Over the past couple weeks, since Markos has begun urging site visitors and Dems generally to vote for Rick Santorum in the open primary states, there has been a TON of negative feedback from users, in addition to some, though significantly less, positive feedback. And I was really with people that it was a bad idea. Some very compelling arguments were made. I rec'd and tipped quite a few diaries and comments which opposed Operation Hilarity. But for some reason, a little while ago, I suddenly changed my mind and I was, for the first time, on the side of those defending it. Find out why below the "Two Sideways S's Bondage Night Pic" (only if your mind is as sick as mine will you be able to see that :] ).
As someone who is bisexual, Rick Santorum disgusts me. Also see: "as someone who is human," "as someone who has a heart," "as someone who 'loves thy neighbor,'" "as someone who admires Rick Santorum for his laser-like ability to focus on a bad argument, remain unswayed by Ethos, Pathos, Aramis, D'Artagnan or any other musketeer because Cardinal Richelieu says so so there." You get the point.
But being that I, and my "choice" to be bi, am pretty much the reason Katrina happened and the stock market crashed in 1929 and Godzilla took out Tokyo and Mothra took out Godzilla (nerds, among whom I consider myself: I know this didn't happen; c'etait /joke) and Little Boy took out Mothra -- being all that, in Richard John Santorum's unhappy little world (because of all teh gays, it must be pretty unhappy), the argument you folks used that hit home most for me was the
"Voting for Rick Santorum provides a greater platform from which hate can be spewed and considered by the media and most of the mainstream public as an 'equally valid opinion' and will therefore cause tremendous hurt to the gay community. Ergo, it would be morally appalling for us, as enlightened, informed, progressive Democrats to enable this vilest of human filth a louder voice by voting for him, even if it eventually might serve to help President Obama get reelected by severely setting back the severely conservative former Governor's long-conceived agenda.
argument. And variations thereon.
This really is a convincing argument. Unlike Sticky Ricky, I can appreciate a Grand Ole Pull-on-the-heartstrings -- especially when I will likely be among those affected by what would happen if you're right -- and I can follow logical progression enough to recognize that your conclusions follow in a pretty straightforward fashion from your premise. But I still disagree. And here's why:
Rick Santorum is fighting a lost battle.
After all, those are the kinds he loves best. Birth control: Settled. Social Security: Settled. Medicare: Settled. Public education: Settled. Again, you get the point.
But seeing as in over 80% of states, gay marriage is still not legal, to name but one example of the fight we still have to fight, how can I say that gay rights and gay bashing are a "lost battle" for Santorum. And my response: I think the graph on this post by Scott Wooledge a couple of days ago -- juxtaposed with this one, which shows how a progressive tide is rising this century driven largely by a changing national demographic, by Mets102 (both of which I highly recommend reading) -- shows how effectively the public has come to realize that the LGBT community is one whose rights have been infringed upon too long and that we are people who just want to love just like any straight person. Between the two, which together strongly suggest that acceptance of gay marriage is on a statistical trajectory skyward and that the voting electorate in each election cycle is becoming increasingly progressive as younger voters vote more, voters are better educated, and the non-white community expands to a greater percentage of the nation and voting public, the inevitability of our Progressive March into the Future is being realized, embodied even, in the struggle for gay rights in America and the world. I simply do not believe that a shrinking minority's numbers will swell as a result of the vernacular vomit spewed by this hateful, pitiful man, however large his megaphone. Those who can be convinced that being gay is a deadly sin already are: we're the ones doing the converting now, but that's pretty easy when you preach the Truth.
Now, I think I can anticipate that some of you will probably bring up the lash of violence, bullying, and LGBT suicide that will almost certainly increase should Santorum steal RMoney's nom-nom-noms-ination, or possibly even just from keeping him in the race for the next couple of months. But I challenge you to consider two points:
1. These people who might violently resist progress and punish the innocent for their own personal shortfalls as human beings have already been and will continue listening to the hate-mongers of the Wrong, the Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys and Glenn Becks and Rick Santorums (Santora? The Latin is strong in this one.). We may never win over radicals that extreme, and they will die bigots, whenever they come to die. But we ARE winning over everyone else. In spite of some of the most venomous anti-gay vitriol being spat by the bigots in decades, public opinion is changing in droves, on multiple fronts, and history has been decided. Americans, collectively, have become Neo in the Matrix Reloaded: when we can understand the choice, we can see the future; and the choice is clear: either you consciously decide to designate the LGBT community as second-class, inferior, a caste apart, or you honor them with the human rights they deserve. Americans understand the choice and we have chosen an answer, and no matter how much the Rick Santora of the world fling poo, our choice will not be unmade, and so, we can see the future.
...and...
2. As a direct result of this change in opinion on gay rights in America and the multiple campaigns being waged publicly to reassure victims of bullying, violence, or even simple confusion that they are not alone and that they are not "impure" or "evil" or "disgusting" or anything else but human and alive and free, even if we give Rick Santorum a louder voice for a few more months, the voice, louder though it may be, will be echoed by fewer and fewer people. I think people here understand that peer pressure is a powerful force. And when our opponents' numbers have become so few that even the whispers of the masses supporting us are louder than the shouts of the "persecuted religious," it won't matter what they say: they will have become another fringe movement that no one in polite society pays attention to. And that is where we are headed.
Ooh, one more reason just occurred to me, sorry:
3. Although I am highly nonreligious, I have been considering some elements of eastern philosophy/religion lately in an attempt to cope with the world and how it seems to always be a fight. (Quick back story: I've had spells of depression on and off the last few years which have affected school and work. I'm doing a lot better now, and I think a large part of that is the therapist I have been seeing, who is one of my main sources for this type of mindframe.)
Anyway, in this spirit, it is worth considering, I think, that if we vote for Santorum, there is a decent chance that those who are so swayed by such voices as his may react in ways which physically or emotionally damage innocent non-normative persons across the country. This is the reality we face. But we cannot be held responsible for the actions of others. There are a trillion trillion trillion things out of our control in the universe, and among them are people who will bully and abuse the LGBT community with no provocation whatsoever and people for whom hearing Santorum rage against the LGBT machine for a couple more months is just the right amount of hate to trigger the same. But there is nothing we can do about those people. We control our own actions only, and if our actions directly help advance a progressive agenda by complicating an already unpleasant race for whomever the Republican candidate ends us being, our votes for Santorum will have no responsibility for the actions other people choose to take because of Santorum's staying in the race longer (and consequently spewing the hate he chooses -- or has been indoctrinated -- to spew).
While this diary really only touched on one or two aspects of objections to Operation Hilarity, I'll spare you all an additional 3,000+ words and just say that pragmatically, with how close the two flacid
fasces-bearers of the Republican party are in the polls in Michigan, today's primary could very well be decided by Operation Hilarity. And while emulating Rush Limbaugh's political tactics is certainly unpalatable, it is nonetheless the most politically strategic option to ensure that a pro-LGBT progressive agenda will emerge over the next four years and beyond.