Presidential Candidate Rick Perry Takes on American Moms

The Daily Beast nearly buried an interesting statistic in their recent story, Women Will Rule the World . The story cites the book,  Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better, – “American women are responsible for 83 percent of all consumer purchases; they hold 89 percent of U.S. bank accounts, 51 percent of all personal wealth, and are worth more than $5 trillion in consumer spending power—larger than the entire Japanese economy.”

With this kind of power, politicians need to take note, especially of the all-important “Mom Factor.” My mom used to say, “You are only as happy as your unhappiest child.”

On Friday, the Republican presidential candidate frontrunner, Rick Perry, signed the National Organization for Marriage’s (NOM) Marriage Pledge.  In a statement released by NOM, president Brian Brown said:

“Perry makes crystal clear that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, gay marriage is going to be a bigger issue in 2012 than it was in 2008, because the difference between the GOP nominee and Pres. Obama is going to be large and clear.”

What Perry has apparently forgotten is that gay people have moms, moms that love them, feel their pain, have watched them struggle, and would do anything to insure their happiness.  And, it’s not just mothers of homosexuals that are tired of the crusade against them.    According to this CNN Opinion Research Poll, opinions on gay marriage had been stagnant with 44 percent of America showing support for it.  That was UNTIL 2011, when the poll flipped.  Now a majority of respondents (51%) believe same-sex marriage “should be recognized by law as valid.”  The results show more women (57%) than men (40%) are in favor, with the all important Independent voter weighing in at 55% in favor.

How many moms are we looking at?  According to the Williams Institute, “there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey.”  And, according to the U.S. Census, two-thirds of all women voted in the 2008 presidential election, 10 million more women than men.  So while same-sex marriage may seem like an easy issue for Republicans to hang their hat on, once again they are forgetting who holds the power in America – MOMS.  Don’t believe me?  Ask the Tennessee legislature about Harry T. Burn.

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Full Disclosure: I am a registered Republican.  You probably thought I was a liberal, didn’t you:).