Saturday, October 16, 2004
So Let's Talk About Mary Anyway
Doing my shift on the ramparts yesterday--working at Dem HQ in my county, basically just answering the phone and keeping the doors open--hardly seems worth reporting about. Millions of people day in and day out are doing similar work of much greater significance, and in some cases physical, legal or financial danger, than this.
It's not like undecided people wander in and ask me to convince them why they should vote for Kerry. Nor do passionate Republicans come to do missionary work to persuade me to change sides. Those who visit my little section of the ramparts are already motivated enough to visit the Party office, usually looking for yard signs or bumper stickers which we're dead out of.
Sometimes, though, they stick around and chat a bit. Two such folks yesterday both seemed to be looking for reassurance that Kerry hadn't hurt himself with the Mary Cheney comment in the last debate. (Local cable carries Nashville stations, except the ABC which comes out of Jackson. I live beyond the reach of cable and get what the satellite carries in the way of network stations, which is NYC and LA, so I don't know what the locals are saying.)
Neither one of these folks, one man and one woman, both considerably older than me and I am no spring chicken, had ever heard that Mary Cheney is not only gay but what I can only describe as a professional lesbian. She is gay for a living. She was gay for Coors Brewing Co and is gay for the Bush/Cheney 04 campaign. She doesn't work for the campaign by giving standard stump speeches to public gatherings across the country, she works for the campaign by being gay, and being there, and "sending the message" to other gays--via gaydar, apparently, since the message is not intended to be picked up by straight people, most especially straight Christofundies-- that it's okay to vote for her dad and that other guy, they're not as bad as they seem.
This is a roundabout way of getting at the message I bring from the ramparts. Do not let the name "Mary Cheney" or the words "Cheney's daughter" be spoken within your hearing, by friend or foe alike, without bringing up the words "Coors Brewing." A third of your audience may not have known she was gay, or already out, at all; another third may not have known she actually worked to encourage people to drink the Devil's brew; and the other third will be grossed out that she ever pushed such a lousy product. In any case it will upset their thinking, which is what you want.
Oh yeah, and if you have any spare yard signs, leave a note in comments. I called a friend where I used to live in a safe blue state but they didn't have any standard "Kerry/Edwards" ones left either and I don't think "Illinois for Kerry" would be quite right here in west Tennessee.
It's not like undecided people wander in and ask me to convince them why they should vote for Kerry. Nor do passionate Republicans come to do missionary work to persuade me to change sides. Those who visit my little section of the ramparts are already motivated enough to visit the Party office, usually looking for yard signs or bumper stickers which we're dead out of.
Sometimes, though, they stick around and chat a bit. Two such folks yesterday both seemed to be looking for reassurance that Kerry hadn't hurt himself with the Mary Cheney comment in the last debate. (Local cable carries Nashville stations, except the ABC which comes out of Jackson. I live beyond the reach of cable and get what the satellite carries in the way of network stations, which is NYC and LA, so I don't know what the locals are saying.)
Neither one of these folks, one man and one woman, both considerably older than me and I am no spring chicken, had ever heard that Mary Cheney is not only gay but what I can only describe as a professional lesbian. She is gay for a living. She was gay for Coors Brewing Co and is gay for the Bush/Cheney 04 campaign. She doesn't work for the campaign by giving standard stump speeches to public gatherings across the country, she works for the campaign by being gay, and being there, and "sending the message" to other gays--via gaydar, apparently, since the message is not intended to be picked up by straight people, most especially straight Christofundies-- that it's okay to vote for her dad and that other guy, they're not as bad as they seem.
This is a roundabout way of getting at the message I bring from the ramparts. Do not let the name "Mary Cheney" or the words "Cheney's daughter" be spoken within your hearing, by friend or foe alike, without bringing up the words "Coors Brewing." A third of your audience may not have known she was gay, or already out, at all; another third may not have known she actually worked to encourage people to drink the Devil's brew; and the other third will be grossed out that she ever pushed such a lousy product. In any case it will upset their thinking, which is what you want.
Oh yeah, and if you have any spare yard signs, leave a note in comments. I called a friend where I used to live in a safe blue state but they didn't have any standard "Kerry/Edwards" ones left either and I don't think "Illinois for Kerry" would be quite right here in west Tennessee.
