I'm not Mitt Romney. I have no pearls to clutch, no fancy stool upon which to pass out. But I am unfortunately aware of the reality of this situation, which for some reason, due either to ego or the 'seeing-red' glee of moving in on a potential kill, many otherwise wise minds seem to be turning a blind eye toward.
There are groups of individuals who believe homosexuality leads society directly to the acceptance of pedophilia. I know this, I've talked to them. They see it as a decline of morality, as an acceptance of moral relativism wherein morality is relative to nothing, instead of, say, a God or some other standard. They base this idea off of the bible. Their belief in the bible stems from their belief in God, their invisible, infallible, omniscient creator. The same people believe that everything on the news, everything that takes place in politics is left-wing propaganda; global warming, economic catastrophe, NDAA, GITMO, 9/11, the Kennedy Assassination, you name it. It can be tied to a seedy shadow government run by reptilian overlords answering to the Anti-Christ (Obama) whose diabolical plan begins with everyone getting health care.
Theses are the flames being stoked in the name of cheap political points (in votes that allegedly don't matter). I personally won't participate in the acceptance of some rightwing bigot for the sake of utilizing the same (failed!) political tactics of Karl Rove. Why? Because I'm not a fucking Republican. I'm not a callous, theocratic, right-wing nut job. I'm not an Austrian moral-relativist who, in the same breath, claims moral relativism doesn't exist to prove the moral superiority of their 'non-aggression principles' and 'right to discriminate constitutional interpretations'.
I'm a liberal. I call myself that because I don't believe in any of the stupid shit the right wing nut jobs participate in. If individuals want to play political games with their vote that is fine; if something similar to this Operation Hilarity were being organized by a small group of democrat friends, fine. Just keep in mind the Paulites love the idea also.
If one of the biggest 'left wing' blogs sends out marching orders and asks for donations to intentionally skewer Republican votes, that's not fine. That's the right wing lunatic's biggest fear, a sliver their delusional reality manifested: that everything is a liberal conspiracy. Why the fuck would any public, well-known and respected voice on the left start an actual conspiracy to subvert their electoral process? (Whether you consider it subversion or not is irrelevant; they will. It doesn't matter if it's legal or if they did it first, they don't care. Have we really forgotten this?)
But never-mind the potential political damage, it's fucking ethically wrong. It's organized disinformation, it's deliberate propagandizing, worthy of the annals of Fox Nation. When I heard about Michelle Bachmann buying votes, I rolled my eyes; more silly right wing tom-foolery. When you hear about Mitt Romney buying votes, I scoffed; what do you expect from an unethical, unprincipled, blatantly dishonest plutocrat? Rational, sane, respectful people don't do this type of thing, I said, and others agree vociferously time and time again.
I find it somewhat staggering that we could be here, four years after electing the first black President, a democrat, on the idea of changing the fact that the political arena was rigged and that the people playing the game weren't playing fairly, openly calling for the same dubious tactics we despise. Ignoring obvious moral ambiguity (calling it 'idealism' and 'unicorn hunting') on the premise of 'political strategy'? I've heard that of that mindset before, it's called 'being a Republican.'
I think our friend Kos has forgotten this isn't about Team Blue or Team Red, this isn't Halo machinima. It's about REALITY and DELUSION, a cohesive system of rational individuals versus deceit, fear, lies, misinformation and disingenuousness. It's about utilizing reality to repair and maintain a system we LOVE to complain about when the other side is doing something we don't like. If we stick our fingers in the wounds they will never heal.
Tell me how this is "strategically" different from passing a law requiring women to be penetrated by a device before they can have an abortion? How is this "strategically" different from water boarding terrorist suspects for information? How is this "strategically" different from disenfranchising millions of voters via dubious voter ID laws? How is this "strategically" different from invading Iraq on false pretenses because, you know, Saddam was a bad guy and, uh, Osama Bin Laden?
Everything is relative to something. Nothing is relative to nothing.
I am not one of them, I won't act like one of them. I won't propagate everything I find wrong with the system in order to win, because if you win that way, you haven't won anything at all.