On the ground in the Lehigh Valley 2
by smintheus
Tue Apr 22, 2008 at 10:37:06 PM PDT
Many Lehigh Valley voters I talked to today spoke in short hand about their perspectives on the candidates. They were repeating the distilled collective wisdom of family, friends and co-workers. Sometimes it was difficult to get them to apply their own personal insights and experiences to that received wisdom.
Some others, however, and the most interesting voters, spoke in very personal terms. One of the most remarkable of these voters was Tara Schaffer, a young working mother in rural Heidelberg Heights. Working, and then some. She confessed that she didn't follow politics as closely as she'd like to because she works 60 hour weeks in 12 hour shifts. And she does so gladly because for nearly a year she was unemployed, facing bankruptcy and the loss of her house because her adjustable rate mortgage payments went through the roof. Her family desperately needed healthcare coverage, so this exhausting job is a lifeline.
She voted today for the first time in her life. She registered a few years ago at the DMV, but never received her voter registration information and so she assumed that she wasn't registered. Tara says she decided to vote only because an Obama canvasser came to her door and convinced her that she could and should vote.
She said that was the only canvasser she had ever seen, and it doesn't suprise me. In 2004 I canvassed this entire town and had to do it on my own because the local Kerry headquarters (with canvassers available by the hundreds) didn't want to invest any effort in going after rural voters. I was convinced that was a mistake, and Tara's story shows exactly why. Many of these voters are in need of basic information or simple advice about how to vote, having been neglected by the parties for decades, and many can be persuaded to vote Democratic.
Tara's young son, too, urged her to vote for Obama. He's a news junkie, and at school the kids are excited about Obama's candidacy.
Tara admits that in the past she didn't feel any urgency to vote, but this year is different. This year, she says, is critical because of the Iraq fiasco. The Iraq war "turned me into a Democrat," she told me. And she has really had quite enough of Bush family members in the White House. That made a vote for McCain this year unthinkable for her. She regards McCain as a continuation of Bush's policies.
In the end she opted for Obama because she likes his quiet determination and calmness. She's looking for change in the future, and she thinks a candidate who keeps lobbyists at arms length might achieve something.
Tara had nothing against Hillary Clinton, and will vote for her in a heartbeat if she's the Democratic nominee. But she resented the negativity and triviality of some of her ads. Tara pointed out that she's been struggling for years just to keep her family fed, clothed, and housed. And here you have a campaign lavishing millions of dollars on TV ads that aren't about anything that matters to the country. If they've got a million dollars to waste, she said, they should just give the money to her. "I could really use it."
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