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Signorile on why the anti- Chick-fil-A protests peetered out



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Mike Signorile:
[T]hese people are hypocrites who cared nothing about the first amendment when they went on a religious crusade against Muslims, trying to stop construction of the Islamic center near ground zero back in 2010. Now, while they crusade against gays, with millions of dollars from Chick-fil-A's profits going to groups that promote harmful pray-away-the-gay therapies, they're crying about the first amendment? Please.

So yes, our enemies distorted our message and reframed the story. And we allowed them to do it.

How did we allow it to happen? Because there was no coordinated effort on our side. The controversy was largely driven by blogs, social media and very loosely organized grass-roots activists, with no coordinated leadership. The city mayors and politicians calling for banning Chick-fil-A gave an opportunity for the right to reframe the story. The mayors backed off quickly after many on the left decided it wasn't a good idea. That's what we progressives do: We debate and often rethink things, unlike what those on the right did during the controversy over the Islamic center, as James Peron noted. But though the politicians backed off, the damage was done. And there was no leadership on our side aggressively pulling the story back from the right's re-framing.

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