I have lived my whole life in states that were solidly red or blue: born and raised in Kentucky, I've lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, and now New York City. I've always followed politics closely, argued vehemently, attended rallies (my first was for Dukakis in '88), sported bumper stickers and campaign pins, and given modest donations here and there. But the Electoral College and geography always kept me away from the front lines, confining my contributions mostly to 1) voting, and 2)bloviating at social gatherings.
Until this year. Until this campaign. OK, really until this weekend.
I spent Saturday volunteering for the Obama campaign in South Philadelphia.
I've been a supporter of Barack Obama for President since before he even announced. (I'm one of the many who were lit up like Christmas trees by his 2004 convention speech.) I started donating money after Iowa, and have given more, over more weeks and months, than I've ever even considered before. And each time, my sense of ownership of this potentially world-changing campaign has grown.
But it's only been in the last two months, with the rise of all the "Leave It All on the Road" talk and the constant email exhortations from the campaign itself, that it finally sunk in HOW VERY CLOSE PENNSYLVANIA IS TO NEW YORK.
I'm regarded by many as a quick-witted little chap, but sometimes I can be awfully slow to catch on to the bleeding obvious.
So I was determined to get my ham hocks down to Pennsylvania. If it's a McCain must-win state, then it's where we want to stop him. I said yes to one of the "Come to Pennsylvania" emails (so easy!), then found a ride using mybarackobama.com (even easier!). It was encouraging to see how many groups were forming to head down from New York: buses from the Bronx, trainloads from Penn Station, vans from the Upper East Side. I was In The Army Now, and it felt great.
So on the morning itself, I met up with the intrepid organizer of our day trip, Mr. Tim Lee, and the rest of our little carpool band: Ellen, Malina, and Jim. We ate cider doughnuts. We spilled coffee and milk. we talked A LOT. What a great pleasure it was, road-tripping with such smart, funny, like-minded people.
When we reached the canvassing home base in South Philly, there were more of these smart, funny, like-minded people, now in more shapes, colors, and sizes, coming from more places near and far. The energy was exciting. We paired up, and Tim and I set out to knock on some doors.
(A word on the Awesomeness of Tim Lee: This guy has been volunteering down in Philly every weekend for the last month, renting the vehicles, gathering riders, doing anything he's asked or can think of to do. He's an ex-Navy man with a razor-sharp intellect, fearless directness, unwavering sense of purpose, and tremendous personal responsibility. I'm glad he's on our side.)
The focus at this point was Get Out The Vote. Our area was a very low-income section of South Philly, with a mix of whites, African-Americans, and Southeast Asian immigrants. A pretty tough neighborhood, and in other circumstances I might have worried about the two of us: me looking small, pale, and Manhattanite, Tim slender and Asian and neatly khaki'd. But other than a brief encounter with a teenager brandishing a baseball bat at us (harmless, really, in the end) it was all very positive. Lots of Obama supporters, some questions about registration concerns, and not a McCainiac canvasser in sight. We knocked on about 200 doors in all.
Then it was off with Ellen to the South Philly campaign office for some phone banking (Yay, Chris!) and hauling boxes to and fro. Then we loaded up the car with more of said boxes and dropped them off at a West Philly campaign office before making the drive back to Manhattan.
Later, as we parted near Union Square, I mentioned to Tim how confident I felt going into Tuesday, and how much more proud I will feel of the victory after being a small part of the effort in PA that day. And he said something very simple but very true: "Well, now you own it."
(Then, of course, he then warned against complacency, and we agreed to Leave It All On The Road. He's relentless, thank god.)
He's right, of course: donating made me feel like I owned a piece of this historic movement; when I donated more, I felt it more; and getting out there in a state where every knock, every phone call, every drop of sweat can make an actual difference in the outcome -- that was huge.
It got my ass to Pennsylvania. It's got my mom phone banking from Kentucky into Ohio. It's got many of you doing much more.
And that's why this campaign is different: this whole bottom-up, fifty-state, we're-the-change-we've-been-waiting-for, grassroots, community-organizer, yes-we-can thing is more than a fund raising tool, or a get out the vote tactic, or even a campaign strategy; it's a philosophy of governing that this candidate has inspired us all to believe in. It's what this whole democracy thing is supposed to be, after all: government by the people, for the people, of the people. In other words: we own it. We really do. It can be easy to forget, but we've been reminded.
So on Tuesday, and after: OWN IT.
Bravo to Tim and Ellen and Malina and Jim and Chris and everyone else out there in Pennsylvania this weekend who've done so much more than I have. Thanks for your efforts and your example, and apologies for being so slow to join you.
Yes we can. Because we did. Because we do.