I am a complete bitch on the receiving end of phone solicitations. I've been on a vendetta since long before the enactment of "Do Not Call" lists/laws. Now that they are in place, I grit my teeth at the 501(c)3 loophole. I despise even the political solicitations from groups that have me as their natural constituency.
I'm a privacy nut. It's probably in my genes. I was that way long before I started working in the software privacy/security business. When I started in that business it only exacerbated the problem.
I am very polite but firm. I state very firmly that I don't donate money over the phone and encourage all 501(c)3 groups to mail me the information. I am always happy to give them my mailing address.
But then today I met my match ...
My weekends in upstate NY are even more sacrosanct to me than my normal Mon-Fri city existence. I might consider tolerating it in the city. But I am a mama bear in the country.
My husband never answers the phone if he doesn't recognize the number since he knows he's such a wuss when those calls come in. I get to be the heavy. So, if an incoming call's number is not familiar, I answer.
The phone rang this afternoon. My husband was near it so I'm not sure what number/tag the caller ID registered the number as. I only know that my husband said "This one's for you" and moved away from the phone.
That set off my "bitchy call recipient" persona.
Me: "Hello".
Caller: "I'm calling for Anthony S-----".
Me [hyper-agressive tension coloring my voice, my knee-jerk reaction to the above statment}: "Who shall I say is calling?"
Caller [what she said literally which doesn't quite do it justice]: "The ACLU"
[With the damned dKos font limitations I can't depict her response visually. So I'm gonna have to decribe it with my limited descriptive skills.]
She said in the most operatic/exuberant voice I've ever heard from a stranger on the phone:
"The ACL .... EWE!!!!!!!"
The ecstatic "we won"/"I have a tear in my eyes" tone in EWE!!!!!!! reverberated in my brain. Of course the 'ACL' that preceded it helped to take me with her.
The bitch in me melted ... almost like water had been thrown. ;-)
She then began the perfect spiel:
Caller: "We won!! We won this week!! The enemies of civil liberties are on the run!!!"
She spoke of the recent defeat of the Specter surveillance bill, the decisions that limit the scope of NSA's delving into the privacy of Americans. Her voice was that of the preacher talking about the "long road of Jesus" but it was the "long road of the ALCU".
I can't do her brilliant spiel justice: She had a mid-to-low-range musical voice (probably African-American) and, my god!, did she know how to use it. It was the voice of a leader praising our side and our endeavors (read: the little people like me) and exhorting us to carry on stronger. I imagine that she's an aspiring Broadway actress. She proved to me at least that she's Ethel Merman-like, waiting in the wings, with her rousing anthem to the ACLU.
I was mesmerized by the sound of liberal progress ... by the sound of being at the bottom of that one last mountain to climb to find the promised land of salvation from the Bushies, the neo-cons, their military profiteer supporters, the fundi-Christian profiteer supporters (and their shills).
She gave the promise of America to me with great joy in her voice.
I, who never-ever give my credit card number on the phone, did, after ascertaining that she knew my hisband's ACLU number and the year he joined (I'm not only not stupid but will not surrender my long-won paranoia). I also gave three times as much as we normally give when soberly considering a flat mailing.
She was FANTASTIC! She admitted to me that she has done voice overs and radio ads in the past. I want her to be cloned!
She doesn't have to ask for money at all for any organization. Her positive message was so compelling, it should be bottled and made into a GOTV message for this mid-term.
Please suggest to me: How do we amplify her message? How do we teach the Dems how to telemarket? How do we start turning liberal optimism into action/votes/money?