Fellow Hillary supporters, I don’t know about you, but I hate making telephone calls. Part of the reason is that my hearing aids don’t like it when I hold the mobile up to my ear, and part of the reason is that I myself hate being called. Only friends, family, and doctors know my real telephone number. When I’m forced to provide a phone number during online shopping, I give the number of the land line we stopped using four years ago.
When our current POTUS was running for president the first time, I tried canvassing by myself in the “rich” part of our neighborhood. What a disaster! As soon as people caught sight of me shuffling up their sidewalks, they disappeared into the garage or refused to answer the doorbell. One couple sent their seven-year-old child to the open front door to tell me they weren’t home. A couple of householders argued with me, one telling me at length why he was supporting Romney, and so on.
As one who does not take rejection well and who wilts when confronted with rudeness, it’s hard to think of ways to help a political campaign without canvassing or making telephone calls. The last political campaign I worked on asked me to look up the phone numbers of rich donors on line, which I was happy to do. After all, it wasn’t I who would be contacting them, but the candidate. I didn’t even mind shredding confidential stuff—the first two times. After that I told the financial manager my time would be better spent working on my book, so he found me something else to do.
However, even if I wanted to do similar work at Hillary Headquarters, it’s in Alexandria, Virginia, a 45-minute drive from where I live, through some very dicey traffic. And that’s one way. Unless they open a field office in my area, helping at headquarters is out for me.
However, quite by accident, some of us came up with a rather neat idea a couple of weeks ago in brn2bwild’s open thread.
Some of us can’t or won’t phonebank; some of us can’t or won’t canvass for whatever reason—mobility issues, for example. But we all, even if we’re graduate students working a full-time job and going to class in the evenings, interact with others every day. We have conversations. Sometimes we discuss politics.
What I’m proposing is that we develop a 30-second “elevator speech” to define our candidate or counter a specious argument. We can work on a standard speech together and tailor it to our individual circumstances, neighborhood, or whatever. When my daughter-in-law’s sister, in town from California last autumn, told me that Hillary was cold and calculating, I was so stunned I couldn’t think of a reply.
Simply giving the facts in a polite manner and smiling after you finish might have more of an impact than you realize. Where a seed is planted, an idea may begin to take root. We never fully realize the impact we have on others until years later, when someone comes up and says, “You know, you really changed my thinking on that issue.”
Another thing we can do is register voters. This is usually done in pairs, I’ve observed. I’ve just contacted the Fairfax County, Virginia, Board of Elections, and am promised a telephone call from the Outreach Committee. I’ve also emailed my local Democratic District Committee, asking for information. A third possibility is contacting the League of Women Voters. I’m thinking of doing this a couple of mornings a week from summer until mid-October. Registration to vote closes 22 days before the election in my county.
(After registration closes in October, I’m going to contact my Democratic precinct chair to see whether I can drive voters to the polls. Registering voters is important—helping them get to the polls, equally so.)
So without further ado, I’m going to present an elevator speech for you to criticize, amend, or delete. Type away to your heart’s content! Together, we’ll bang out something we can all use.
Oh, before I go, I’d like to present counter-arguments too.
From Starbucks Girl:
I have a quick rebuttal for the “she’s not trustworthy” crowd. As soon as someone realizes I support her, I get the “she can't be trusted"...."she’s untrustworthy”...or some derivation of those words. My reply is simple: “You do realize that everything she’s been accused of has turned out to not be true. So, is it really that she’s untrustworthy, or that you only believe that because you keep hearing it”
From Bfitz in AR:
“My grandsons are on SCHIP. Of course I support Hillary.” And I really enjoy bringing out, “Any person who can negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza with the newly-elected Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt as her negotiating partner can handle a Republican Congress.”
As to the “cold and unfeeling” accusation, I usually look at them in disbelief and say, “Have you ever seen a picture or video of her with kids?”
Good going, ladies ! :)
And now from me:
“Hillary Clinton is the most qualified person to run for office in the last 50 years. Not only has she served eight years as a U. S. senator from New York, but also four years as Secretary of State in the current administration. She has worked tirelessly for the rights of women and children. If elected, she will be the first woman ever to serve as president of this country. I’ll be proud to vote for someone so well qualified in November.”
So let’s do it, Democrats!