February 28, 2004

You and what army

Posted by Ted

Good catch from Uggabugga:

We took a quick spin around the Internet looking at religious-conservative sites to see what their reaction was to Bush’s proposal of a constitutional amendment about marriage. What did they have to say at 8:30 PM EST? (on Tuesday, the day the of Bush’s announcement of support for the FMA- Ted)
* Coral Ridge Ministries: no mention * Christian Broadcasting Network: no mention
* The 700 Club (subset of CBN): no mention
* Focus on the Family: a tiny link to a short statement
* Concerned Women for America: no mention (but an old link to a page defending the term “marriage”)
* Family Research Council: Yes, a featured summary on the front page, and a link to a short statement

That’s a pretty tepid response. Where was the coordination by the White House?

It could very well be that socially conservative organizations just don’t have their act together when it comes to the web. I was struck at the failure of the American Family Association to drum up more support for their poll on gay marriage. Sure, a lot of liberal (and socially liberal) organizations and pages linked to the survey, but so did social conservative organizations and pages. They’ve got their mailing lists, and the support of a network of online socially conservative activist groups. Still, the most conservative option, opposing civil unions and gay marriage, lost 2-1.

Still, interesting.

Posted on February 28, 2004 08:19 PM UTC
Comments

Hi Guys
Big chunks of your text are disappearing. It seems like the tops of the text in every few lines have been cut off. Can’t explain but hope this helps
Regards
Cass

Posted by Cancergiggles · February 28, 2004 08:51 PM

I hadn’t heard of the AFA poll before, thanks for mentioning the article.

Posted by Hot Abercrombie Chick · February 28, 2004 10:31 PM

CBN’s on it now … they’ve got a bumpersticker just ripe for parody!

Posted by Jim Flannery · February 28, 2004 11:54 PM

If I’d seen that bumper sticker from a distance I’d have read it as “Marriage is a restroom.”

Perhaps a serial monogamist could put up a series of spousal figures like hash marks (or notches on a gun). I’ve known some families so tangled that one’s inclined to refer to them as clans; they would need to be represented by multiple mommy, daddy and kid figures.

There seems to be more enthusiasm than outrage over gay marriage, which is a very encouraging sign.

Posted by bad Jim · February 29, 2004 06:30 AM

Especially strange considering that the head of CWFA was on Bill Maher a few nights ago declaring in all seriousness that gay marriage would lead to the downfall of civilization. Really.

Posted by Redshift · March 1, 2004 10:38 PM

Internet polls are worthless, due to the ease of ballot stuffing and to the fact that no poll-offering website receives attention from a representative cross-section of America (or of Internet users, for that matter). Best to stick with professional polling outfits.

Posted by Alan K. Henderson · March 2, 2004 09:06 AM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.