Why Prop 8 Won: TV Commercials Based on Reason, not Fear

To understand why Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, won in California, watch the campaign’s TV commercials at the What Is Prop 8? website. Not only were they well-made, featuring a multi-ethnic cross-section of very normal, quasi-hip, young to middle-age Californians, the commercials were models of serious, rational political argument. While anti-Prop 8 commercials resorted to showing Mormon missionaries conducting Gestapo-like home invasions of same-sex households, the “Yes on 8” commercials went out of their way to calmly explain both sides of the debate, and present gays and lesbians in a positive light. When was the last time you saw that in American politics? How about never.

The commercial I featured here isn’t typical, but it caught my attention because it’s so amazingly emo (the music is great). It also takes the time to clarify what tolerance really means, and that opposition to gay marriage has nothing to do with hatred or bigotry towards gays and lesbians (or even about rights, since domestic partnerships in California confer all the rights of marriage). The issue is about preserving society’s right to say that there is a transcendent purpose to marriage, based on the objective reality that through the complementary sexual union of human persons created male and female, life and families are created.

The TV ads convincingly argue that society can’t be neutral on marriage. Either marriage is transcendent--built into reality--or it’s not. It’s one vision or the other. Whichever vision prevails, is the norm for all, enforced in schools, in the workplace, in the public square.

How about a pro-homo-marriage commercial showing a guy/guy or
girl/girl wedding with kisses and all?

During California's first try at "gay" marriage, Craig Kilbourn (sp?)
on CBS's "Late, Late Show" ran a clip of one new couple:
two lard-@$$ guys in sweatshirts embracing and doing a real lip-lock.

I was suprised (and pleased) to hear the mostly Los Angeles-based
audience respond with a loud, emphatic groan.

But, IIRC, when advocacy groups have taken adverts to TV stations
that show actual conduct at "gay" events...the TV stations
won't air them.
The truth is just too darn controversial, dontchaknow?

Which shows you that the TV stations (media) is willing to forgo
cash even in bad financial times...because they are in the tank
for just about any sector of the population...
except for those icky heterosexual people.

I've never seen a serious case made for same sex marriage. Apparently, all that's needed to discredit the case for traditional marriage is emotion and lots of name-calling thrown in for good measure. The anti-8 side will never get it.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

Gay Marriage and a Moral Minority (Why did black women support Prop 8?)
nytimes.com | November 29, 2008 | CHARLES M. BLOW
Posted on 11/29/2008 4:31:11 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2140180/posts

Gay is the New Atheist
Underneath Politics | December 1, 2008 | Sarah Laimbeer
Posted on 12/01/2008 9:32:30 AM PST by CardShark
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2140885/posts

Poll: Calif. gay marriage ban driven by religion
AP, via Yahoo! News | December 4, 2008 | Lisa Leff
Posted on 12/04/2008 4:48:02 AM PST by Virginia Ridgerunner
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2142668/posts

AM Alert: Why Prop. 8 passed (and other post-mortem polling)
SacBee: Capitol Alert | 12/4/8 | Shane Goldmacher
Posted on 12/04/2008 7:58:17 AM PST by SmithL
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2142778/posts

Prop. 8 supporters criticize ‘grandstanding’ California legislators
CatholicNewsAgency | Sacramento, Dec 3, 2008
Posted on 12/04/2008 9:09:29 AM PST by GonzoII
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2142835/posts

Gay Marriage And The GOP
The Atlantic | 04 Dec 2008 | Andrew Sullivan
Posted on 12/04/2008 5:13:28 PM PST by Lorianne
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2143122/posts

Showdown in the Big Tent
(many blacks find homosexuality “morally and sexually repugnant”)
New York Times | December 6, 2008 | Caitlin Flanagan and Benjamin Schwarz
Posted on 12/07/2008 5:15:40 AM PST by reaganaut1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144398/posts

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