Comments on: Either Donate for Maine or Stop Complaining

By: JimInMa

JimInMa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:46:24 +0000

Done.
Thanks for the link to the donation page.

By: Burr

Burr — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:26:55 +0000

Right. If out of state money is banned, then future battles in bible belt are going to get a lot harder.

Of course by then I’d hope the SCOTUS would put an end to all this unconstitutional nonsense.

By: Alan

Alan — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:08:15 +0000

So what I’m hearing is that anti-gay opponents have more money, and thus it makes sense to ban out-of-state money in order to gain a fundraising advantage.

The problem is that there are going to be other issues and fights where the sides we favor have equal or greater resources than our opponents. And banning out-of-state money then will hamper rather than help our efforts.

And I think it’s kind of defeatist to say, “Well, they’re always going to outspend us”. Attitudes are clearly changing, and with time the funding gap may decrease, or not matter as much as changing attitudes…

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:46:38 +0000

Ron, I hear what you’re saying, and I’m torn. I know you’re being pragmatic, and there’s a part of me that jumps up and yells, “By God, the man is right”. But where does this end? They’re always going to be better at funneling cash into these things — they’re taking tithed funds that their members are required to donate, that are untaxed. and funneling them into issue campaigns. We’re fewer, flying by the seat of our pants, taxed like crazy on every dime donated. It’s unclear that crash spending is the way to win every time they decide to hire a bunch of signature gatherers. They’ll just run their fraudulent signature drives and post false TV ads again, and again, and again. The question I have to ask is: why does anyone believe such transparent lies? What’s the missing piece there? If you think that’s resolved with counter-ads, well, I’m just not convinced.

The war will be won with hearts and minds, not in advertisements. You couldn’t convince one of my Republican friends or family to vote for these things, because they have a name and a face to put the lie to the ads.

Additional battles will be won in reform of political structures, legal decisions, and funding issues — to make these pathetic end-runs around personal liberty using tax-free religious dollars for political purposes a thing of the past.

I’d be much happier launching money and time for a new California Prop that explicitly denies external funding for state races. If we can do that in CA, maybe we can do that everywhere.

By: Ron in Lake Forest

Ron in Lake Forest — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:19:42 +0000

I’ve never posted on any blog and maybe I’ll sound like I’m just rambling, but on this subject, I just have to jump in. I live in California so I live with the results of Prop H8. But “No on 1″ is not about Maine… it’s about the state after Maine and the next one and the next one. And anyone who thinks the RC or the Mormon church are going to stop pouring this non-local money and support into local elections anytime soon is just kidding himself. If we wait for that to happen, then forget it… we won’t have any rights at all.

Our gay brothers and sisters need our help to obtain and keep their rights no matter where they live. And I think our leadership could do a much better job. But I’m not the leadership, so the option I have (besides just complaining) is to give what I can financially to help theirs and consequently our causes. I’ve given to “No on 1″ and to “Yes on Ref 71″ as well… not a lot, but what I could afford. No one expects anyone to give what you don’t have. But if you can afford to, please donate what you can. And I hope the Equality folks in Maine remember me when the issue of Prop 8 shows up on the CA ballot.

By: Cole

Cole — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:42:53 +0000

You can always phonebank if you can’t visit Maine to encourage voters to vote NO on question 1.
http://tinyurl.com/yfm8dlw

You can also post NO on 1 videos online, twitter, blog and write to Maine newspapers and tv stations to do good stories on the NO on 1 campaign. You can also contact Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Ed Schultz, MSNBC, CNN and HLN to do stories about Maine’s imperiled marriage rights.

By: Richard W. Fitch

Richard W. Fitch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:50:42 +0000

Alan: the point is not whether “outsiders” and locals have the same agenda, the question is whether the national RC organization and the Mormon church(among others)have the right to pour millions of dollars in to a local issue. Despite the perception of many, LGBT folks are struggling just as hard financially now as any one else. By the sheer imbalance of numbers, it is a monumental task for LGBT issues to be funded at the same rate as anti-gay groups who virtually dictate to their members that they must pay to oppose the “Gay Agenda”.

By: Emily K

Emily K — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:25:14 +0000

Ok, I’ll tell you what. I’ll donate to No on 1 if you buy me a meal so I don’t have to compromise whether I get to eat tomorrow.

By: Mario Garcia

Mario Garcia — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:47:48 +0000

I donated! Your turn!!

By: Ben in Oakland

Ben in Oakland — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:50:16 +0000

All right, Jim. Putting it that way, I will purchase the right to complain.