LOS ANGELES — Interested party The Daily Kos weighed in this week on Measure B, the mandatory condoms for porn performers initiative that Los Angeles County citizens will vote on this November. The progressive organization is opposed to the measure, of course, but in posts on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, DK member ImpeccableLiberalCredentials, aka Soren Sorensen, argued for "some fearless progressive framing" of the issue in the run-up to the election, and after crunching the numbers came to the conclusion that "...the prevailing side will likely need 1.5 million votes, Los Angeles County is a big universe."
In a conspiratorial spasm, Sorensen also suggests "that James Lee, a No on Measure B spokesperson might be consciously or unconsciously activating a conservative frame and furthering the true purpose of AHF's attempts to get these measures on the ballot in LA twice this year, to get social conservatives in the bluest of the blue districts to vote, donate, engage. A prominent GOP strategist admits a similar strategy was behind the placement of the marriage amendment on the ballot of my home state, Minnesota."
But he saves his harshest criticism for the measure's sole sponsor, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, its president Michael Weinstein and his "cynical ballot measure," which Sorensen frames as an barely-concealed attack on free speech.
"Among the things [AHF] say about themselves and their cause is a claim to be for public health, and to have support from well esteemed medical associations and public health professional associations, who are actually absent on social media in support of Michael Weinstein and his cynical ballot measure,: e.g. searches @PublicHealth makes no mention of it in their twitter timeline," writes Sorensen. "They deny that this is an attack on free speech, and that public health orgs and the AMA support them."
"In fact," he continues, "we know that AHF is opposed to free speech but they have received legal counsel that recommends hiding their anti-free speech agenda:" The comment refers to advice given by AHF lawyer Brian Chase in an August 2011 internal email. "We may want to avoid saying that one of the reasons we are supporting the ballot initiative is because we believe that condom-less porn sends any sort of message (that only safe sex is hot, or that condoms are unsexy)," he wrote.
"As a private actor AHF can argue generally that lack of safety practices in adult films sends a bad message about sex," he adds. "But as proponents of a ballot initiative, anything we say can be used to determine the 'intent' behind the initiative. A law whose 'intent' is to require film producers to 'send a message' about safer sex could violate the First Amendment." Despite the counsel, Weinstein continued to make the "bad messaging" argument time and again.
The basis of Sorensen's argument that the campaign against B needs a progressive strategy to succeed is his belief that "right now both pro- and anti- campaigns are speaking to Romney/Ryan voters, and the whole reason this cynical ballot measure is on the ballot, most likely, is to turn out social conservatives and change California politics by affecting down ballot races, if not to enable a freak GOP win statewide."
The time, he says, "is now for sex positive, pro-free speech progressives to make the case for voting NO on Measure B. What can you contribute to today's social media blitz."
He further suggests that "Measure B opponents use the Message Box exercise in the progressive campaign manual Politics the Wellstone Way," referring to Paul Wellstone, the late Democratic senator from Minnesota whose reputation as a demonstrably effective liberal voice and the "conscience of the Senate" has only grown since his death in a plane crash exactly ten years ago this month, October 25.
Sorensen is Minnesota-based and currently seeking the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party's (DFL) endorsement for U.S. Senate. In his Wednesday post about Measure B, he wrote, "Unless someone hires me on out in LA and sends me a plane ticket, tomorrow I will return to covering Minnesota politics—I have some great video to edit, render and post tonight. I haven't been paid to engage in opposition to Measure B, it seems to be the right thing to do, and I have made a little bit of money in the adult entertainment industry on the technical side and am friends with a few performers, photographers, webmasters, etc. Good people, great parties. We need to invite them to be a meaningful part of our party, too."
