10th October 2008
It is 8.30 am and the weather outside is frightful, but the Colorado Campaign for Change Lakewood office is, of course, delightful.
I'm in the office with Lisa, the office manager, a round, jolly grandmotherly woman, and bony, angular Midge, who is rather less grandmotherly although full of wrinkled and angular enthusiasm. Midge sports a pair of high-waisted stonewashed denim shorts, a button-up short-sleeved shirt, elbow-length blond hair, and a scrawny pair of liver-spotted knobbly legs encased in white knee length socks (pushed down). They discuss their respective children while the coffee brews and we enter voter data onto the computers. Lisa's grandkids are in school and doing well. Midge's 19 year-old adopted daughter just had her first baby and moved back home. Recently-divorced Midge changes the conversation to the topic of younger men. Women over sixty, she says, must never date men their age or older, because they will die before them, and that is inconvenient. One must always date younger men. "Take Rachael's Mom!" shrieks Midge in her western drawl. "Rachael's mom dated that older man, and what did he do? He died two months after the wedding! Always said she coulda done better, attractive woman that she was. We kinda had a falling out over that, sad, but that's life I guess! You should never go for an older man. It's all in the gut. It's the gut that kills 'em. Men get that big ole ugly gut and it kills 'em. Hey Ruth, I sold my car to pay off my eight-thousand dollar credit card bill, can ya gimme a ride home?"
I give Midge a ride home after her volunteer recruitment shift is over.
"Oh your car's so beautiful! I ain't never seen a car like this color before, such a beautiful blue! I do miss my car, but couldn't afford the repayments after I lost my job last year, so now I git the bus everywhich place."
I drop Midge off at Chipotle on Union so I can pick up the 15 free burritos Chipotle has donated to the campaign for the volunteers' dinner. She hovers around me, a tight smile on her pinched face.
"Take a burrito," I say. "We have loads. Take it home."
"Oh no, I kent! That's for you guys. I'll jes' buy myself something and then walk on up the hill home."
I wave goodbye as Midge waits forlornly for an enchilada, get in the car and drive back to the office, and it only really occurs to me halfway there that she wanted a ride up the hill and was too embarrassed to ask.
The volunteers at Colorado's Campaign for Change office frequently astound me. A 93 year-old Republican calls me to tell me he's voting Democrat for the first time in his life, is there anything he can do to help? An 83 year-old veteran informs me he can't leave his wife for too long as she's incapacitated after a stroke, no, he doesn't know how to use the internet, but if I drive voter information to him, he'll do phone-banking from his house. Laurie, a former RN who has severe epilepsy, comes in every day and says that her epilepsy had turned her into a prisoner, and the Obama campaign has given her a new lease of life – she hasn't had a grand mal for six months now. Kids and grandparents and Republicans and Catholics and Hispanics and immigrants who can't vote – the Democratic demographic is breathtaking in range and skin color and age. I have never before felt part of something so all-encompassing and growing every day.
The grassroots support this campaign has generated is absolutely unprecedented in America's political history, and to be part of that change, to watch Senator Obama's support dwindle as Palin came onboard, and then leap ahead as the Republicans make screw-up after screw-up and the rest of the country start to listen to his message, is astounding. This is not to say that Colorado, despite its ever-growing group of willing volunteers, is easy to work in as a Democratic campaigner. From calling and canvassing and talking to everyone and anyone, it's apparent that there exists a core section of society here who will never vote on anything other than moral issues – namely, abortion. I spoke to a thirty-something Iraq war vet who worked on the Kerry campaign yesterday, and he, amongst five others that day, cited abortion as the primary reason he would not vote for Obama.
"I saw this documentary, and they said that between 26 and 32 weeks they can't kill the baby in the womb so they pull it out and place it on a table and watch it die, and I'm a Catholic and that's jes' wrong."
I reply that abortion after 18 weeks is illegal in the US, and that Senator Obama is not pro-abortion, but pro-choice for women, making sex-education a priority within schools in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies and hence lower the abortion rate. I reference a book by Larry Bartels which points out that the economy has historically flourished under Democratic rule, and waned under Republican rule, and point out a widely known statistic which demonstrates the correlation between the economy and abortion numbers. The guy listens courteously and we have a half-hour discussion, while I frantically google answers to his questions, ending with a quotation I found from Senator Obama I think it's worth including here:
"I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don't make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy. And I think that's where most Americans are. Now, when you describe a specific procedure that accounts for less than 1% of the abortions that take place, then naturally, people get concerned, and I think legitimately so. But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances."
I'm pretty sure I don't convince the guy to vote for Obama, but I make him think and question what he initially took as truth and spouted to me as reasons for voting for McCain ("Obama is a terrorist", "Obama won't take the pledge of allegiance", "Michelle Obama said that stupid comment about 'being proud to be American for the first time'", "Obama is pro-abortion"). That was something, at least. That was something.
Midweek Rachael and I are invited to a women's house party with Laura Tyson, one of Senator Obama's senior economic advisers. We turn up in a pretty affluent neighborhood after an afternoon of canvassing in a trailer park (not fun when you drive a Merc, believe me…. I felt like I was sending exactly the WRONG messages in that situation! Hlaf glad the driver's side was all caved in and scratched up...)
About fifteen women are there, and Laura Tyson graciously sits down with us over wine and cheese and gives a fascinating talk into the economic policies of Obama, and even commented on the recent British bailout. I'm loathe to suggest she advocates the British government's actions, but she's not exactly condemnatory either, which is interesting. After an hour, she leaves with her security to go to another meeting, and I'm left there with fifteen of my fellow women volunteers, again astounded at this campaign, amazed that someone who is part of Obama's inner circle took an hour to sit down to fifteen volunteers in Denver, patiently explain the economy and future policies, and then leave to do it again at someone else's house, someone else's community center, a school, a union HQ. This, to me, is unbelievable, and I can't ever imagine it happening in the UK without a bunch of photographers and press turning it into a staged photo opportunity.
This is why this campaign is so phenomenal – no one is 'too poor', 'too uneducated', the 'wrong' class, the 'wrong' color. Everyone deserves to be patiently sat down and listened to. This is what we, as volunteers, have to promote. When my Field Organizer walked into the office this morning and said a lady had called him in tears to thank him for sending her detailed information on a particular issue she was concerned with alongside a hand written note, and that consequently she'd decided to switch her vote from McCain to Obama, I knew why I was here. Even as a non-voter I feel like I'm part of a global movement for change, and being welcomed into the campaign without question despite my past, my nationality and my unwavering ability to unintentionally, and intentionally, insult with my bluntness, has started to soften my habitual misanthropy.
Well, it's 10.30pm here in Lakewood, and another night of voter-calling has just ended. We're getting more and more volunteers everyday, and a colleague of mine from San Francisco just got off the phone beaming after a lady thanked him for calling – she'd received five automated machine calls from the Republican party that week and was so relieved to speak to a real human person! It seems the Republicans have yet to tap into the grassroots arena that the Democrats are utilizing to the utmost success. Everyday brings better and better news for the campaign – not least the news that Obama will be in Denver on November 20th! Will I be there? You betcha! (wink). I'm dressing as Sarah Palin for halloween, fyi.
I'm beginning to realize that the reasons people cite for not voting for Senator Obama are predominantly racially based, or purportedly 'moral' and 'ethical' (abortion, 2nd amendment, blah blah). I've even heard, several times, a bleak and unpleasant response from voters that boils down to 'why should we vote for someone who's going to be killed within six months' which is absolutely despicable, coming as it does after the 'Kill him' comments at McCain's rally earlier in the week. Despite the fact the smears are easily refuted, these fears can't help but affect all of us who have been profoundly moved by Senator Obama and the possibility of change in a country that we love, that we have seen suffer because of bad government, and that we know has the potential to be great again. I can only hold onto the idea that people who choose to believe these things do so for deeply personal prejudices and ignorance.
I'm in the office with Lisa, the office manager, a round, jolly grandmotherly woman, and bony, angular Midge, who is rather less grandmotherly although full of wrinkled and angular enthusiasm. Midge sports a pair of high-waisted stonewashed denim shorts, a button-up short-sleeved shirt, elbow-length blond hair, and a scrawny pair of liver-spotted knobbly legs encased in white knee length socks (pushed down). They discuss their respective children while the coffee brews and we enter voter data onto the computers. Lisa's grandkids are in school and doing well. Midge's 19 year-old adopted daughter just had her first baby and moved back home. Recently-divorced Midge changes the conversation to the topic of younger men. Women over sixty, she says, must never date men their age or older, because they will die before them, and that is inconvenient. One must always date younger men. "Take Rachael's Mom!" shrieks Midge in her western drawl. "Rachael's mom dated that older man, and what did he do? He died two months after the wedding! Always said she coulda done better, attractive woman that she was. We kinda had a falling out over that, sad, but that's life I guess! You should never go for an older man. It's all in the gut. It's the gut that kills 'em. Men get that big ole ugly gut and it kills 'em. Hey Ruth, I sold my car to pay off my eight-thousand dollar credit card bill, can ya gimme a ride home?"
I give Midge a ride home after her volunteer recruitment shift is over.
"Oh your car's so beautiful! I ain't never seen a car like this color before, such a beautiful blue! I do miss my car, but couldn't afford the repayments after I lost my job last year, so now I git the bus everywhich place."
I drop Midge off at Chipotle on Union so I can pick up the 15 free burritos Chipotle has donated to the campaign for the volunteers' dinner. She hovers around me, a tight smile on her pinched face.
"Take a burrito," I say. "We have loads. Take it home."
"Oh no, I kent! That's for you guys. I'll jes' buy myself something and then walk on up the hill home."
I wave goodbye as Midge waits forlornly for an enchilada, get in the car and drive back to the office, and it only really occurs to me halfway there that she wanted a ride up the hill and was too embarrassed to ask.
The volunteers at Colorado's Campaign for Change office frequently astound me. A 93 year-old Republican calls me to tell me he's voting Democrat for the first time in his life, is there anything he can do to help? An 83 year-old veteran informs me he can't leave his wife for too long as she's incapacitated after a stroke, no, he doesn't know how to use the internet, but if I drive voter information to him, he'll do phone-banking from his house. Laurie, a former RN who has severe epilepsy, comes in every day and says that her epilepsy had turned her into a prisoner, and the Obama campaign has given her a new lease of life – she hasn't had a grand mal for six months now. Kids and grandparents and Republicans and Catholics and Hispanics and immigrants who can't vote – the Democratic demographic is breathtaking in range and skin color and age. I have never before felt part of something so all-encompassing and growing every day.
The grassroots support this campaign has generated is absolutely unprecedented in America's political history, and to be part of that change, to watch Senator Obama's support dwindle as Palin came onboard, and then leap ahead as the Republicans make screw-up after screw-up and the rest of the country start to listen to his message, is astounding. This is not to say that Colorado, despite its ever-growing group of willing volunteers, is easy to work in as a Democratic campaigner. From calling and canvassing and talking to everyone and anyone, it's apparent that there exists a core section of society here who will never vote on anything other than moral issues – namely, abortion. I spoke to a thirty-something Iraq war vet who worked on the Kerry campaign yesterday, and he, amongst five others that day, cited abortion as the primary reason he would not vote for Obama.
"I saw this documentary, and they said that between 26 and 32 weeks they can't kill the baby in the womb so they pull it out and place it on a table and watch it die, and I'm a Catholic and that's jes' wrong."
I reply that abortion after 18 weeks is illegal in the US, and that Senator Obama is not pro-abortion, but pro-choice for women, making sex-education a priority within schools in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies and hence lower the abortion rate. I reference a book by Larry Bartels which points out that the economy has historically flourished under Democratic rule, and waned under Republican rule, and point out a widely known statistic which demonstrates the correlation between the economy and abortion numbers. The guy listens courteously and we have a half-hour discussion, while I frantically google answers to his questions, ending with a quotation I found from Senator Obama I think it's worth including here:
"I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions. They don't make them casually. And I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy. And I think that's where most Americans are. Now, when you describe a specific procedure that accounts for less than 1% of the abortions that take place, then naturally, people get concerned, and I think legitimately so. But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it. There is a broader issue: Can we move past some of the debates around which we disagree and can we start talking about the things we do agree on? Reducing teen pregnancy; making it less likely for women to find themselves in these circumstances."
I'm pretty sure I don't convince the guy to vote for Obama, but I make him think and question what he initially took as truth and spouted to me as reasons for voting for McCain ("Obama is a terrorist", "Obama won't take the pledge of allegiance", "Michelle Obama said that stupid comment about 'being proud to be American for the first time'", "Obama is pro-abortion"). That was something, at least. That was something.
Midweek Rachael and I are invited to a women's house party with Laura Tyson, one of Senator Obama's senior economic advisers. We turn up in a pretty affluent neighborhood after an afternoon of canvassing in a trailer park (not fun when you drive a Merc, believe me…. I felt like I was sending exactly the WRONG messages in that situation! Hlaf glad the driver's side was all caved in and scratched up...)
About fifteen women are there, and Laura Tyson graciously sits down with us over wine and cheese and gives a fascinating talk into the economic policies of Obama, and even commented on the recent British bailout. I'm loathe to suggest she advocates the British government's actions, but she's not exactly condemnatory either, which is interesting. After an hour, she leaves with her security to go to another meeting, and I'm left there with fifteen of my fellow women volunteers, again astounded at this campaign, amazed that someone who is part of Obama's inner circle took an hour to sit down to fifteen volunteers in Denver, patiently explain the economy and future policies, and then leave to do it again at someone else's house, someone else's community center, a school, a union HQ. This, to me, is unbelievable, and I can't ever imagine it happening in the UK without a bunch of photographers and press turning it into a staged photo opportunity.
This is why this campaign is so phenomenal – no one is 'too poor', 'too uneducated', the 'wrong' class, the 'wrong' color. Everyone deserves to be patiently sat down and listened to. This is what we, as volunteers, have to promote. When my Field Organizer walked into the office this morning and said a lady had called him in tears to thank him for sending her detailed information on a particular issue she was concerned with alongside a hand written note, and that consequently she'd decided to switch her vote from McCain to Obama, I knew why I was here. Even as a non-voter I feel like I'm part of a global movement for change, and being welcomed into the campaign without question despite my past, my nationality and my unwavering ability to unintentionally, and intentionally, insult with my bluntness, has started to soften my habitual misanthropy.
Well, it's 10.30pm here in Lakewood, and another night of voter-calling has just ended. We're getting more and more volunteers everyday, and a colleague of mine from San Francisco just got off the phone beaming after a lady thanked him for calling – she'd received five automated machine calls from the Republican party that week and was so relieved to speak to a real human person! It seems the Republicans have yet to tap into the grassroots arena that the Democrats are utilizing to the utmost success. Everyday brings better and better news for the campaign – not least the news that Obama will be in Denver on November 20th! Will I be there? You betcha! (wink). I'm dressing as Sarah Palin for halloween, fyi.
I'm beginning to realize that the reasons people cite for not voting for Senator Obama are predominantly racially based, or purportedly 'moral' and 'ethical' (abortion, 2nd amendment, blah blah). I've even heard, several times, a bleak and unpleasant response from voters that boils down to 'why should we vote for someone who's going to be killed within six months' which is absolutely despicable, coming as it does after the 'Kill him' comments at McCain's rally earlier in the week. Despite the fact the smears are easily refuted, these fears can't help but affect all of us who have been profoundly moved by Senator Obama and the possibility of change in a country that we love, that we have seen suffer because of bad government, and that we know has the potential to be great again. I can only hold onto the idea that people who choose to believe these things do so for deeply personal prejudices and ignorance.
MIMI IN NY | 12:02 PM |
