Not long ago, I was contacted by the John Edwards campaign, asking me if I would be interested in working for them. I was, and after the details all shook out, I came on as a part-time adviser, tasked primarily with creating an outreach program between the campaign and the progressive blogosphere. My most important credential was, quite plainly, being a blogger (although my background in marketing and branding didn't hurt, either), and specifically a blogger plugged into several blogging communities. The progressive blogosphere is not monolithic, but a mosaic of overlapping subspheres largely built around issues and/or identities - and successfully navigating that wide and wondrous map of the netroots was my job. I was beyond excited about it.
About the same time, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon was hired as the campaign's blogmaster - a position perfectly suited to her strong abilities as a writer and audience-builder. The progressive blogosphere generally agreed, and we were congratulated while the Edwards campaign was celebrated for hiring two fierce feminists to be a part of their team. Good vibes all around.
And then, at 4:34pm on February 6, seven days after I'd announced I had joined the campaign, I got an email from Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press, asking to me comment on a press release she'd received from the Catholic League. The headline of the press release was "John Edwards Hires Two Anti-Catholics." By 5:49pm, I'd gotten a second email that the story had appeared. When it went to press, I was still out to dinner with a friend who was visiting from out of town, having never seen any of the emails and knowing nothing of the press release. I had no inkling of the chaos to come.
The story began like this: "Two bloggers hired recently by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards were criticized Tuesday by a Catholic group for posts they had written elsewhere on the Internet. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, demanded that Edwards fire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan. 'John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic, vulgar, trash-talking bigots,' Donohue wrote in a statement. 'He has no choice but to fire them immediately'."
Donohue's history of controversial, including multiple anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim, statements was not mentioned. An article by John Broder in the New York Times the following day similarly failed to mention Donohue's history, as did reports on CNN and MSNBC. Donohue was smearing Marcotte and me - two women who had supported John Kerry, a Catholic, and had both attended Catholic universities - across the American media with impunity, for things we had said on private blogs before we were employed by the campaign.
His case against me? "On November 21, 2006, Melissa McEwan said on AlterNet that 'some of Christianity's most prominent leaders - including the Pope - regularly speak out against gay tolerance'." That was it. That was the sole evidence of my alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. There was more in the press release - like my habit of referring to myself as Queen Cunt of Fuck Mountain, and the fact that I used the term "Christofascist" to refer to religious conservatives who pursue legislation with no basis but religion - but none of it had anything to do with my virulent hatred of Catholics. Which may be, as some clever readers might be suspecting by this point, because I don't actually have a virulent hatred of Catholics.
I am, however, vulgar. And I am trash-talking. And I do have some very strong opinions about religious people who try to legislate their beliefs. It's anathema to my governing idea about these things, which is: my rights end where yours begin. If you're trying to legislate a behavior that would have no affect on you, and your only justification is "God said so," I'm going to have an opinion about that - which is both my right and obligation as an active participant in the political process, and should be expected by those who endeavor to politicize their religious beliefs. Private beliefs are none of my business. I don't care if you don't like gay sex or don't use birth control or don't eat pork, as long as you don't care if I do. That seems like it should be an easy agreement to make on both sides, but it doesn't appear to work that way.
By the beginning of this week, we had become the focus of right-wing blowhard Bill O'Reilly, who dedicated two segments on his show to calling for our heads over our alleged anti-Catholic bigotry. Not only was I distracting attention away from the campaign I had signed on to help, but I was getting increasing amounts of hate-mail and comments at my blog, some of which were threatening in nature - something I could not ignore, having been raped many years ago by a man who made threats that were not taken seriously. And so I resigned from the campaign, with regret.
In the wake of this experience, some have expressed disappointment that I "caved," or accused me of hypocrisy because I have complained about the threats I received since I'm a firebrand myself. The truth is, being a firebrand of any political persuasion does not warrant rape and death threats. Irrespective of the language one uses or the direction of one's targets, threats are simply not an appropriate response to expressing an opinion, which is something on which we should all be able to agree. And no one should be expected to allow themselves to be terrorized indefinitely with no protection, just because most threats may never materialize into action. It's a loss for us all that two more people have been driven from their jobs because people who disagreed with them couldn't just leave it at a fair criticism.
I never expected to speak my mind publicly without ever hearing from someone who disagreed, nor expected to speak my mind brazenly with sometimes ribald language without ever hearing from someone who was offended.
But I also didn't expect that disagreement and offense at something I'd written on my personal blog before my employment would be regarded by anyone as justification for calling for my termination. Nor that my opinion on anything could incite anyone to a murderous rage. The lack of perspective is astounding.
So now I'm unemployed and back to rabblerousing at Shakespeare's Sister, and, all things considered, it's not a bad end to find oneself back at the place one loves most in the world.