I work in a bank, doing new accounts. As anyone who has worked in the financial services industry can attest to, this line of business tends to have a lot of Repubs in it. The past couple days have been pretty busy on the political front here, some good, some bad, some stupid, some awesome. Since I'm the kind of guy who likes happy endings (I just realized how bad that sounds, but I'm leaving it), I'll quickly vent The Bad and The Stupid. Better here than to my bosses face, I do need to keep my job after all.
My boss is a 50-something Puerto Rican woman, social conservative, registered Republican. We're friendly, she's nice, we get along fine. I, 26, fit the stereo-typical angry liberal mold. Due to the mind-numbing stupidity of the arguments I'm often presented with, I tend to discuss politics with an extreme dose of sarcasm that rarely endears me to my opponent. I am working on this.
This morning my she came in and began spouting off about how much she liked Palin's speech at the convention, about how great she is etc etc. Immediately my temper started to flare, as she found a semi-friendly ear (or at least someone who will listen to her without arguing) in my libertarian leaning Republican friend (not a McCain fan at all). It took a serious amount of willpower to not immediately start going off on my boss about how ignorant she sounded. She is a standard low-info voter. Watches her party's convention, generally supports her party's ticket, maybe watches a little news. Because she never digs deeper, she just buys all these lies with zero question. Then came the comments about how funny Foghorn Leghorn (Fred Thompson) is. "He's so funny!" Yeah! Blatant lying is HILARIOUS! I think my blood pressure is still up. I want to attempt to inform her at least somewhat, but it's touchy. However, instead of spending evenings writing up a scathing essay on Why Neo-Cons Are Idiots, I'm thinking it might be more wise to spend my time calling voters in an actual swing-state (I'm in California) until after the election. So that's The Bad and The Stupid. I feel better already.
Next up: The Awesome. My OTHER boss (if I get any more I think I'm allowed to start making Office Space jokes) forwarded an email from a client, chuckling about this line: "What is McCain thinking?! I swear if he and that Palin woman get in office, I'm going to throw myself off the Coronado Bridge." Ahh..."It's gold Jerry! Gold!".
Lastly, The Good: Opened an account for a 55 year old gentleman the other day. Biker, wearing a muscle shirt, covered in decades old fading tattoos. Hasn't had a bank account for over 20 years, keeps his money in a safe under his house. Friendly and unassuming, rough around the edges. While opening the account for him, our conversation suddenly veered towards politics. It became immediately apparent he was a Reagan democrat. Said he'd been registered democrat for years. Voted for Reagan twice, thought he was great for the country. I mentioned I didn't think much of McCain (I wasn't about to touch Reagan in that situation), and he said that he initially had been leaning McCain (he liked his military background), but then went on to say he was voting Obama. That he wanted to give the Democrats a chance. I asked him what changed his mind and he responded "My son convinced me, he's really smart and he's excited about Obama."
The point here is that strong TV ads are great, surrogates in the TM and press releases are fine, but the best way to change minds and win votes is one on one conversation. Obama can only do so many town halls. He needs help from all of us to make this happen and there is simply no substitute for helping someone work through their concerns in a polite, friendly way. I'll be damned if I see McCain anywhere near the White House, and we've got less than 2 months until The Big Day. Lets get out there! Time to stop worrying about Palin somehow winning this for McCain, or the latest poll. It's time to work out asses off getting our man elected. Share your enthusiasm, it's catching and an advantage over the less-than-excited Republicans. We can make it happen if we want it badly enough. I'm going to hit the phones and hope to volunteer weekend hours to make sure this happens. What about you?
Know your issues.
Volunteer! Get involved! Talk to people!
And of course, the obligatory imperative to DONATE!
Finally, I'm going to end this with a couple quotes from Carl Sagan that seem particularly relevant to this election for some of that inspiration stuff.
Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don't have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen — or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected. If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.
The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure of this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate intelligence — the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain...
Let's make sure our good aspects prevail.