Rolling Stone: "Don't blame the Mormons" for Prop. 8's passage

Wow, did this one ever give me a surprise!

Rolling Stone, which is hardly considered a bastion of conservatism or a flag-bearer for family values, has an article on its site (dated Dec. 11 - so perhaps it'll be in print next week?) titled "Same Sex Setback."

The subtitle?

"Don't blame Mormons or black voters - the California activists who tried to stop Prop 8 ran a lousy campaign."

Ummmm, thank you, Rolling Stone!

Of course, the article hardly condones Prop. 8 or basks in the victory; rather, it continues to blast the traditional marriage folks as homophobic. However, at least in this piece the blame is being laid at the feet of the No on 8 crowd for running an unsatisfactory campaign.

I'm not sure that I entirely agree with this stance, either - perhaps the victory should be attributed to people rallying around a good cause in the preservation of family values and faith? Nor, of course, do I agree that the passing of Prop. 8 can be chalked up to "entrenched homophobia and religious intolerance." I love my gay friends, I love that their rights are already protected via CA Family Code 297.5, and I love that Prop. 8 passed, keeping the government out of my family and my faith.

Well, either way, I appreciate Rolling Stone's proclamation to stop pointing fingers.

I recommend dropping in to comment. Here's a snippet of the piece:

But evidence of entrenched homophobia and religious intolerance obscure a more difficult truth. Prop 8 should have been defeated — two months before the election, it was down 17 points in the polls — but the gay-rights groups that tried to stop it ran a lousy campaign. According to veteran political observers, the No on Prop 8 effort was slow to raise money, ran weak and confusing ads, and failed to put together a grass-roots operation to get out the vote.

"This was political malpractice," says a Democratic consultant who operates at the highest level of California politics. "They [messed] this up, and it was painful to watch. They shouldn't be allowed to pawn this off on the Mormons or anyone else. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and now hundreds of thousands of gay couples are going to pay the price."

If you opt to read the piece, obviously do so with a grain of salt - but it's quite the in-depth analysis, and it makes some important points to note for the next battle in this ongoing war of values.
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P.S.: I thought the end of the article was also noteworthy - and it indicates why we must, as Winston Churchill so wisely said, "Never, never, never give up." 'Cause the opposition most certainly won't. Let's not ever rest on our laurels, friends!

Civil rights groups in California have already petitioned the state Supreme Court to toss out Prop 8, arguing that revising the state constitution requires a two-thirds vote in the legislature. The fight has also gone national. On November 10th, the gay-rights group Equality Utah announced that it would draft legislation in Utah to legalize civil unions — a direct challenge to the Mormon church, which claims to support such relationships. And on November 15th, after only eight days of organizing online, more than 100,000 protesters rallied against Prop 8 in 300 cities across the country.

As the demonstrations suggest, there is a silver lining to the passage of Prop 8. Because it succeeded due to the mistakes and mismanagement of its opponents — rather than deep-seated hostility to gay and lesbian couples — it can be overturned at the ballot box. Since 2000, the margin of voters in the state who oppose gay marriage has plunged from 23 points to only four.

"The speed at which this issue is moving is unprecedented in my personal political experience," says Bill Carrick, a prominent Democratic consultant who worked on the presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. "Support for gay marriage has moved so far, in such a short period of time, that I think we're going to look back at Prop 8 as an aberration. History is headed in a very pro-gay-marriage direction, and it probably is going to happen in a much shorter time than anybody imagines."