Billboards like this one in Buffalo, sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have been popping up in New York. The “you’re next” refers to the belief that the reason that David Weprin lost the special election in NY-9 was his vote for gay marriage in the New York Assembly, and that legislators who voted for the bill will be beaten in the next election.
Whether or not that analysis is correct, as area blogger Adama Brown points out, the vaguely threatening nature of this billboard challenging Republican Senator Mark Grisanti is pushing NOM well into 27-percenter territory, since Buffalo has been roiled by the suicide of a fourteen-year-old gay boy who was bullied for years at a suburban high school.
By the way, my guess is that my Senator, Jim Alesi, will either win as a Republican or switch parties and win as a Democrat after his pro-marriage vote. He’s got some huge problems, but this vote only helped his re-election chances in a relatively liberal Rochester district.
b-psycho
Nice innocuous-sounding web address under that billboard. Low-information types probably look thinking “what? That guy is keeping people from voting? That ASSHOLE!”
Baud
We need to stop mocking the 27 percenters until our side can confidently say we can do better, percentage-wise.
beltane
When Vermont passed the Civil Unions law back in 2000, the backlash against the legislators who voted for it was severe but extremely short-lived. It took no time at all for people to realize that having a wingnut controlled state legislature was much worse than having gay people form civil unions.
Last night I saw polling out of NC which showed only lukewarm support for changing the state’s constitution so that it bans gay marriage. Also, 33% of respondents in North Carolina were supportive of marriage equality.
Maybe it’s time for Maggie Gallagher to find some other endeavour to keep her emotionally fulfilled.
SiubhanDuinne
@b-psycho:
That was the very first thing I noticed, too.
RSA
@b-psycho:
Ironic, isn’t it? A “let the people vote” Web site run by Republicans.
Villago Delenda Est
OT: Dunno why Sarah made her most recent thread no commentable, but this particular well thought out paragraph deserves some friendly amendment:
Not to mention defending pedophiles in its own hierarchy at any cost, to include blaming it on “the ghey” when the activity in question has nothing at all to do with gay or straight in adults. I suppose that if it’s a priest molesting little girls, that’s the fault of the ghey too, huh?
HG Hay
@beltane: Maggie Gallagher will never be emotionally fulfilled. I can’t help but think of how miserable, pathetic, and worn down she looks every time she’s on TV. She can’t even acknowledge her own marriage, likely because it was outside of her faith and race, and we all know how well that would play with her fellow wingnuts.
Don’t feel sorry for her though. She deserves every little bit of misery she experiences.
Joey Maloney
@beltane:
Like performing in puppy crush porn, I’m thinking.
jrg
@Villago Delenda Est:
Nope. 1960s era sexual promiscuity, If I’m remembering my Doubtthat correctly.
Villago Delenda Est
@jrg:
Well, since Stonewall happened during the 60’s, and had something to do with sex, it’s part of that era of sexual promiscuity, so I suppose the umbrella covers it.
Of course, there was no sexual promiscuity, ever, before say 1961 and everything went to hell when that libertine Kennedy was installed into the White House by Richard Daley’s minions in Cook County, ya know…
West of the Cascades
Grisanti’s five-minute speech about why he was voting in favor of same-sex marriage and why he had changed his mind about the issue may be the best five minutes in politics this year: http://wnymedia.net/buffalopundit/2011/06/senator-mark-grisanti-on-his-marriage-equality-vote/?vm=r
trollhattan
Asshole Santa left a gift for Montana after departing New York.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/10/denny-rehberg-class-act
School lunch “fraud.” These people know no limits.
KG
John Eastman, the guy who is replacing Maggie, was my con law prof in law school. I consider him a friend, but he is way out there on the right. He’s a Lochner conservative, and true believer that we would be better off adhering to preindustrial constitutional norms. He’s very smart, but the results of what he believes will not sit well with many Americans.
MattR
I am pretty sure that David Weprin did in fact lose the special election largely because of his support for same sex marriage. But I also think that defeat was due to the fact that he was an orthodox Jew who was bucking the religious leadership of the orthodox Jews (and admonishing them for being closed minded) in doing so.
MikeJ
@trollhattan: Had he said, “I want to make sure the state’s limited resources for school lunches are being spent where they’ll do the most good” he would be able to get everybody behind it. Instead he said, “I’d like to punish those systems that rip the taxpayers off.” Which gets the 27% not just behind it, but enthusiastic.
OzoneR
What Matt said.
Weprin defended his vote by saying as an Orthodox Jew, he had to treat everyone equally. He threw it in their face. If he was a Reform Jew, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but because he was an avowed Orthodox Jews who was unapologetic about voting for marriage equality, it hurt him.
Matt
@RSA:
No problem there – the GOP is all in favor of letting “the people” vote. It just happens that their definition of “person” requires one to be rich, white and love gunz and Jeebus in roughly equal amounts.
gnomedad
@RSA:
You mean this site is NOT organizing opposition to stealth poll taxes?
gelfling545
I suspect Grisanti could win as a Democrat here because a lot of people have respect for his vote on the marriage issue, though I don’t know who the local Democrats might already have in mind to run for that spot.
beergoggles
@RSA:
Suppress enough geriatrics and minorities and they won’t be voting the way the Republicans want.
wrb
A “let the people vote” Web site run by Republicans.
So now this organization want to give corporations the vote too?
OzoneR
@gelfling545:
It’s also a 3-1 Democratic district that includes most of Buffalo and he won against an unpopular incumbent who ran no campaign by 525 votes.
Unless the district gets more Republican, entirely possible considering the neighboring district represented by Dem. Tim Kennedy is less Democratic, he’s a goner as a Republican, not because he voted for gay marriage, but because a Republican can’t win here in a presidential year.
Jay C
@MattR: @OzoneR:
And David Weprin had also campaigned with those tactics in one of the few districts in the country where Orthodox (in various degrees of Ultra) Jews compose a major voting bloc, and will vote in lockstep as instructed, for or against a particular candidate. Not sure NY-9 is any kind of bellwether for SSM-related poltiticking….
Murc
I actually plan to vote for Alesi, which I never have done before.
I live within walking distance of his local offices here in Fairport, and I actually trundled down there the day after the vote and told them “I’m a Democrat. I’ve always voted for whoever we put up against Alesi. He gets my vote this ONE time, because this was one of the seminal issues of our time and he put himself on the side of the angels. He’ll have to KEEP doing that for me to not switch back to Democrats after this specific election, but you got me to switch parties this one time.”
They thanked me and gave me a sticker.
The Republic of Stupidity
I just lurves the incongruity of that sign…
On one hand, whoever put that up is ostensibly FOR democracy & ‘the vote’…
On the other hand, they just have to threaten a sitting legislator…
One can’t help but ask… what do they intend to let the people vote for…
Who to rub out next?