{"id":8486,"date":"2009-04-08T19:31:14","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T19:31:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-09T01:08:18","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T01:08:18","slug":"the-coming-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/08\/the-coming-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATED: The Coming Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you get voters in a supposedly tolerant state like California to vote to take away rights from people without making yourself look like a hateful bigot in the process? Simple – you cast yourself<\/em> as a victim of hate, even though you’re the one trying to take rights away from people.<\/p>\n

One of the most powerful weapons in the Yes on Prop 8 campaign’s arsenal was the argument that same-sex marriage rights would somehow limit religious or parental freedoms. The No on 8 campaign never effectively countered this, and this conservative victimology<\/a> helped insulate Prop 8 supporters from being called to account for their bigotry.<\/p>\n

As the marriage equality movement racks up victory after victory – Iowa, Vermont, and soon New Hampshire – the opponents of equal rights are plotting their counterattack. The National Organization for Marriage is running this creepy ad shown at right<\/a> arguing that a “storm” is coming – that the “rights” of religious people and parents to teach hate and inequality are under attack by those damn liberals who want to turn all your children gay.<\/p>\n

Their arguments are based on lies, and always have been – marriage equality in California wouldn’t have changed how preachers preach or how teachers teach, and Vermont’s new marriage law makes clear that religious freedom is still respected.<\/p>\n

But these arguments are also powerful. Conservative victimology has been one of the key<\/strong> methods by which Prop 8 supporters have escaped responsibility for their actions or even acknowledging what Prop 8 was – an attack on the legal equality of thousands of Californians merely for their sexual orientation. When framed this way the Yes on 8 position becomes almost unassailable, immune to criticism. “They’re just protecting their freedoms,” we’re supposed to think, and not be allowed to ask them to face the realities of what they have done, not be allowed to criticize them for voting to take away equal rights and destroy existing marriages, and not be allowed to act with our own conscience by demanding equal rights for everyone. Each of those acts is cast as an aggressive and hurtful act, where the oppressed are cast as oppressors.<\/p>\n

Pam Spaulding puts it well<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

These folks have nothing left in the tool box after the Iowa ruling decimated the excuse that religious opposition should govern civil law. So now the folks at the National Organization for Marriage have decided to send out e-blasts and a new video that uses a multi-racial set of actors to portray the aggrieved heterosexuals affected by same-sex couples being allowed to marry.<\/p>\n

You might laugh at these fundnuts, but they are crafty, and don’t mind continuing to promote outright lies and deception.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jeremy at Good As You has an excellent video response<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We’re winning the battle for equal rights. But to ensure that equal rights prevail across the nation – and here in California – we have to push back against these lies. <\/p>\n

UPDATED by Brian<\/b>: It seems the audition videos tape was leaked, and it’s now on YouTube. Yay, fun!  Nothing makes you cynical like seeing a bunch of actors saying the same thing, because they, you know, really care about it.  Check the video (h\/t CapAlert<\/a>) over the flip.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you get voters in a supposedly tolerant state like California to vote to take away rights from people without making yourself look like a hateful bigot in the process? Simple – you cast yourself<\/em> as a victim of hate, even though you’re the one trying to take rights away from people.<\/p>\n

One of the most powerful weapons in the Yes on Prop 8 campaign’s arsenal was the argument that same-sex marriage rights would somehow limit religious or parental freedoms. The No on 8 campaign never effectively countered this, and this conservative victimology<\/a> helped insulate Prop 8 supporters from being called to account for their bigotry.<\/p>\n

<\/embed>As the marriage equality movement racks up victory after victory – Iowa, Vermont, and soon New Hampshire – the opponents of equal rights are plotting their counterattack. The National Organization for Marriage is running this creepy ad shown at right<\/a> arguing that a “storm” is coming – that the “rights” of religious people and parents to teach hate and inequality are under attack by those damn liberals who want to turn all your children gay.<\/p>\n

Their arguments are based on lies, and always have been – marriage equality in California wouldn’t have changed how preachers preach or how teachers teach, and Vermont’s new marriage law makes clear that religious freedom is still respected.<\/p>\n

But these arguments are also powerful. Conservative victimology has been one of the key<\/strong> methods by which Prop 8 supporters have escaped responsibility for their actions or even acknowledging what Prop 8 was – an attack on the legal equality of thousands of Californians merely for their sexual orientation. When framed this way the Yes on 8 position becomes almost unassailable, immune to criticism. “They’re just protecting their freedoms,” we’re supposed to think, and not be allowed to ask them to face the realities of what they have done, not be allowed to criticize them for voting to take away equal rights and destroy existing marriages, and not be allowed to act with our own conscience by demanding equal rights for everyone. Each of those acts is cast as an aggressive and hurtful act, where the oppressed are cast as oppressors.<\/p>\n

Pam Spaulding puts it well<\/a>:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

These folks have nothing left in the tool box after the Iowa ruling decimated the excuse that religious opposition should govern civil law. So now the folks at the National Organization for Marriage have decided to send out e-blasts and a new video that uses a multi-racial set of actors to portray the aggrieved heterosexuals affected by same-sex couples being allowed to marry.<\/p>\n

You might laugh at these fundnuts, but they are crafty, and don’t mind continuing to promote outright lies and deception.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jeremy at Good As You has an excellent video response<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We’re winning the battle for equal rights. But to ensure that equal rights prevail across the nation – and here in California – we have to push back against these lies. <\/p>\n

UPDATED by Brian<\/b>: It seems the audition videos tape was leaked, and it’s now on YouTube. Yay, fun!  Nothing makes you cynical like seeing a bunch of actors saying the same thing, because they, you know, really care about it.  Check the video (h\/t CapAlert<\/a>) over the flip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1608],"tags":[3284,558,5576],"class_list":["post-8486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1608","tag-3284","tag-558","tag-5576"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2cS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}