News – Anatomy of a Failed Campaign (Prop 8)
The Advocate has posted an in-depth and fascinating story about the failures of the “No on Prop 8″ campaign.
The official narrative of defeat — at least its early version — is fairly simple and at least partially true: Despite a heroic effort on the part of the No on 8 campaign, homophobia and fear outweighed tolerance and respect for gay people’s right to marry (again).
But as the article looks at the campaign more, it notes
Observers say problems were evident from the start. Bankhead had never run a campaign of anything approaching this magnitude. In July, when the Mormon Church was beginning to build its organizing machine — signing up volunteers, raising money, spreading the word — key members of the No on 8 leadership were literally absent. Kors took a 2½-week vacation. Jean went to Alaska for the month.
Queerty has posted its own, even more critical, article.
Your editor questioned the Prop. 8 campaign before the election, particularly the lack of a get out the vote effort. The campaign focused on television ads and phone-banking and actively discouraged grassroots efforts to do one-on-one canvassing across the state, even mocking the Yes on 8 campaign’s door to door operation. We weren’t the only ones. Rick Jacobs, executive director of The Courage Campaign, a progressive netroots activist group was flummoxed. He explained his frustration to the LA Weekly:
He asked campaign insiders to explain their plans. “I was told they were blanketing [black and Latino] neighborhoods with door [knob] hangers.” Such passive electioneering, “shows a colossal lack of understanding for what is needed to win an election.”
In my opinion, blame is irrelevant. Clearly, the “No on Prop 8″ campaign failed because Prop 8 passed. I suspect flaws in the leadership contributed; I suspect apathy in the community contributed just as much or more. The issue is, how do we revamp our tactics in light of Prop 8’s passage? How do we motivate and move the GLBT community moving forward? How to answer further action from the anti-gay industry after this failure? We must answer these questions if we are to further the cause of GLBT rights.
Click to read The Advocate report.
Click to read the Queerty post.
