Good As You

Maine was an incredibly well run campaign. The workforce mobilized by the campaign was a thing of beauty. The dedication and commitment of everyone involved was exemplary. And, even though we technically lost, it doesn't feel like a loss to me. It's heartbreaking, and is a setback, but we didn't lose. We were beaten by opponents who hold no regard for the truth, and who lack any compunction for dirty, vicious and deceptive tactics. Compared to that, we are the winners hands down.

And, I have to say, JH, that you looked quite studious as the camera caught a glimpse of you reporting from the scene there on election night. You do a great job for us, and we very much appreciate it.

I knocked on doors, helped out fellow Prop 8 supporters, donated time and money. We were in an election year. And NO OTHER MEASURE, no other defeat or change in the laws...brought tears to the eyes of anyone but those who knew the gravity of what was lost.
The people who LOST their rights. It wasn't just about the voting, pitting neighbor against neighbor at the ballot box.
But about the quality of life and having no chance or way of NOT weeping at why citizens are measured this way.

The injustice of it all, is to weep. I wept too. I felt the pain of what happened in the Pine Tree state.
All the way from the Golden State.

The opposition was so unfeeling, so critical of the different ways in which people reacted here in CA. So vicious in there assessment.
And at no time, did any of them consider or even mention how THEY would feel, how THEY would react if the right to marry were TAKEN AWAY from them.

They had the luxury of only knowing how they'd feel by demanding the choice to keep it to themselves. To keep it special and exclusive, but not how they'd feel if they didn't have the option at all.

I dare any one of them to be truthful and honest about that.
Being able to marry, have the hope of it, the goal of it to aspire to, makes more of us angels to one another.

A lesson the opposition chooses to ignore.

Oh, Jeremy...

I had managed to get through a few days without crying. Now you have me right back to where I was on Wednesday, 11/4. Looking at those videos and seeing so many people I know, seeing their tears and their sadness, feeling mine, just gets me upset all over again.

I know. I know. Stay the course. No one ever said this was going to be easy. But knowing that we are fighting against lying, hateful deceitful people makes it so much harder. My only consolation is that time is on our side. We will prevail. I just wish -- I wanted so much -- that we could hold up the great state of Maine as a shining example of how marriage equality would prevail at the ballot box.

There are 299,000 Mainers that I hope I never, ever meet.

L

A few observations:

- Although it was a well-run campaign, it is pretty clear that No on 1's vaunted GOTV was not as good as advertised. Although voter turnout was up, it was up everywhere - both the liberal and the conservative areas, so it all canceled out. No on 1 had to do better than Yes on 1 on turnout, and in spite of a larger budget and more volunteers, it didn't. I think the NGLTF "experts" who were brought in to work on that are likely to blame.

- They lost Augusta, which voted pro-gay in 2005. So Jesse's statement that "we have the cities" is not true. No on 1 had an office in Augusta. Again, what happened with the supposedly great GOTV?

- NOM gave $2 million to Yes. HRC gave maybe $250K to No. Why does NOM do 8 times better than HRC? What was so important to HRC this year that it could only part with a few hundred K?

This campaign was lost from the beginning. Not because NO on 1 did a bad job, they did AMAZING work. No amount of money or volunteer force could have changed that simply because people aren't ready for it yet. They weren't ready for women's suffrage either. Or for blacks to be equal. it took federal action, and that's what has to happen again. A few states will pass marriage equality through legislative means or by court rulings, but we're still bound to lose a couple more public votes because people just aren't ready.

That being said, having the opposition concede to civil unions, while paltry and still unacceptable, was a huge step forward for the movement.

Everyone in Maine should be endlessly proud of the work that they did, and I don't know that anyone will forget the strides made here in Maine once we win this across the country.