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The Importance of Losing: The Political Lessons of the Circle of Trust Victory
Grier Weeks
Grier Weeks is the executive director of PROTECT. He led efforts in 2002 to reform sex crimes laws in North Carolina to remove preferential treatment for family members, a victory that brought together a diverse coalition that founded PROTECT that same year. He is a longtime political consultant and campaign manager who likes to say he'd "rather win through a good fight than through a committee."
The most important political achievement of the California Circle of Trust victory was that our coalition lost, over and over again.
We lost when the two lions of the California Senate, John Burton and John Vasconcellos, killed our bill in their Public Safety committee in 2004.
We lost the next spring, when the powerful Senate Appropriations Chair Carole Migden gutted the legislation and left it for dead, with six different amendments removing every single substantive measure in the bill.
We lost when the Assembly Public Safety committee voted it down once again, almost ending all hope for reform in 2005.
Each of these losses was an important achievement because each gave us something money could never buy--open opposition.
Since the first day PROTECT opened its doors in early 2003, we've always known that a national grassroots movement to protect children in the political arena faced a major obstacle. Simply put, many Americans just don't believe that anyone would actually ever oppose any of the fundamental protections we are asking them to fight for.
And if no one is against you, there's no need to fight.
The truth is, in almost every state where PROTECT has fought, we've had political opposition behind the scenes. Often, it has been formidable. But by dragging fights out into the light of day we've always been able to win.
But California--where politics are badly polarized and incumbents are safe--gave PROTECT the gift of open opposition. As we struggled so hard for two years to win basic reforms for children, those fighting us greatly helped our cause.
As the opposition continued to batter us, our diverse coalition grew. Word spread. Disbelief that the laws could really be as bad as we said gave way to outrage that anyone would actually oppose us.
With each defeat, PROTECT gained more members, and those we already had became more determined and committed. Support for the bill included conservative talk radio hosts and same sex marriage activists. It ran the spectrum from conservative Republicans to the Feminist Majority. Hearing rooms filled with bikers, child abuse survivors, Hollywood celebrities and law enforcement.
By late spring of 2005, PROTECT members from across California and America (and from as far away as Toronto and London) were gathered up and crashing like huge waves in Sacramento. Phones and faxes were swamped each time we put out a call to action. Senate Bill 33 became a well-known, electrified piece of legislation.
All because our opposition came out into the light of day and gave us a good fight.
That fight did not surprise a single one of the team working on legislative strategy and lobbying for PROTECT. Neither did the unanimous 117-0 vote for our bill at the end of the day.
The political lesson of the California Circle of Trust campaign is not that there are good people who care about children and rotten ones who don't (although that is often true). It's not that any party or faction has a monopoly on justice or decency. The lesson is that the timeless rules of politics and human nature have not--and will never be--suspended for "the good of the kids," no matter how convenient it might be to believe that. If you want change, if you want children protected, you must fight for it in the same way every other mature, serious adult gets in there and fights for his or her special interests.
That's what card-carrying PROTECT members did, and every one should be very proud.
Copyright © 2005 Grier Weeks. All rights reserved.
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