On Tuesday, Constant Contact dropped an e-mail sent by William Gheen of the nativist Americans for Legal Immigration PAC–something that happens quite often. It has done this to over 400 of its customers, according to the conversation ALIPAC reports that it had with Constant Contact.
That didn’t stop Willy from going into full freakout mode. In an e-mail titled “ALIPAC unexpectedly silenced”, Gheen sends his supporters a fearful missive:
“I hope this email reaches you. We tried to send you an email alert this morning about illegal alien supporters threatening state lawmakers in Utah.”
[...]
“Constant Contact claims that over 400 of their customers have been dropped over mysterious email difficulties. Hundreds of online businesses or organizations may be down like ALIPAC. Imagine if 400 radio or TV stations were suddenly turned off in America.”
Except it’s not 400 radio or TV stations. It’s 400 listerves. I’m probably on 400 listserves alone and I’d be happy if some or all of them got dropped every once and a while. But anyway, William Gheen has a history of baseless freakouts, and for that reason I think he should quit ALIPAC and be Seth Rogen‘s stunt double, which he was obviously born to do.
Just last month, Gheen called for congressional investigations of the Department of Homeland Security based on a memo Fox News wrongfully attributed to DHS. Gheen sent this message to ALIPAC’s thousands of supporters ten days after Slate and Politico reported that the memo had been wrongfully attributed. Gheen also made headlines last year after suggesting that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was being blackmailed by “pro-amnesty” Democrats who knew he was a homosexual. For whatever reason, the newspaper continues to quote this one-man lie factory.
ALIPAC members clearly get Gheen’s message: fear the government and its “pro-amnesty” allies. Enemies are lurking everywhere in the shadows. For the following responses from ALIPAC members, just assume one big [sic]:
TexRancher: “Obama and his AMNESTY CONSPIRATORS will stop at nothing in their quest for power including controling the internet…. ”
Rae: “I received today’s alert of your account being frozen. Is Obama’s internet “kill switch” in place already?”
xfilerdiane: “yes i wonder if this is because of Obama your website being down.”
Fear, fear, fear; there’s no basis in reality for any of it. Gheen just turned an accident into a fear-driven fundraising opportunity. But as one of the biggest groups working for the other side, it’s worth it for us to prove just how crazy he is so newspapers stop listening to him.
Anyway, about those threats: the people who sent them to those representatives are no more our supporters than this nativist who threatened to kill liberal politicians is a supporter of William Gheen. It sucks for everyone when people act this way, and the best thing we can do is move on. Unfortunately, Gheen encourages it by using fear to make his point.
