Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The Palin Effect: Helping Voters Restore Homophobic Pride

It seems like the anti-gay supporters of Proposition 8, the ballot measure that would restore marriage inequality to California, have been bolstered by the Sarah Palin effect:
Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain picked evangelical Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate - the Yes on 8 campaign has leapt ahead in the fundraising arena - raising around five million dollars since Sept. 1.

As of right now - the antigay Yes on 8 campaign has sixteen million dollars to spend on expensive commercial air time - compared to eleven million for the No on 8 campaign.

What do Palin's nomination and Proposition 8 have to do with one another, you ask? Well, Sarah Palin has restored the conservatives' pride in 'small town values.' 'No, no' - she tells voters, 'you're not voting for a ticket that would extend both an unpopular war and the financial policies that have wrought havoc on our economy - that's not what the election is about. It's about defending your values.' So, if small towns don't value a healthy economy and an end to the war, what do they value? Marriage inequality. With just McCain around, people were forgetting that they were once proud of their bigotries - now all this talk of 'small town values' has made denying other people the opportunities the rest of us enjoy seem patriotic again.

And if you don't believe me that the small town values is simply a euphemism for homophobia, ask a conservative to define the term for you. Oh, wait - someone already did:


And California, please vote no on Proposition 8.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are bolstered alright. Some over privileged twits recently complained because bride and groom were changed on the marriage license to take into account same sex marriage. Can you believe they had the nerve to claim that they are being discriminated against? Yeah lets just hope the law stands. We need more equality in this world not less.

Anonymous said...

I misread your title as "The Painful Effect" -- but I certainly think that applies too!

Where I live has those scary "small town values." I have noted many anti-gay marriage bumper stickers popping up on fenders. I try to get right in front of these cars so they have to read all my progressive, feminist, LGBTQA rights bumper stickers. I was honestly tempted at a red light today to try and get the woman next to me with the homophobic stickers on her car to roll down her window to ask her why she feels only hetero's deserve the over 1000 plus legal perks that marriage brings...

Ol Cranky said...

o i c

small town means nosey Christian able to start whisper campaigns so they can ostracize those who are different from them. So nice they admit they want to go back to B&W and puritanism.