Confirmation of the Obvious: Hate and Bigotry Are Used to Manipulate You

So, thanks to a recently released internal memo, we now have additional hard evidence of a phenomenon that is probably as old as civilization itself: the promotion of hate and bigotry to manipulate people. Yes, in their crusade against gay rights, the colossal suckwads at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) want to "drive a wedge between gays and blacks - two key Democratic constituencies." How would they do this? Here are some examples (quotes are directly taken from the memo linked above):

1. By promoting black spokespeople to speak out against gay marriage and "provoke the gay marriage base" into denouncing these spokespeople as bigots.
2. "Fanning the hostility raised in the wake of Prop 8..."
3. "Consider pushing a marriage amendment in Washington D.C." (DC is over 50% black, over 60% minority)
4. "Find attractive young black Democrats to challenge white gay marriage advocates electorally."

Also, NOM isn't just focusing on black voters:

"The Latino vote in America (note the insensitivity of talking about Latino voters while using the term 'America' to refer to the US) is a key swing vote, and will be so even more so [sic] in the future...." What does NOM intend to do about it? "We must interrupt this process of assimilation (whereby Latinos might abandon 'traditional family values') by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity - a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation. We seek to identify glamorous young Latino and Latina leaders, especially artists, actors, musicians, athletes, writers, and other celebrities ... regardless of national boundaries."

It's nice that they're willing to look beyond "national boundaries" with respect to this issue. Too bad it doesn't extend to the egregious laws attacking Latinos in states like Alabama and Arizona.

Of course, not all of the strategies were race-based: "We also work with Catholic Bishops and Protestant Pastors to educate religious voters on the costs of gay marriage."

Finally, they also want to "sideswip[e]" Obama by "Expos[ing] Obama as a social radical. ... Raise such issues as pornography, protection of children, and the need to oppose all efforts to weaken religious liberty at the federal level." As many on the left have always said, no matter what Obama does to appease these extremists, they will always attack him as an extremist.

Folks, although this will make headlines, this strategy is nothing new. In fact, the NOM gets donations from rich people who want to keep the poor people fighting about gay marriage rather than fighting about income inequality. If you're curious about this phenomenon in America, I would highly recommend reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

However, I don't want to downplay the significance of this document's release. Frequently when people discuss this "divide and conquer" strategy, it sounds like paranoia to people who aren't yet convinced of it. This document is a great piece of direct evidence to show you that it is real and that people do use bigotry regarding race or sexual orientation or national identity or religion just to manipulate the people for their own, unrelated goals.

Props go to Rachel Maddow's Blog and Buzzfeed for bringing this to my attention.