic problems that we’re dealing with on Wall Street and Main Street I might add, from 2008, they were huge moral failings…Capitalism requires some strong modicum of moral consciousness if it’s gonna be successful.”

Something tells me that this isn’t what James Carville had in mind when he first warned that “it’s the economy, stupid!”