If the last six
disastrous years have taught us anything, it's that
"who runs the world" matters.
And that we need
to be ruthlessly logical and strategic to win.
On some questions
-- endorse gay marriage? wait until after we win? --
people can and will passionately disagree.
But on others, I
think it's pretty straightforward.
To wit:
1. It's crucial
to the LGBT community that Democrats widen their
hair-thin margin in Congress and win back the White House.
That's because,
in the main, Democrats are our allies, Republicans are
our adversaries.
Of the 107
Senators and Congressfolk with perfect 100% ratings from HRC
in this past Congress, 103 were Democrats. Of the abysmal
156 who rated ZERO, 152 were Republicans. The
difference could hardly be more stark.
Nine of the 10
current Republican candidates for President are rated
"Anti-Equality" by eQualityGiving.org. None of the eight
current Democrats are.
The other reason
it's so important: the Supreme Court. One day, DOMA and
lots of bad state laws should be ruled Unconstitutional. But
it won't happen with more "strict constructionist"
Justices like Antonin Scalia. (And yes, Giuliani now
says he favors strict constructionists.)
2. Whether we
spend fifty million democratic dollars on the primary
battle or five hundred million, we will have the exactly the
same result: one candidate whom we will all want to
see win.
Where that extra
$450 million could make a difference is in the
general election -- both for President and Congress.
Those results are not guaranteed.
3. It therefore
makes sense to support ONE primary candidate, if you
think he or she is clearly best, or else NONE of them . . .
. . . and to
direct most of (or all) your fire power where it's really
needed: to widen our lead in Congress and win back the White
House. WIDEN AND WIN.
3a. But you know
what? Our community should be found helping in every
campaign. Just showing up and being part of the
infrastructure gains us visibility, keeps the campaign
thinking about us, secures us seats at the table. It
would be good if whoever wins the White House has
LGBT folks at all levels of his or her campaign and
feels we contributed. So do get involved in ONE
campaign, and maybe not even the one you feel is best
on our issues. If we have a seat at the table, we'll be that
much better able to gently push them to improve.
4. The best way
to help widen our hair-thin lead in the Senate is to
support our candidates directly. The Republicans are going
to have to defend 21 seats this next time. It will be
great fun writing checks to their challengers.
5. The best way
to help widen our lead in the House is to directly
support our 29 "front-line Democrats" (incumbents facing
tough races . . . many of them newly elected in "red"
districts just 4 months ago) - and to directly support
the "red-to-blue" races that will be identified.
6. The best way
to help win back the White House -- which I would argue
may be even MORE important than widening our lead in
Congress, though that is hugely important -- is to
support the efforts of the DNC.
There are several
reasons, but let me give you just two and I'll stop:
REASON NUMBER ONE
-- THE EVERY PRECINCT PROJECT
For more than a
year, the DNC has been feeding an army of 200 local
organizers and communications directors whose goal is to
deliver 50 incremental Democratic votes in every
precinct . . . in every election . . . for every
office . . . more or less "forever."
(In this sense,
you are contributing to a "capital campaign" - human
capital - not just 30-second spots.)
The 50
incremental votes are meant to come 25 from registering new
voters, 15 from driving sporadic voters to the polls, and 10
from getting fence-sitters to come down on OUR side of
the fence.
It won't all be
this cookie-cutter -- and we won't get to 50 everyplace.
But if we had gotten just TEN incremental votes in each
precinct in 2004, let alone 50, we would have won
Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico.
And if we had
begun this program in 1998, Al Gore would be in his second
term, Bin Laden would be dead (if 9/11 had happened at all),
there would have been no war in Iraq - and no Federal
Anti-Marriage Amendment.
Supporting this
force of 200 local organizers in 2007 - all trained,
incidentally, by an outstanding DNC staffer who happens to
be proudly and openly gay - is the single most
leveraged way any of us can help to change the course
of human events.
REASON NUMBER TWO
-- OUR CANDIDATE WILL NEED MONEY
Unless our
nominee chooses to forgo $85 million from Uncle Sam, the
most money our nominee can legally accept from you for
the general election is: ZERO.
And even if, as
now seems possible, the candidates do choose to forgo
that $85 million, the most they will be able to accept will
be $2,300 - just as if they were running for one of
435 House seats.
The DNC, by
contrast, can take chunks of as much as $28,500 per citizen
(or Green Card holder!) per year . . . and can legally put
$18.5 million directly at the presumptive nominee's
disposal.
Whichever Democratic candidate you favor, this $18.5
million will go to help him or her win the general
election.
By giving to the
DNC, you can be sure your money is going to back a
winner.
7. The reason to
give NOW is that IT JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO LAY OFF
OUR 200 LOCAL ORGANIZERS and tell them to come back in the
summer of '08.
Changing the
course of human events is not a summer job.
To keep doing the
work - which already helped produce good results in
2006 - we need to meet payroll twice a month.
And to do that,
the DNC needs your help.
