Saturday, February 18, 2012

JUICEBLENDER: Sam Arora Becomes National Lightning-Rod & Internet Meme // MD Lawmaker Backstabbed Progressives

INTRO: Maryland Juice had a feeling that a vote against marriage equality from freshman Delegate Sam Arora would not go over well with his constituents, friends, colleagues, former classmates, etc. I was right.

Sources report that right around 4:20 pm yesterday, Sam Arora's legislative aide quit. 10 minutes later, the historic House vote on marriage equality began. When the dust had settled, Arora had voted against the legislation.

Within minutes of the passage of marriage equality in the Maryland House, the Internet exploded with activity to defeat Sam Arora in 2014. The outburst of anger is attributable to the fact that Arora was a former ally on the issue and many of his supporters, donors and volunteers feel betrayed. The anti-Arora activities sprouting up range from hilarious to sad to downright aggressive. Instinct Magazine summarized the explosion well:
INSTINCT MAGAZINE: Well the shit is already hitting the fan. If you enjoy comedy, or a healthy dose of “schadenfreude,” check out Arora’s Facebook page where his constituents are ripping him to shreds. Higher ups in the Democratic Party are apparently already planning his swift demise. And the gays? Oh the gays are out for blood.

We hope, for his sake, that Arora was only moonlighting in Democratic politics, because from where we sit, it looks like his career is over. Couldn’t happen to a nicer, more upstanding guy.
Without further ado, we present our SAM ARORA JUICEBLENDER. We start with a note from John Aravosis at AMERICAblog:
JUICE #1: AMERICAblog Commentary - Regardless of what Arora is hiding in his political closet, his career in Democratic politics is over. A number of high-level Democratic political operatives in DC are talking this evening about the best way, legally and politically, to move ahead with ending Arora's career, starting with his next election. We've taken down bigger bigots than a Maryland House delegate. If he thinks he's going to survive in Democratic politics as a known homophobe, and someone who poked his finger in the eyes of Bill Clinton, Terry McAuliffe and Maryland Governor O'Malley... well, good luck with that.

More from Democratic political consultant Karl Frisch, a former friend and supporter of Arora's:
"Discrimination against gay and lesbian couples is one step closer to being over in Maryland. The same can be said for Sam's career in politics."

"I've already been asked by several high level national and Maryland Democratic operatives to join a call tonight to discuss strategies for sending Sam packing. We -- and by we, I mean many people who helped elect our former equality supporting friend -- will do whatever it takes. Nothing will be left off the table."
Enjoy the next few years in politics, Sam. They'll be your last in elected office.
JUICE #2: RootsCamp - Each year, progressive activists come together to teach each other lessons from their organizing and activism experiences. The weekend of workshops is called RootsCamp, and this year the effort is sponsored by progressive groups and companies ranging from AFL-CIO, NARAL, Human Rights Campaign, NGP VAN, Google, etc.

Notably, the conference agenda is established by the participants at the conference, not beforehand. Amazingly, this morning they chose to create a work-session on Maryland Delegate Sam Arora. Not only that, they booked the session to the largest room available. A Twitter user provided the following image:


JUICE #3: @GOJAYHUTCHINS - Not surprisingly, there is a lot of interest in Jay Hutchins right now. Notably, Sam Arora's House seat is in a three-member District. Jay Hutchins came in fourth for three seats in 2010. Look at this array of Tweets from the last week (there is much, much, much more out there):


JUICE #4: Facebook Group Forms - This one is self-explanatory. Look at the new Facebook group that formed:


JUICE #5: Never Forget - I expect we will see a lot of attempts to embed Sam Arora's marriage equality vote into the permanent archive that is the Internet. You can't walk away from your voting record anymore.

Sam Arora is now being defined as an anti civil rights advocate.


JUICE #6: Sam Arora is Becoming an Internet Meme:


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