On his radio program on Wednesday, conservative host Rush Limbaugh predicted that same-sex marriage would eventually be made legal "nationwide," regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in cases on the subject later this year.

From the show transcript:

A lot of people have no personal animus against gay people at all. It's instead, you know, a genuine, I don't know, love/respect for the things they believe define this country as great. They get up every day and they see all this stuff under attack. They see it all under assault. And I think they're just worried about the survivability of the country. And to which the opponents say, "Well, the country's changing and you better get with it and understand it because this genie's not getting put back in the bottle." And I think that's right. I don't care what this court does with this particular ruling, Proposition 8. I think the inertia is clearly moving in the direction that there is going to be gay marriage at some point nationwide.

Shifting public opinion on legalized same-sex marriage would pose significant problems for the Republican Party, which relies heavily on a large voting base of social conservatives who could abandon the GOP if the party abandons its opposition. The official platform of the Republican Party still calls for a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage to one man and one woman.

Limbaugh, who's unsure of what would happen to the party if it changes its position, also said: