This diary is dedicated to the exhausted, frazzled, battleground state workers and volunteers who can't stand another stupid claim against Obama, who have lost weight, worn out tennis shoes from canvassing miles upon miles, who have racked up hundreds of dollars of extra cell phone minutes from phone banking.
Please use this diary to give a pep talk to those of us who feel like collapsing.
Please help us think of fresh replies to the stupidity that lurks in some of the American electorate who still claim Obama is a terrorist, anti-American Muslim secretly bent on the destruction of our country.
Please help me to get back in the saddle after an awful week of phones and canvassing.
More on the flip.
I've been canvassing and phoning since February, with a short break over the summer and then hard at it weekly since mid-August. I've also trained and recruited volunteers, registered new voters, brought dinners to the campaign HQs, have attended and hosted neighborhood events and participated in the debate watch parties.
For the General Election, I joined our Neighborhood Team as the Phone Bank Captain which means four hours weekly at the local Panera Bread with recruited volunteers. I also canvass on Saturdays.
Every day I wear some kind of Obama gear (buttons or t-shirts or hooodies). In this red county, those shirts lead to talking to someone about Obama every day. I also keep a blog dedicated to the campaign during this season. I've published letters to the editor and joined in a honk 'n wave downtown.
I've participated in this campaign joyfully, with my whole self for this entire ten month period.
Until last Wednesday. I hit a wall. I dialed the phone and a woman answered. When she heard me say I was calling on behalf of Senator Obama, she chuckled and put her husband on the phone. He launched at me.
"Why are you promoting communism? Your candidate," he snarled, "is a socialist who will spread the wealth around. True colors coming out now, aren't they?"
He went on. I tried to stop him but he talked over me. I felt myself getting hot. Then he said, "Listen, young lady, you just stop making these little calls spreading socialism to everyone..." And that did it. I blew!
I yelled into the phone, "Don't call me young lady! I'm as old as you are..." I gouged the "end" button on my phone with my thumb, hanging up on him, and then grunted out loud "Asshole." My team looked up. One of them said, "Wow. You're pissed. Bad call?"
Angry, instantly ashamed and shaking. I'd reached a limit I hadn't seen coming.
Then Saturday, I canvassed alone. It was our dry run for the election week. My FO sent me to a more affluent neighborhood than usual. And for the first time all year, I endured rude comment, after rude comment. (Even some of the Obama supporters were cranky!) And from the Obama-opponents, it was worse. I am FED UP with the Obama smears.
I mean, seriously, do I have to keep explaining that Obama is not a Muslim, not a communist, not a Kenyan, not a terrorist, not a leftwing radical, not a crook, not a racist against whites, not a high taxer, not a liar—all while feigning respect? I'm supposed to pretend at this late hour that those long-since refuted ideas are even remotely worthy of discussion? I can't take it any more! Obama is this incredibly decent, committed, compassionate, intelligent human being and he is still the subject of such irrelevant suspicion and racism! "Stop it already," I want to scream!
The McCain fans were especially vile on Saturday - sneering, angry, slamming doors, using condescension and sarcasm. One man and I traded opinions at top volume across a yard until I suddenly realized I was on the verge of calling him names!
On Monday, a student of mine told me that the Lord had brought my face to her mind during the Sunday morning sermon and that he told her I was supposed to listen to her pastor. She took the liberty of buying the message on CD for me: "A Vote for Righteousness." She then said, "I think God has a message for you." Yeah, I'm sure you think so! I've got one for him - Your boy Bush? He sucked! I know she meant well, and I'm proud of her for being willing to risk alienating me by showing her own opinion, but I'm fried!
Another favorite student came dressed in her "NObama" t-shirt and wanted a photo of me standing with her (I was wearing my "Barack the Vote" hoodie) to post to Facebook.
Then my in-box at Facebook, my blog and my email suddenly seemed to be overflowing with "friends" trying to persuade me that I was not a Christian because I am voting for Obama. All, like, at once!
The upshot of this pressure by this morning was defeat and paralysis. I don't even want to go out today. I suddenly don't know if I have what it takes to finish this campaign - to get out there again, to go canvassing for my four or five shifts this week, to keep calling people to come phone with us tonight. Can I really face more sneering and snarling that are on the increase as the election draws near? I'm exhausted!
Then on the Open Thread last night, Christin made the following comment:
I canvass every weekend for Obama since September.
And I'm tired tonight.
I've made phone calls from work for days and am now behind on four major projects I have to get done.
And I will not meet the deadline on three of them.
That's when I realized. I'm not alone. We're just exhausted, beat!
Send Christin some love.
Send some love to the rest of the hard workers who don't have enough time to post diaries or comments. They're out there, too, reading along here. And we're so sick of having to listen to crap about our beloved Senator Barack Obama... soon-to-be President Elect Obama if we keep pushing through the pain!
One more week. We need reminders about why we're doing this and to not give up. And if you have any time, lighten the load and help us out! We need you.
Yes we can!