And some people wonder why we’ve called on the gay community, and our allies, to stop donating to this increasingly worthless organization.
Organizing for America – formerly Obama for America, but now an arm of the DNC and the White House – just sent out an email to (some of?) their members about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Did the email call on OFA’s twelve million or so members to bombard wavering Senators with phone calls in support of repealing DADT?
No.
So what did OFA’s email provide as an action on DADT? They ask you to sign a public declaration that you stand with the president for the repeal of DADT.
Ooh, that should scare wavering Senators. Not an action alert targeting individual Senators, not an effort to raise money for ads targeting those Senators, but rather, a petition to nobody.
Now, how, you might ask, does a petition to nobody help us pass the DADT compromise? It doesn’t. But OFA’s efforts on DADT aren’t about actually getting DADT repealed. We’ve written about their fake support for our civil rights before. They”re about raising more gay money for the DNC. (Note that after you sign the Petition to Nowhere, you’re sent to a DNC fundraising page.)
The second reason OFA is doing this, they’re scared. Of you. But not nearly scared enough. Rather than actually doing something to help repeal DADT, the president’s henchmen at OFA and the DNC are sending out fake action alerts, that accomplish nothing, in the hopes that you’ll be duped into thinking they’re doing something to help the gays. When they’re really not.
And you could almost forgive OFA for trying to collect more names and email addresses of gay supporters – or even raise money from gay supporters – if OFA had any plans to actually do something, anything, pro-gay, for real, at any time in the future.
Joe and I, for example, are asking folks to sign a public letter to President Obama, that we will deliver to the White House, calling on him to start making some phone calls to wavering Senators about DADT repeal. Note the concrete message, and the concrete action we want. Note the very public way in which we’re trying to pressure the president to act. That’s what effective advocacy is about – doing something that has a concrete, effective goal, and doing it in a way that has a chance at influencing the person you’re going after. OFA’s “alert” doesn’t target anyone. It’s quite literally “the petition to nowhere.”
The Democratic party isn’t interested in helping you get your civil rights. They’re not building this list, and this war chest, in order to help you finally share in the American dream. They’re treating you like an ATM. And a rather mindless ATM at that.
Well this GayTM is closed.
