After months of listening to the corporate owners push an anti-Obama, right wing message via spamming the e-mails of their multi-state employees (hey, is this legal??), I decided to do something about it, but be productive. I answered the call to Organizing for America and became a volunteer. Commendations to my local group as they seem highly organized and a fun bunch.
After doing the phone call thing a few nights (and getting over my initial fright of cold-calls) I went on a VBA hunt in the neighborhood. That took some getting used to as well, since the last time I ever did something like that was raising funds for high school band, and this can be much more confrontational as I would find out.
I was warned to be mindful of "No Solicitations." Don't bug 'em if it's on the door, which I can appreciate. I tend to be a loner myself and would rather not jump at a door for strangers.
On excursion #3 I went with the Obama operative in our volunteer group (paid by the campaign, as opposed to me who needs far less compensation when asked to make Republicans cry). We went to a mobile home concentration, aka trailer park, and he went one way while I went the other. On the second or third home the lady of the house informed me that she didn't want to talk about the election and that the whole park was a "No Solicitation" area. I was not aware of that and called up the operative to let him know we were in danger of being removed...
He suggested we carry on since we weren't actually selling anything. I made sure I got going and was able to complete my eight-page assignment. He finished his then stayed behind to do another section. That's when the park manager caught up with him and read the riot act. To his credit he stood his ground even when threatened with the police coming after him. I'm not sure if he finished this round but I heard it was heated. This was last month.
On last Tuesday I attempted excursion #6, which was to another mobile home park. I drove through the neighborhood to get a feel of where I should start and parked at a building near the front. I got together my materials and walked a short ways to the first house. Knock, followed by a quiet inside, another knock, and I figured they weren't coming to the door. No problem, I'll just continue.
And then I got stopped by what would be the park manager.
She asked who I was and what I was doing. I stammered out my campaign speil and stated I was just asking if they wanted absentee voting requests. She barked at me about a "No Solicitation" clause for the park. I pointed out that I wasn't selling anything and she snarled I was soliciting due to talking to people. Then she demanded I leave at once. I acknowledged and began walking back to my car. She asked how many more of us were out there and I said just one more (actually there were two but I wasn't giving everything away) and she got more upset because "you people" didn't clear it with her ahead of time. I tuned her out after that but promptly left. I called back to HQ with my situation and told them I had to bug out, and we needed to contact the others in the neighborhood before they got stopped.
At HQ we had a nice long discussion about this. These were potential voters we couldn't reach because of someone else decided so. Voter suppression? Possibly, but I pointed out the business reality of the situation:
The owner of the mobile home park owns the lots where the homes sit. The renters pay the owner for the right to be there, and the renters must oblige by the rules set by the owner because after all, they do own the place. Further, the owners pay for upkeep of the are including snow removal and street sign maintenance. I pointed out to my colleagues that it's a lot like the Feudal Lords back in the day, where the local Lord owned the land that the Vassals worked to pay for their common defense and other local measures. (Reading more from Wiki to support my point, it looks like Karl Marx has hit it on the head that feudalism is a precursor to capitalism in the exploitation of workers. Interesting...)
Anyway, while we had a good chuckle about my anology, a volunteer in our group who also happens to be a lawyer concurred with me, and now we pretty much have to write off swaths of potential voters since their Lords, or Owners, or whatever, have decreed no admittance. It's a bummer but a learning experience.
I'm not sure if this woman was D or R (or if she'll throw out my daughter if we go Girl Scout Cookie selling in this area), but I'll have to assume she likes status quo. I just never figured status quo was the 10th century.
Good luck to fellow field operatives.
"We must stand with the others now, before it's too late... Do you, I say, listen to the voice of your conscience? Come with me, our time of isolation is over. We move now, together, or not at all."