The story I’m going to share here was actually included in yesterday’s Mid-afternoon Open Thread at DKos. But it was presented in such a way that the sheer coolness of what happened would most likely be lost on people. This is (to me) an inspiring story of the way bloggers can work together to have a real, measurable impact.
As I was checking the blogs Wednesday on my breaks at work I saw a piece about an Ohio congressional candidate who was sending out campaign mailers that sounded like they could have been written by Karl Rove. Wait, I should probably take that back–even though Karl Rove is evil incarnate, I have the sense that he probably takes a certain amount of pride in his evil and wouldn’t want his name attached to such a shoddy piece of campaign literature as this. There was a call to action on Buckeye State Blog about Bill Ritter’s campaign mailer, which included the following criticism of his opponent, Mike Foley:
Mike Foley was asked [in an endorsement interview for the Sun Newspapers] if he was ‘For Gay Marriage?’ Mike said ‘Yes’ he supports gay marriage. UNLIKE MIKE this concerns me since I DO NOT want this to become a state law. I feel a Marriage is between a MAN and a WOMAN. That is the WAY I WILL VOTE in Columbus! In FACT Mike Foley has been ENDORSED by the STONEWALL DEMOCRATS, who are a GAY/LESBIAN political action committee. His endorsement is largely because of His Support of Gay Marriage.
Nice, huh?
By the end of the day, the response of Ohio bloggers, as well as the fallout for Bill Ritter, was reported in Openers, the blog of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Today, it finally appears in their print edition.
Ritter included his phone number on the mailing and invited people to call him. One of those who did was blogger Eric Vessels at www.plunderbund.com, who taped his conversation with the sputtering candidate.
By early afternoon, the resulting fallout had cost Ritter his endorsement by the UAW Cuyahoga-Medina CAP Council, and state and local teachers unions had expressed dismay over his remarks.
“We informed him, because of the statement he made and the literature that he passed out, that we were withdrawing our support for him,” said Harold Wilson, CAP Council chairman. “This is an issue that the Republican Party has been using for the last eight years. What’s important in Ohio is jobs and education and health care. We don’t discriminate against anyone.”
Brian, who, after receiving an alert from his local Stonewall Democrats group, wrote the post that started it all, explains the moral of the story:
I just wrote a post. Plenty of other people – you – did the work.
There’s a lesson in all of this. Sure, the Internet is powerful. We knew that already.
What I learned, though, via calls from friends and family and e-mails from readers around the world, is that more and more people are looking at these flailing, bigoted politicians who throw down the gay card in desperation to get votes and are asking them one question:
Is that all you got?
Here in the United States, and especially Ohio, we should be furious – furious – that this really is all they’ve got.
Banning gay marriage won’t halt the hemorrhaging of blood and money in Iraq. It won’t make us safe from extremists. It won’t bring healthcare to the millions of uninsured. It won’t create jobs for the poor and hungry. It won’t solve the dispute over immigration. It won’t fix our schools. It won’t stop global warming.
Bringing it up, though, will distract from the real issue: The only thing you’re offering is a stinking pile of bullshit.
Based on the past 24 hours, I’ve got a pretty good handle on a lot of people’s response:
No thanks. After six years, we’re all full up.