(It stinks, but with every day, we are one step closer to equality. Also, it seems Frank Schubert agrees with Paul, No on 1 did run the better field operation. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)
I hate losing elections, but what I REALLY hate is losing after a high turnout. Losing because our base didn’t vote is depressing, but at least it tells us what we need to do to win next time – and progressives can take heart in the fact that “the people” are truly on their side, if only they showed up. Last night, Maine’s Question 1 passed 53-47 – despite a much higher turnout than expected (we matched last year’s Obama level at the University of Maine in Orono, winning the campus 81-19.) The “No on 1” campaign also had a far greater field presence than the opposition, and superior financial resources. It reminds me of 2004, when Bush won despite the progressive base voting in record numbers. When California’s Proposition 8 passed last year, everyone could tell that our side ran an awful campaign. It was painful, but gave us many lessons to learn – lessons that the “No on 1” campaign in Maine took to heart, and performed beautifully. That’s why this loss is so much worse than Prop 8. I don’t know what we could have done differently, and am too sleep-deprived to think it all through.
Paul Hogarth is the Managing Editor of Beyond Chron, San Francisco’s Alternative Online Daily, where this piece was first published.
Alongside the more fundamental issues of deeply entrenched bigotry, which can’t be fixed in a single campaign, the Maine experience suggests we still haven’t figured out how to message this in a way that neutralizes the other side’s lies.
That’s not to critique the No on 1 campaign in any way. It’s more a broader point that none of us have, for example, figured out how to overcome the Schubert/Flint bullshit about schools. Nor have we been able to generate the kind of affirmative messages that get us off the defensive more broadly.
There’s going to be a lot of reflection in the coming days and weeks about how to win these battles, and I hope part of that will include some in-depth work on messaging.
conservatives are very motivated right now to vote, for one.
But I think it’s just a waiting game. Every day more of their supporters shrink away, and every day more of our supporters become voters.
There are simply too many older voters who don’t want gay marriage. This has been a GOP hot button issue for YEARS, and nothing gets these people to the polls faster.
It takes time, and a generational shift. It will happen, though.