Remember gay marriage?

It's low on the list of voters' priorities.

Published November 3, 2006 1:48PM (EST)

Wonder why moralizing Republicans like Marilyn Musgrave aren't making such a priority of the fight against gay marriage just now? A new Gallup poll seems to hold at least one answer: No one -- not the public at large, and not even the GOP's religious base -- seems to think that it's among the most pressing issues facing the country today.

Gallup tried to figure out if white voters who attend church frequently view the nation's priorities any differently than do white voters who don't attend church frequently. So the pollsters asked people from both groups: "In your view, what one or two issues should be the top priorities for the president and Congress to deal with at this time?"

The infrequent churchgoers listed the war in Iraq, the economy, immigration and healthcare before the numbers fell into the single-digit range. The frequent churchgoers did exactly the same.

It's pretty impossible to overstate the importance of Iraq for either group. Sixty-eight percent of infrequent churchgoers mentioned it among their top two priorities, as did 60 percent of frequent churchgoers. No other issue was mentioned by more than 21 percent of either group.

Gay marriage? Oh, right. It was a top priority for just 2 percent of the people in either group.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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