Cheers and Jeers: Election Day '09

post from Daily Kos on 03 November 2009 09:05:01 AM. © Daily Kos

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Just Another Tuesday

[Yawn]

Oh yeah, that's right...it's election day! I should've known by the 200,000 people standing in my living room holding ballots and magic markers, trying to decide if my being---soul, id, ego, spirit, whatever you wanna call it---is "equal enough" to deserve entry into the world of civil marriage. They're checkin' my teeth, smellin' my pits, making me turn my head and cough, and asking me if I recite the Red Sox Loyalty Oath every day. (Well, duh!)

I've been through a bunch of these referendums and they never become any less insulting. But, to paraphrase Don Rumsfeld, "You go to the voting booth with the referendums you have, not the referendums you might want or wish to have at a later time." Or something like that. And so today Maine's GLBT residents will once again be hoisted up on a jack (quit shoving!) and inspected for quality and purity, hoping that the "Grade A Equal Citizen" tattoos applied to our butts by the legislature and the governor last spring won't suddenly be scrubbed off by the voters. (They use Brillo Pads---Owie! Owie!)

So how did the 'No on 1' campaign perform? Well, let me put it this way: win or lose, I hereby nominate Jesse Connolly for Governor. The organization is amazing. I'm sure there were times of massive internal frustration and crisis, but the campaign has had this constant, reassuring hum to it. They stayed on message, responded to the right's lies quickly and unequivocally, raised lots of dough, and creatively recruited volunteers with campaigns-within-the-campaign like Calls for Equality and "volunteer vacations." Their ads were crisp and featured dozens of real Maine families. (The other side featured a few glum conservative Christian teachers from Maine---the rest of their cast consisted of out-of-staters and stock footage they rented that'll probably turn up one day in commercials for life insurance and laxatives.) And their ground game, with several regional offices, could well be the silent secret weapon that puts us over the top.

'No on 1' has a contagious buoyancy about it---a grassroots energy that I haven't felt in my bones like this since the heady days of Howard Dean's campaign, circa late 2003. Yesterday, for example, they put up an Act Blue "thermometer" and broke their fundraising goal three times in just a few hours. Jesse literally ran to the bank before it closed to wire money to TV and radio stations for more ad time. The guy's a friggin' George Bailey. (And now that I think about it, the head of the opposition has the same black-hearted soul as Mr. Potter.)

There were no trip-ups by 'No on 1' during the campaign. No slip-ups. No scandals (though the 'Yes on 1' campaign clumsily tried to create some). Just the occasional little brushfire that typically burned itself out in a news cycle. The question on everyone's lips around the country during this campaign was, "Did they learn from the mistakes of the anti-Prop. 8 campaign?" Yes. Yes Yes Yes.

Meanwhile, with one exception (the Lewiston paper, which stayed neutral), Maine's newspapers strongly endorsed a 'No' vote. As much as we appreciate the larger ones (The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, The Bangor Daily News), I think the wisdom in the smaller ones is even more gratifying. Like, for instance, the Lakes Region Weekly:

At the heart of the issue of same-sex marriage, past all the very public rhetoric of faith, morality and tradition, is the very private love and commitment between two adults, and society's duty to recognize that. [...]

And, no, domestic partnerships will not do. To many gay couples, they are an embarrassment, an indication that the love they feel so clearly is simply not up to par with that between a man and a woman. It implies a lower status, a lesser commitment. Separate but equal can never really be equal. [...]

Nothing would change, except throughout Maine, in gatherings large and small, all people who love each other enough to commit to a life together, with all its ups and downs, could do just that.

Amen. To the legislators and campaign organizers, volunteers and advocates, donors and phonebankers, bloggers and pastors, carpoolers and canvassers, Bishop Gene Robinson and Governor John Baldacci and 87 year-old internet star Philip Spooner (go ahead---watch him again), families and friends and complete strangers from here and away, and of course the Daily Kos community---all of you who helped our state get this close to upholding our historic marriage equality law:

Thank you. You've made this demeaning ritual rather inspiring.

Good lord willin' and the creek don’t rise, we'll have good news to report tonight.

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