Hee-Haw Marketing

The Problems of Prop 8

On the day Americans removed one enormous barrier to equality, we also erected another. And the two might even have been interconnected. It does seem like some rather sick joke that the increased black turn out that resulted from having Obama on the ticket helped to shift enough crucial votes to reverse a California Supreme Court decision to allow gay marriage. (To be clear, 70% of blacks voted Yes on Prop 8 according to exit polls, but it took a lot of people voting to pass this bill).

As we celebrated American progress Tuesday night, a majority in one of our most liberal states were still willing to accept the tenets of "separate, but equal" while denying rights to some citizens that are available to others.

That said, the marketing of No on Prop 8 seemed, at least from Texas, to be far too scared to say what they were really fighting for. From a reader of Andrew Sullivan:

"I worked for both the No on 8 campaign and the Obama campaign this year and cannot tell you how far apart those two were in style and substance. One was top down, the other bottom up. Ironically, it was the presidential campaign that was the grassroots model, not the state-level proposition campaign. As soon as I started working for the No on 8 campaign I was amazed at the level of scripting: "don't say 'civil rights,' don't say 'constitution,' don't say 'gay.'" I couldn't believe it. 

One of the most brilliant things about the Obama campaign was that they didn't expect callers and canvassers to be policy wonks. They just said "tell your story, let people know why you're voting for him. Connect with people." I can't help but feel at this point that if the gloves were taken off we could've helped people get a grip on the real issues at stake here, which I happen to think is a matter of soiling the state constitution. What was even more confounding was the No on 8 campaign's decision to stay away form polling places at churches and schools. First of all, most polling places are at churches and schools, and second, that mentality buys right into the Yes on 8 brainwashing campaign that same sex marriage is going to corrupt our morals and our children. This idiocy was obvious to everyone that I worked with on the campaign. What was going on with the leadership upstairs?!!!"

More from Rachel Maddow:

Unwilling to make the argument with those that disagreed while shying from the moral equivalence of the civil rights movement in the sixties, the group allowed the heavily funded opposition to vilify gay people. Given the past of the Mormon religion, it does seem rather odd that they would provide the main funding for Yes on Prop 8, but I guess irrationality and hypocrisy make for good playmates. (Again, not to trying to indict the entire religion, just those behind the disinformation campaign).

Take a look at one of the many fear-mongering ads implying that gay marriage would be taught in schools. (Is that a class or something? Math, Science, History, Marriage? Ugh...)

What has become clear after the passage of proposition 8 is that the group didn't attempt outreach in churches. They didn't draw the clear comparisons with the historical shamefulness of making any minority group a second class citizenry. It was three years after the civil rights act that whites were even allowed to marry non-whites in Loving vs. Virginia. Just over 40 years ago, largely on the basis of the same religious fundamentalism that denies gays the right to marry today, marriage was also used as a crude tool to divide. And the failure to bring the populace to those conclusions may have doomed the ability to squelch the bill.

On a related note, too many times I've been hit with the "what do you care?" defense, which I would doubt is just a Texas problem. The majority of straight people probably fall into either the indifferent camp or the against it camp, which proves further problematic for the cause of equality. Not sure how to solve that problem, but I would again think that drawing those historical comparisons might flip on a few light bulbs that oppression isn't only a problem for those who are oppressed.

Missouri - (or ah)

Took some time out of the busy schedule to hit the streets in a state a little less, well, poorly decided. 

So, a trip to Missouri, with most my time in Missourah...

The St. Louis Office.

The St. Charles Office.

Out on the streets, puns win the political day. (Keep Faith in Government)

From the Arch (and a night photo).

And the creepiest manufactured city ever, "New Town" in Saint Charles. When we turned onto New Town Dr. from New Town Blvd (or Ave.), my first remark was, "this freaks me out. I feel like I'm in the Truman Show." Turns out, the developer is the same guy who created the surreal city in the Truman Show, Seaside, FL.

From their website.

And, sort of related, a team red office in Dallas. Since when do VP's get their own signs?

What you should do.

Just a couple more days, then we can stop being so pol-centric round here...

This Was a Good Day

It's been a long electoral season. And I think I've made it as clear as possible that I'm an unrepentant Obamacrat. But I've got to say, that felt pretty good. Less than two weeks left, and there's no shortage of work still to do (if you're in Colorado the 1st-4th, hit me up). But, if he pulls this thing off, let's take time for two things (1) No matter your political leaning, no matter your vote, we can be pretty proud that we will have done something that no other western country has done, elect a man of color to our highest office. And we can be even prouder that he got there, not because of it or despite of it, but because he deserved it. (2) It will be time to demand that every last thing we've hoped for has follow through, particulary making us leaders in new energy, health care and technology. Hopefully we haven't used up too much of our contrarinism on the current President. It's our job to force him to be the President we expect him to be.

Last thing, no, he hasn't won. And I don't really care what the polls look like today, democrats have screwed up worse before, and they'll screw up worse again. No time for counting chickens.

Now, at least there are some Hollywood directors still fighting for McCain...

Back to the Slime and Grime of Politics

After nearly a couple years of following this campaign, and now with only about 50 days left, it's easy to forget the point. It's easy to get dragged down into the muck of derisive and ugly politics. The calls from democrats for Obama to start hitting back harder and harder have grown louder, mainly because of the level of voracity with which the McCain campaign has sought to make this an election about identies, not issues. Joe Klein of Time went as far as calling one of McCain's ads the "sleaziest" he'd ever seen.

But I just saw this video, and it reminded me why HOPE meant so much to all of his supporters during the primary. It's been turned into a derogatory statement by the right, and of course the left ran from it. But running from that central theme has left Obama without one. Change we need, change we can believe in, whatever, that's fine. But this was about us standing up together to do the right thing, and sinking to their level further muddies that message.

And sure, you do need to defend yourself, and yes you need to hit back. But to no longer be true to the message or true to the goal, only because the opposition takes glee in mocking it, is shameful. It's the same sort of thinking that made "liberal" a dirty word.

So bring back hope. I miss the campaign that was about all of us moving forward together, not just defending our turf.

With a slew of stories being written and commentators noticing the level McCain has gone to in stretching the truth in his advertisements, and this election spiraling into a pile of half-truths on both sides, maybe it's time to rise above it. I'd like to see a national buy, maybe the 2:30 minutes of this is too long, but even a roadblock across multiple networks might be enough of a re-introduction. Instead of announcing to the press that your plan is to get tougher before releasing ridiculous ads about email, maybe it's time to get back to the things that inspired so many to begin with. Contrary to popular belief, I do think it's possible to win without destroying your integrity and solidifying that this will be a deeply divided 51/49 country on November 5th. 

Time to get back on message.

Participatory Media and Government

From the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder:

Obama clearly intends to use the Web, if he is elected president, to transform governance just as he has transformed campaigning. Notably, he has spoken of conducting “online fireside chats” as president. And when one imagines how Obama’s political army, presumably intact, might be mobilized to lobby for major legislation with just a few keystrokes, it becomes possible, for a moment at least, to imagine that he might change the political culture of Washington simply by overwhelming it.

What Obama seems to promise is, at its outer limits, a participatory democracy in which the opportunities for participation have been radically expanded. He proposes creating a public, Google-like database of every federal dollar spent. He aims to post every piece of non-emergency legislation online for five days before he signs it so that Americans can comment. A White House blog—also with comments—would be a near certainty. Overseeing this new apparatus would be a chief technology officer.

Sounds fantastic, no? The web has already expanded our freedom of information, but as our leaders become more technologically savvy, it may also expand our freedom participate and be heard.

Obama in Dallas

Although I can hate me some politicians with the best of 'em, I find politics to be one of those fascinating subjects I can still talk endlessly about. Unfortunately, being a Texan, I haven't really gotten to see the presidential process happen in a meaningful way. The race is generally long decided in the primaries and the state too deeply red to go blue in the general. But not this year.

And as such, I got to see the frantic, absurdly exciting scene when a candidate in one of our most historic elections came to Dallas yesterday. I caught some moments on my little flip video and I thought some of you may be interested.

It is a truly moving moment when a black man and a woman are vying to end the old, white man punchline of the American Presidency. At a time when our standing in the world is so obviously diminished, it looks like the American people are coming through. Or we just got lucky enough to have a person with the enviable ability to unify and energize.

You'll see video of the walk five floors up the parking garage to the end of a line that wrapped around for miles, people screaming and doing the wave as if Barack just happened to pass through in the middle of a Mavericks game in the late 80's, the introduction by Emmitt Smith and then Obama himself delivering his speech, although one I've heard mostly before (even if it was given without a prompter). But it had new meaning with the 17,000 screaming "fans" in attendance, not including the thousands more the fire marshal shut out of the building.

I don't want to drone on here, but it did have that intense feeling of something I'll still be talking about 30 years down the line. It's not just a matter of the man, but what he represents. I must say, it feels good to be for something in a time when it'd be so much easier to just be against someone else.

Sorry to get all political, just thought you guys may be interested.