MoveOn.org Won't Move On

I have followed the misadventures of MoveOn.org since the organization first formed to urge Congress to drop the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton. Undaunted by its initial failure, it tried to whip up the left during the 2000 presidential election, warning that voting for Ralph Nader could throw the election to George W. Bush. Not since Cassandra of Troy has an entity been so simultaneously prescient and impotent.

In 2002, MoveOn.org circulated online petitions opposing war in Iraq. In 2003, it held a virtual primary and selected Howard Dean as the Democratic Party standard-bearer and also became involved in the California gubenatorial election, actively opposing the campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2008, MoveOn.org accidentally ruined its perfect record of quixotic failure by endorsing Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party primaries. Facing a severe identity crisis as mainstream voters moved toward Obama in large numbers, MoveOn tried to make the now-popular anti-war movement repellent to centrists with its "Petraeus Betray Us" ad.

Unfortunately for MoveOn.org, Barack Obama was elected anyway. Now, as far as many formerly-angry liberals are concerned, the windmill has been toppled. So how can MoveOn.org convince them to donate money and sign online petitions? They have to come up with some new anger-inducing issues. So they have decided to hold Obama's feet to the fire in order to make sure he follows a MoveOn-approved "progressive" agenda.

A series of "fired up and ready to go" meetings were held around the country on Thursday night. The state coordinator for MoveOn.org claims that about 350 people registered for 18 meetings around Wisconsin. However, the Capital Times reported that the Madison meeting "drew 15 people, all white and over 50." What are the odds that meetings elsewhere in Wisconsin out-drew the Madison meeting?

Compare this to the nationwide demonstrations last Saturday protesting California's anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8. Madison's event reportedly drew 417 people, and that was outside on a cold and windy day.

If MoveOn.org has any sense of self-preservation, it will take a lesson from this and join the marriage-equality bandwagon. The Human Rights Campaign has lost its credibility (at least according to Andrew Sullivan), so there is a niche for a nationally-based left-leaning organization with a huge list of small donors to lobby for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy.

Of course, if the gay rights activists have any sense of self-preservation, they will avoid MoveOn.org like the plague.

This Prohibition Has Been Brought to You by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Remember those family-values PSAs that used to run on broadcast television? They showed people facing emotional crises, and how they were comforted by compassion, patience and love from their families. At the end of each 30-second melodrama was a voiceover saying "This message brought to you by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

The PSAs were part of a branding campaign to make the LDS church seem more mainstream and Christian at a time (the 1970s) when it was still viewed with a great deal of suspiscion outside of Utah (the Osmonds notwithstanding). The Mormon church is a world religion, with ambitious plans for expansion. However, it also had an unfortunate history of warfare with non-Mormon neighbors. So those commercials served two purposes -- to attract some people to join the LDS church, and to encourage other U.S. churches to stop viewing Mormonism as a threat. "We're on the same side" was the subtext.

Now, the LDS church has a new branding strategy -- they are the force of social conservatism. This was the year they flexed their political muscles.

First, during the presidential primary season, they called upon their members to donate to Mitt Romney's campaign. However, although the conservative evangelical elites were willing to back him, the evangelical masses preferred Mike Huckabee. They perceived Romney as a flip-flopping phony, and many of them still don't care for Mormons.

So, since the LDS church could not win them over with love, they are now winning them over with strength. By becoming involved in a big way in support of California's Proposition 8, Mormons have demonstrated that they can be the arbiters of social policy in other states just as they have always been in Utah. They have accomplished more on their own than all of the conservative protestant churches and the mightly Catholic Church managed to do in alliance. The evangelical wing-nuts may never love Mormons, but they will certainly respect them now.

So, what other social prohibitions can we look forward to, now that the LDS church has discovered its power? How about laws that make alcohol less available? They won't try outright prohibition (that would be political suicide), but I expect them to start nibbling away at the edges of our access. Which state will be the first to adopt "conscience" legislation that will allow teetolaling waitrons to work at Appleby's without being forced to serve alcohol? I cannot say, but I would lay odds that Wisconsin will be the last. The throw-down between the LDS church and the Tavern League will be worthy of pay-per-view.