Answering Quincy’s question: if you go through the links, the discussion is currently revolving around the fact that African-Americans, usually a strong progressive (or more precisely Democratic) constituency, appear to have voted for Proposition 8. This might have been one reason why the proposition passed.
My question was meant to imply that perhaps those leaders who might have held sway in the African-American community could have done quite a bit of good by explaining to their constituency why opposing Proposition 8 was important as a civil rights matter.
It’s quite possible that those running the campaign against Proposition 8 asked Lewis to campaign for them, and he refused. But I doubt it. I doubt whether he even was asked. And that does not speak well to those who led the No on 8 campaign.
I take Quincy’s point that better organization could have helped the campaign, and that even had African-Americans opposed the initiative, it might have passed anyway. But campaigns can (and must) walk and chew gum at the same time. Lewis is an authentic American hero, but for obvious reasons he holds special sway in the African-American community.