On Tuesday, Obama supporters from all over the country made over 300,000 phone calls to Congress. It was an amazing effort that proved we've never been more "fired up and ready to go" for health care reform!
As slinkerwink has already posted in her Spine-flu diary, we have another opportunity to pick up the phone and make a huge difference - this time specifically for the public option.
PLEASE REC THIS DIARY UP SO WE CAN GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT THIS PHONE BANK! David Schusterjust tweeted, "FDL action PAC is proving to be one of the most powerful in the progressive movement. Democrats should take note." Let's not make a liar out of him..... :-)
Today the FDL Action PAC launches an online phone bank effort to call 40,000 of the most progressive Democrats in Nevada, asking them to contact Harry Reid and let him know they support a public option.
Click here to register and start calling!
Why are we calling Nevada? Because we absolutely have make sure the bill that comes up for a vote on the floor of the Senate has a public option, because according to knowledgeable policy experts and Capitol Hill staffers, it will be virtually impossible to add a public option later.
We have 51 votes in the Senate - a majority - to pass a strong public option, yet Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has been sending mixed signals that he doesn't have the 60 votes he needs to overcome a Republican filibuster. He won't even tells us what Democratic Member out of our 60-vote supermajority is threatening to stand with Republican's to hold the pubic option hostage!
This is unacceptable. We need health care reform - with a strong pubic option - brought to the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote. If there are Democratic Lawmakers in Washington who don't want to vote for it, make them vote in public! Don't let them hide behind a filibuster threat so they don't have to go on the record.
Fortunately for us though, Reid's up for reelection in 2010 - and the polls show him behind possible Republican challengers. So if we can get enough of his own constituents to call him and tell him they want a public option in the bill, we're likely to get the kind of traction that outside petitions and calls from out of state can't.
Register now to phone bank to Nevada for the public option. We can make those 40,000 calls. YES WE CAN!
TIPS FOR MAKING SUCCESSFUL PHONE CALLS
I ran hundreds of phone banks during the general election last year. Here are a few tips I hope you will find useful.
- Read the script a couple of times before you start, so that you feel you understand the concept. If you don’t feel comfortable reading off of it verbatim, don’t. Make it your own. Make it conversational. But be sure to ask all the questions on the script.
- You’ll only reach 15-20% of the people you attempt to call at any one time. Most will not be home. Some numbers will be wrong. Some people will not be supporters. This is normal for every phone bank, and it’s why we ask so many people to make calls, because it usually takes several attempts to reach a voter.
- If someone is unsure, feel free to tell them why you personally support a public option. You don’t have to site a bunch of facts and figures. For instance, I tell people that I want a public option because my brother in law joined the army 15 years ago because his wife was pregnant and they couldn’t afford insurance. 15 years and 3 kids later he still can’t. He’s about to be sent to Iraq for the third time. No one should have to make that choice.
- If someone says they don’t know if if they’ll call and you can't get a definitive answer from them, I would recommend marking them as “not home”. That means someone else will call them later and try and persuade them again.
- Don’t take rejection personally. Even a “no” is valuable information and will help refine the list down to real supporters.