Prop 8 Ours to Lose? Nope - It Was Always an Uphill climb.
Filed by: Matt Foreman
January 22, 2009 5:30 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/01/prop_8_ours_to_lose_nope_-_it_was_always.php (http://www.bilerico.com/2009/01/prop_8_ours_to_lose_nope_-_it_was_always.php)
also http://pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=B445BAA5BD275D8D880B63C5E434F020?diaryId=9167 (http://pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=B445BAA5BD275D8D880B63C5E434F020?diaryId=9167)
A lot of people have been saying that Prop 8 was our side's to lose and that missteps by the No on 8 Campaign snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Those analyses ignore hard core obstacles and fundamentals underlying the contest, including how hard it is to hold and move opinions on marriage in the narrow confines of a campaign.
I need to start by saying that I had nothing to do with the No on 8 Campaign. Because the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, where I work, has been so deeply involved in public education work in support of marriage equality, the law literally precluded any contact or coordination with the electoral campaign. So, as a purely armchair quarterback it's pretty easy for me to catalog things I - in my infinite wisdom - would have done differently. But I also know that even if everything- every single thing - had gone our way, it still would have been incredibly hard to win by anything more than a tiny margin. Here's why.
I don't know about you, but prop 8 was confusing in the way it was written. When it was 'won', I cheered. I thought it was 'for' me. Wrong. I think, like me, too many of us got confused with legalese.