Dealing with marriage swiftboaters

A bit more than a year ago the opponents of gay marriage were figuring out their plan of attack for the campaign in Calif. They knew that if they focused on gay marriage it would be affirmed and they would lose. What to do? After considerable research they decided to focus instead on the consequences of gay marriage. What would happen if Calif. would have gay marriage instead of domestic partnerships? What's the difference between the two? It must be something that hasn't happened yet but possibly could happen. They came up with: decline of religious liberty, damage to children through same sex marriage taught in schools. Factual? Not at all. But politically brilliant. And successful.

And we're still dealing with our opponents choices. They are using the same arguments in Maine this year. Alas, we don't know anymore how to counter those arguments than we did last year in Calif. simply because they are so laden with emotion.

Matt Foreman, in the trenches for the Calif. battle (and others) offers some insight (deep within the comments section of a posting about needing to become emotionally invested in the cause to get it to pass and feeling emotionally devastated when it doesn't).

* In every campaign so far we have been vastly outspent and out-organized. We can't match the resources of the Catholic Church (leading the charge in Maine) or the Mormon Church.

* There is no "magic media bullet" to get people to change their minds -- especially given a typical campaign's financial resources.

* Homophobia and related myths remain extremely potent. We don't know how to counter the "protect the children!" attacks.

* Gay marriage campaigns are different. Put highly successful (read: winning) campaign managers in charge of a gay marriage referendum and they lose (so don't be a doofus and complain when we hire experts and appear to be led astray).

So what does work? When we win one we'll let you know.

The latest wrinkle in the Washington State campaign (Partnerships, not marriage) is the anti-gay forces seen scrambling to raise enough money. That's good, right? Except their August finance report has a gaping hole in it. It appears they have a secret benefactor (and willing to defy campaign laws to keep that name secret). Though they look to be scrambling now, when the crunch comes they'll have the cash for some big media buys.

The first polls on the marriage question in Maine show the two sides to be in a statistical dead heat.

So. Donate to the Washington Campaign here.
And the Maine Campaign here.