This is my first foray into posting on Daily Kos or any other internet forum. I've long been a "lurker", reading diaries and sometimes comments, thinking critically about them, agreeing or disagreeing, but too shy to jump in and contribute back to the discussion.
Today I'm posting this diary, so in that sense I am no longer a lurker. But that's not what this diary is about. Today I stopped being a lurker in another sense: today I traveled to a swing state and canvassed for the Obama campaign.
Below the fold I will tell you how I made the leap, and share all of the fun adventures I had once I decided to jump in.
I'm usually a very shy person around strangers. What was it that nudged me into the frightful territory of going out and talking to random strangers? Was it the traumatic elections of '00 and '04 and the sense that I needed to do everything I could to prevent a repeat performance? Was it hearing "pssst....do something!" every time I watched a video on TPM TV? Perhaps it was the Buttermilk Biscuits, which give shy persons the strength to do what needs to be done?
Probably all of these things had an effect, but (as you may have guessed from my title) I think the critical factor for me was the way Barack's campaign has been run. The most important aspect for me is his emphasis on disagreeing without being disagreeable. Because the campaign has been positive, and has had a continual focus on respectfully engaging the opposition instead of tearing them down, it has been much easier for me to associate myself with them. Another important aspect is the inclusive and empowering message: "Yes we can", "Our time is now". Barack has repeatedly said that the only way to solve our problems is to engage the American People (that's me!), and he has been applying that principle to his campaign as well. I wouldn't have volunteered if he hadn't asked.
So Barack's policies brought me to him, his tone helped me decide to volunteer, but what to do? At first I tried dipping my toe in by using the neighbor to neighbor tool to make some phone calls. It's a nice way for a lurker to come out, but for me after two or three "not home" calls, it was too easy to give up. I needed to commit.
One of my close friends is also an Obama supporter. He volunteered as a poll watcher during the primary, but like me he wanted to do more but couldn't really bring himself to. When I learned that there was a group heading from our local HQ down to a nearby swing state I told him, "I'll go if you do". We were both on the fence, but we decided it's like jumping into a pool - once you're in it's easy. And we were right.
Of course we took to long deciding to commit - we emailed the organizer late friday night and I guess he didn't have a chance to get back to us. We figured we'd just head down to the local HQ in the morning in hopes of catching them, but to no avail. Well, we'd gone this far, so we decided to call an Obama HQ in the neighboring state. They said "sure, come on down", and so off we went.
After a pleasant two-hour drive we arrived at the Obama HQ. We met Alice, who was running the office, and Barb, who had brought lunch for everyone (enough food for 20, but there were only the four of us there. But by the end of the day it was gone). We later found out that Barb was a former candidate in the local Republican congressional primary, which I thought was pretty cool, since now she was feeding the Obama volunteers.
As my friend Jon and I ate lunch, Alice explained that we would be talking to Democrats who don't usually vote, and swing voters, to try to remind or persuade them to come out to the polls and vote for Barack. She told us a bit about the community and what kinds of questions people were likely to ask, giving us papers that explained the relevant portions of Barack's positions and policies (one on guns, and one on taxes).
We were joined by Ian and someone whose name I forget, two local folks who had done this before. We split up, Ian and I heading to one neighborhood, and Jon and the other volunteer heading to another.
The first voter I talked to was undecided, and very friendly. I was still a bit nervous, so I didn't do much pitching. He said he was waiting for the debates, and so I kind of left it at that, and gave him the brochure we were handing out. After the first time though it got much smoother. I talked to many different people coming from different points of view. Some people were enthused about Obama and I encoraged them to volunteer, and I was able to sign some of them up. Some people were undecided, and while some of them just wanted to wait for the debates, some of them asked us questions and we were able to help them make up their minds for Barack. I didn't get a chance to, but Jon said he managed to turn one or two "Strong McCain" folks into "undecided"s, and even one "weak obama". Some of the individual conversations we had weren't productive, but overall, it felt like we made a big difference.
The other nice thing, besides helping out the campaign, was that it was a great way to see different neighborhoods and have fun conversations with nice people. I really enjoyed talking to one old man (who was admittedly a bit hard to understand and a bit hard of hearing) who talked about how Iraq attacked us (I think I convinced him that no, it wasn't the Iraqis, but it was a bit hard to tell), and who then started telling me about the surgery he had on his thumb, and then said "oh, what was I talking about, oh yeah, the war", and then we talked about his service in WWII, and just about lots of different things. He was really fun to talk to, and in the end he said "Well, I'm just going to let you folks (I think he meant young people) decide". I loved walking through a black neighborhood and seeing lots of people just chatting with each other on the street, and all the little kids running around playing, and coming up to me saying "hi!" and then running off :). Or chatting to the woman who was just raised republican and that's how she's going to vote, but still inviting me in and letting me pet her cats and having a nice discussion with me. Or the guy who, when I said I'm with the Obama campaign, reached into his bag, pulled out a DVD to show to me, and said with a grin "I'm with the porn campaign". I don't think any of those parts of my day will have an effect on the outcome of the election (who knows, they might), but they were a lot of fun for me.
Now that I've talked to lots of people and had such a good time doing it, I think it'll be easy for me to finish up my list of calls, and to keep volunteering. Jon and I were right that it's like getting in the pool - if you just dip your toe in it can seem daunting, but after jumping in it feels great.
One final note for any lurkers thinking about jumping in. Jon and I are lucky to live just a hop, skip and a jump from a swing state, and had a whole saturday to invest, but you can "jump in" without those things. We learned, for example, that the HQ's have group phone banking a couple of times a week (here it's tuesday and thursday evenings). I think that would also be a great way to commit yourself and jump in, since it's a lot harder to show up and not make calls than it is to log into N2N and not make calls. Or even just find a friend or family member who's also a supporter and agree to do it together. I think the key is to just get started, and once you do it becomes easy.
Yes we (that means you!) can!!