Thread: Might want to take a couple minutes.

Originally Posted by Red_Lizard2

On a local/state level. Unless I've missed something, I haven't heard of any policy votes in federal elections (you vote for whatever letter you think will do what you want, but I haven't heard of anyone voting on federal issue). How many of those started online? I would imagine very few (if any), hell in Arizona online petitions won't do squat to get anything on the ballot. I'd also disagree they raise awareness, most people looking for petition againt <blank> or for <blank>, probably already aware and, again may be wrong, I doubt people just randomly stumble upon an online petition.


With the parade example, I think that is also different. One it again only changed on a state level, but still it is something people stumble upon, often a lot of people (since most, afaik, aren't saying, "Let's have our gay pride parade in this town for 2,000 people!" or down an alley, or middle of nowhere. Also it is worth noting that supposedly the first Pride Parade was in 1970, and 26 years later the federal government banned gay marriage. Further the Twin Cities Pride started in 1972 (according to: List of LGBT events - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). California has had quite a few since the 70s (according to wikipedia) and they allowed gay marriage, then banned it, then had the courts overturn the ban. So, I'm not exactly convinced Pride Parades are the cause of the acceptance of gay marriage. Still it is in person, it's public, and it well is in the face of people who probably don't/didn't think about, didn't care, or didn't like gay marriage. It's like protests, majority of them are probably pointless but at least they can raise awareness of those who aren't already aware. I don't believe online petitions do that.

I can agree with your first point. However changing things federally can begin at the local/state level. It was that pressure from petitions at the local level that started the removal of dont ask dont tell. Its all about taking those steps that are needed. Its never been a fast process but it has worked in the past and will work again in the future. Some day local pressure will change federal laws regarding medical mj.