Good for you.
And that’s great. Good for you. But how about someone elderly? Or someone with small children? Tell me, how do you feel about privacy in the voting booth?
I think the main threat is vandalism. And harassment in the form of things sent to one’s home.
Lightnin’ is obviously free to do what he did, but is it right? Should you not do business with anyone who voted opposite you for President? Any vote? I’ll ask you, too: what is your opinion on the secret ballot. Would you advocate making all votes public?
When I’m 95, I’ll still have no problem standing behind what I believe in, whether that’s in a voting booth or if I had children. In my humble opinion, that’s the whole point.
And again, is there much pro gay violence out there?
Further, if someone decided they didn’t wish to do business with me because of my pro gay stance, I’d consider that my cost of standing up for my convictions. You?
Zoom out and we see the really big donors.
John Templeton: $450,000. He’s the former value asset manager that runs the Templeton Foundation, which has a particular interest in securing a scientific perspective on divinity.
Container Supply Company Inc: $250,000
They make containers for the dairy and packaging industries.
Pacific Shores Masonry: $125,000
http://national.citysearch.com/review/653802
$100,000 from North American Health Care Inc. director Donald G. Laws of Laguna Beach
http://www.nahci.com/
What, specifically, are you referring to when you say “vandalism”? And what sorts of things being sent to one’s home?
If he thinks it’s right, sure. And if I choose to not do business with someone because of what causes they support, that would be my right. And the OP, and thus far this thread, speak to those who supported monetarily Prop 8. To date, you are the only one who has mentioned the secret ballot, which while it may be another thread entirely, has nothing to do with this one.
And for the record, I think that the secret ballot is a good thing and I would not advocate publicizing voting rolls. But as I said, that has nothing to do with this thread.
I’d say that you should think of your children, and that it is your responsibility that they are not victimized by your actions. And I call bullshit on you having the backbone you’d think you’d have at 95. Right now, if someone wants to throw paint at my house or whatever, I can go paint it back tomorrow. When Im 95, I don’t think so.
Not that I know of.
I think it’s wrong. I do business with people who vote counter to my wishes every day. Man of my friends vote counter to my wishes. I really don’t get the attitude that people should be punished for having a different opinion than you. So much for the left’s “tolerance”, I guess.
You realize, i assume, that demeaning and demonizing someone is not the same as committing violence against them? Don’t you?
I don’t give a flying fuck if pro-gay-marriage folks demean and demonize their political opponents; if you criminalize demeaning and demonizing in politics, you’ll have just about every single political candidate, and their advertising agencies, in jail.
Your attempt to connect those issues to the likelihood of violence is pathetic.
What it has to do with anything, you fucking moron, is that if people form mobs or commit acts of violence, you punish those acts, just like you do for everyone else in society. You don’t, in a pre-emptive effort to prevent hypothetical mobs, prevent the release of something that has already been ruled public information.
Perhaps the funniest aspect of all this is that the people supporting Prop 8, during the campaign, made use of exactly the same information that they are now whining about. They actually made direct contact, via letters, with people and companies that opposed Prop 8, and made threats of boycotts and exposure against them. They were happy to do this when it served their cause, and at the time i supported their right to do it. But their whining now that the same strategies are being used against them is laughable.
They deserve all the vandalism and harassment they get.
The question here isn’t about voting. It’s about financial contributions to a political cause and if they should be (as they already are) public record.
This is not just about voting, as any honest appraisal would recognize. The ballot itself is secret.
It is about people who donate money to particular political campaigns, and about laws requiring those donations to be public information. And it is about not wanting to give your money to someone who has used their money to strip you of your rights.
Also, despite your continued implication that it’s only the left that does this, as i said the supporters of Prop 8 were doing exactly the same thing during the campaign.
This map is beyond cool! People who paid to put a public message out can now hear about it through free speech! Yeah!
Well, I’d think a more important lesson to my children would be teaching them the courage of their convictions. Because without that, why have any? As to calling bullshit on my claim to being okay with whatever the consequences are when I’m 95, I suppose you’re entitled to your opinion. However, I’ve always been one to firmly believe in making lemonaide out of lemons, so if some supporter of Prop. 8 threw paint at my house, I’d consider at a new fashion statement.
Then and now.
Hmmmm. Interesting.
It’s not punishment, unless view consequences entirely different than I do. It’s doing what you think is right (as, I suppose, I thought the Prop. 8 supporters were doing before this) and standing behind it. So again, I’d much rather someone follow their heart, even if that means believing differently than I do. At least then, it’s logically consistent and I can’t fault them for being hypocritical.
But hey, if you think your business is more important than your convictions, than you have your answer right there.
Paint bombs thrown at homes, spray painting, overturning of trash, tires being slashed, breaking of windows, etc. Threatening letters, gay magazines, boxes of dog shit, etc.
Incorrect. I can certainly see why you’d want it to not be mentioned along with this, but you’re wrong. It has everything to do with this thread. I don’t see how one can see this as a good thing and be in favor of keeping the vote private. There is an issue on a ballot—whatever it is—some people will vote for it, some will vote against it. Everyone’s opinion is private and no one is subject to pressure. If someone chose to help their vote by donating money, the same standard should apply.
I do think if the person chooses to make his opinion public—give speeches, write letters, put signs in their window, etc.,—that’s a different story.
By the way, do you have any information on this that I can read? Because I’d like to see the evidence of this kind of harassment either. I mean hell, I live in the bible belt south with prominent Pinko Liberal Tree Hugging Hippie bumper stickers on my car and I have yet to ever have this sort of thing happen to me in the decade and a half since I’ve been this way. So that the ones that usually do not engage in this might be shown up to the contrary would be something I’d like to be aware of.
Bullshit. Again. For your sake, I hope it is.
It’s both. You do what you think is right. Someone burns your car because of your position, that’s punishment.
But why should they have their vote (via donation) made public?
Why should someone have to choose that. They don’t when they vote on an issue. Why when they help their vote with a donation?
Are you proposing that all donations be anonymous? Or only for certain situations? What exactly is your proposition?
(it can be in 8 parts if you like) 
You know magellan, I’m curious. In every gay marriage related thread, the cast of participants usually changes and that’s even among our gay posters. However, you are typically in attendance. As, if I’m remembering correctly, a straight guy, why is this apparently such an important issue to you?
And no, it’s not bullshit. But then, that’s how I’ve always been. My personal / professional (when I had it) / romantic life all had to line up together or I couldn’t look myself in the mirror each morning. There’s no way in hell I could do what you’re proposing even if I wanted to. And I don’t anyway. So believe it or not, but there are indeed some people like that out there.
Obviously, your mileage varies greatly.
Oh, wiseguy, eh? My point was that I think it likely based on the militancy I see coming from gays on the Prop 8 issue. So, what the good God-fearing people of the Bible Belt would do or have done is not of issue. I’ve seen more hate and anger over this issue than the abortion issue. And I used to live in the Bible Belt and had to pass abortion protestors with their bloody signs every day, as my office was a half a block from a major hospital which the protestors chose as a venue.
So, you can save it with the mock surprise of “these events you find oh so interesting but have never heard of, pray tell”.
Is it a punishment when a consumer chooses to spend his money in one store and not another? No, that’s a free market at work. People are free to choose to deny a business owner of their business for any reason whatsoever, from the petty to the whimsical to the ethical and anywhere in between. The right uses this tactic as well as the left, for instance, the “boycott Disney” movement. You choose not to make politics a reason for where you shop. How can you say it’s wrong for someone else to use that criterion? It’s THEIR MONEY and they can spend it however they want. Not a single thing wrong with it.