"No" On Competent Campaigning

I'm a good lefty. I'm for equality for all, the separation of church and state, restrictions on assault weapons for civilians, and the right for a woman to have an abortion. Watching Barack and Michelle Obama on 60 Minutes last night, I almost suffered from toxic shock syndrome, watching a President on TV I actually like and respect. The 2008 election was mana from heaven for the most part, and if we can actually get a comedian into the United States Senate, that'll be the cherry on this particularly delicious political sundae, after 8 years of having to eat turdburgers for lunch.

The only fly in the ointment is the passage of Prop 8 here in California. I know similar legislation passed in other states, but we're the wacky, out-there state where we believe in crazy notions like rights for all people.

Let us be clear: If you supported Proposition 8, you are a bigot and a homophobe, and you are actively standing in the way for our progression as a society. To take rights away from anyone has nothing to do with Jesus, Joseph Smith, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It has everything to do with forcing inferiority upon another group of people. You made your bed with the racists who attacked interracial marriage for the same flimsy reasons you supported Prop 8: All I picture is a group of shrill Helen Lovejoy look alikes bleating "Won't somebody please think of the children!!!"

But shockingly, my beef is not with you small-minded religious-fascists out there on the interweb: It is with the people who ran the "No on 8" campaign.

Let me share a story with you. My wife and I went to the local Obama office on election day to drive people to the polls. We walked in that office, and it was electric. The human machinery was buzzing at a frenetic pace. Every time 5-10 people walked into the office, they got trained, were given a script, and asked to call certain battleground states. If was as perfect a political machine as I have ever seen. When we asked about driving people, the Obama rep told us they were not set up for that, and suggested we try the "No on 8" office on the floor below.

As we walked into the office below, we saw a total 180 from our previous experience. The No on 8 office was deserted: Maybe 5 people total, nobody on phones, and totally clueless with what to do with the two volunteers that walked into their office. Even after we said we could do other work besides drive people to polls (which they weren't set up for, either) their response was to give my wife a donut and send us back to the Obama people. It was as flawed a campaign office as Obama's was flawless.

So Prop 8 passes, and we get outrage, protests, marches, legal action, and special comments from Keith Olbermann. All warranted, but I ask: where was this before, when it could have helped? This was a proposition that aimed to fundamentally change our state Constitution. The simple fact that it made the ballot should have brought the post-8 panic to the fore. Had you substituted "homosexual" with any other minority group, you would have had riots in the streets. But because it is still socially okay to discriminate against the gay community, this absurdity was put on a ballot, and won!

And it won because not only did we take our opponents too lightly, but we took our own position for granted. We're California! We're cool! The citizens of this state surely wouldn't strip human beings of their rights! We put the "Left" in "Left Coast" for god's sake!

We tend to forget that Southern and Central California tend to vote like Alabama circa 1860. Coastal cities do not a progressive utopia make, and would you like some proof? Governors Reagan, Dukemajin, Wilson, and Arnie. We voted to persecute illegal immigrants (or those who just look like illegals) and we voted down the green revolution ten years ago. Just because we're progressive for the most part doesn't mean we can take that fact for granted.

With Prop 8, the left got sloppy, pure and simple. Yes, the "Yes" folks had all the crazy Mormon $$$, but I can't help but wonder: If the marches, the protests, the special comments, the genuine outrage, had occurred for 8 simply being proposed as opposed to waiting for it to pass, maybe that razor-thin margin that took rights away from human beings would have been on our side of the balance sheet.