“NOM’s highly-touted bus tour is less about so-called ‘traditional marriage’ and more about creating an elaborate and cynical stunt. NOM rolled out a summer of nationwide events in order to draw lawful protesters, all so that NOM and its allies can pepper ongoing lawsuits challenging public disclosure laws with made-up stories of harassment. This unprecedented victimization crusade is the lowest denominator of political activism, and it won’t fly.”They go on,
NOM’s efforts to trump up false claims of harassment are part of a radical nationwide plan to evade long-established public disclosure laws and to hide their political activities from legitimate scrutiny and accountability. In doing so, NOM has falsely alleged that their donors have been harassed and intimidated across the country to justify why it shouldn’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else. These tactics have prompted a state ethics investigation in Maine and recent court defeats across the country.....Are they smart enough to do this?
Sainz concludes: “The bread crumbs of their deceit are clear. Let’s add it all up: NOM and its allies are making a last-ditch legal stand in Washington and Maine that they should be specially entitled to hide their political activities, and they’re saying that harassment and intimidation should provide them this cover. At the same time, Brian Brown schedules a series of virtually unattended weekday afternoon events hoping for counter-protests that they can then use as evidence of harassment and intimidation. Why else would NOM execute such half-hearted non-events and then completely subjugate its so-called ‘pro-marriage’ message in favor of devoting its energies almost exclusively to condemning lawful protesters?”
Are we reading too much into a total failure of an event?
Or is there even less here than there appears?
Discuss.
2 comments:
I'm not sure.
Would counter-demonstrators of a publicly-announced event even be considered analogous to signatories/ donors to a ballot proposition?
I don't doubt that they (NOM and their ilk) will claim it is---but will a court buy it?
The way to deal with these NOM visitations is to have some fundraiser based on pledges per NOM staff/follower per hour in town. So, they drive up to some rally location with 6 staff and bus-riders, then another 15 people turn up to support NOM. The non-event takes 2 hours. If you have convinced your friend to pledge one dollar per person-hour to (name of marriage equality state organization here) - that's 42 bucks your friend gives to marriage equality! In order to do this, you need perhaps 6 people on site - one to count the other side, one to carry a clipboard and take pledges from passers-by, one with a video camera (document any in-your face nonsense from NOM) and wide-angle still camera (document the non-turnout), and one or more people holding signs for the pledge-a-thon.
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