Proposition 8: Stop The Anti-Mormon Fear-a-Thon. We Don’t Want to Win This Way.

We here at Johnny California are No-on-8ers, but we’re horrified by the No-On-8s anti-Mormon campaign and the impact it has had on California voters.  Truthfully, we didn’t realize how bad it was.  We sincerely thought it was limited to a handful of echo-chamber screamers over at DailyKos, but then we saw this statistic in Friday’s Field Poll:

A smaller plurality of voters also concur with the view that “followers of the Mormon Church are exerting too much influence on the state’s political process by underwriting an estimated 40 percent of the Yes on Proposition 8’s campaign contributions.” Statewide 40% of voters agrees with this view, 33% disagree and 27% have no opinion.

This poll was taken before the No-On-8 campaign’s latest attack, a press release about a “Secret Million-Dollar Mormon Donor to Prop 8” was picked up major news outlets, so that 40% is probably even higher by now.  We take issue with this singling out of a mysterious “Secret Million Dollar Mormon donor.”  Replace the word “Mormon” with “Jewish” or “Muslim” or “African-American” or “Chinese.”  How does that headline sounds to you now?

This “mysterious donor” tactic is the coup de grace of No-On-8s attempt to paint Barack Obama the entire Mormon church as something people should be afraid of, as some kind of “other.”  Boo hiss.

Ironically, the far-right so-called “Christians” are the ones who made Mormon bashing acceptable during the Republican primaries.  Remember Mike Huckabee’s horrendous slur against Mitt Romney?  The No-On-8 campaign’s willingness to pick up where the far-right left off is shameful.

Also, the No-On-8s outrage over the $1 million single donor is as cynical and phony as it gets.  When talking ballot props, it is absurd to single out one donor or a group of “followers of the Mormon Church” as possibly “exerting too much influence on the state’s political process.”  A single donor giving $1 million?  Hundreds or even thousands of Mormons giving 40% to the campaign?  That’s nothing.  Almost every measure on the ballot is significantly funded by a single individual or well-funded organization:

• The Humane Society gave $1.5 million for Prop. 2 (20% of total)
• San Diego-based publisher James Hollman gave $1.5 million for Prop. 4 (20% of total)
  
• Billionaire activist and philanthropist George Soros and lobbyist Bob Wilson each gave $1.4 million for Prop. 5 (40% of total)
• Billionaire tech mogul and accused drug trafficker spent $1 million on Prop 6 and $4.8 million on Prop. 9. (62% of Prop. 6 total and almost 100% of Prop. 9 total)
• Arizona billionaire Peter Sperling spent $9 million on Prop. 7 (almost 90% of total).

• T. Boone Pickens Clean Energy Sales Corp, who stands to profit from Prop. 10 spent $15 million on the measure. (88% of total).

If 40% of Californians are concerned about Mormons “exerting control over our political process,”, they should be completely freaked out by the Humane Society, the eccentric billionaires with axes to grind, and the natural gas tycoon whose ballot measure is motivated entirely by self-interest.

The problem here isn’t who gave what to which measure. The problem here is with the entire ballot proposition system, which instead of preventing “special interest” influence in the legislature by taking the matter directly to voters, allows for billionaires and well-funded organizations to completely dominate the process, no matter what the issue.   More on that after Tuesday.

Right now, the message to our fellow No-On-8ers is this:  There’s two days left. The way to win this thing is to work with undecided voters, stick to the issues, and play it clean.  Gaining civil rights for one group by making people afraid of another group is not the California way.