In your face!

Elliot says he plans on voting against Wisconsin's gay marriage amendment, but then adds:

But I have to admit, every time I hear someone advocating against
the amendment it makes me want to vote for it.

Why, Elliot, is that?

(Since I'll have to wait for him to respond, if he so chooses, I'm going to make an assumption. And I should also note that I plan on voting against it as well.)

Is it because opponents to the amendment are always in your face?

Stick with me here...

I've known quite a few gay men over the years, both liberal and conservative. One constant among many of them is how much they despise being generally represented (or perceived as represented) by a small group of gays who seemed to constantly want to shove homosexuality down everyone else's throats. Certainly these men would vote against the amendment (though I met one who actually voiced his support for it), but they felt it counterproductive to have some of the loudest voices speaking up for gay rights being the type of people most likely to turn off potential supporters. Overly aggressive in their tactics and approaches, they seemed to make enemies first and label anyone who disagreed with them homophobes. At that point, any chance of discourse is lost.

But this seems to be a constant theme among many liberal approaches to contentious topics. And I'd argue it's one that hurts liberal causes more than helps. Rarely are conservatives seen protesting anything. I can't remember ever having someone knock on my door to get me to sign a petition or donate money to support a conservative cause. Yet for every issue there is, you're guaranteed a liberal rally, demonstration, sit-in, canvassing, what have you, almost as much as the sun will rise in the morning.

Here in the blogosphere we have a lot of people who thrive on the day to day happenings in politics. And it's good that we have that. But it's an anomaly when compared to the greater population. For many people, all across the political spectrum, political ideology is as private (or non-existent) a matter to them as is their religion. Just as they may never think about or discuss religion unless it's a holiday or their on there way to church/synagogue/mosque, they probably don't think about the issues in politics until they walk into the voting booth.

If they ever do.

So when someone like many of the people I know, who don't feel strongly about some issues one way or the other, is suddenly having their dinner interrupted by someone who's very adamant about an issue and won't take no for answer, or has to go out of their way because a protest is jamming up city streets, and was teetering on the fence up to that point, how do you think they'll vote?

As Twain is famously quoted as saying, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

Just something to think about.