During my lunch hour last Friday I had coincidentally chosen the same fast food place as my boss and his wife. We had exchanged some pleasantries and she asked, “So do you have plans this (Labor Day) weekend?” “Canvassing!” I proudly stated. “What’s that?” she said curiously. I looked at my boss and said, “GOTV…Get Out The Vote.” They both had that Ohh kind of groan and smiled, and I smiled back. I’m going to miss them when they move to Canada after Clinton’s victory. (Or not, conservatives rarely carry out these emigration threats.)
In many ways they’re a lot like my parents. Flashback to January ahead of the Iowa caucuses, when my mother was visiting my family. She’s trying to goad me as I’m driving us into for whom I’ll be voting. I was proud to say Clinton, then asked who she was backing. “Well, I was going to vote for Trump, but with all the things he’s said I don’t know.” Reminder, this is when he had already said plenty to turn off voters. “I think I’m going to support Cruz.” “You know he’s not an American citizen, right?” I say, to see if I can throw her off. “He’s not?” “No, he was born in Calgary, Canada.” “Then how can he run for president?” “One of his parents was a US citizen.” Bing! “Obama wasn’t born in the US.” Nice try Mom, but, “Obama was born in Hawaii also to a US citizen. McCain wasn’t born in the United States, either.” “What?” That threw her off. “He was born on a US military base in a foreign country.” “But McCain is a war hero!” she exclaimed. “Yeah, I remember your guy Trump saying something about that, how he’s not really a hero since he was captured.” And that took the wind out of her sail.
My Dad is one of the other kind of conservatives, hates Clinton but absolutely repulsed by Trump. He’s openly stated he may not vote this year. I pointed out to him Republicans had quite the variety this year, seventeen candidates! (That’s over half a Baskin-Robbins, folks, more choices that you’d have at a fast food place, and you can’t find one to your liking?) In an e-mail to my brother and I, he thought he’d share his view lamenting Trey Gowdy didn’t run. My nominally slightly conservative brother took that argument down pretty efficiently. I didn’t have the heart to share my opinion.
So that’s their choices. Proudly vote as my boss will for Trump the Destroyer (wasn’t he the bad guy in the 1984 Ghostbusters movie?) or toss in the towel like my Dad likely will. It’s because of the second voter case that I’m out there getting absentee ballot requests (ABR). You see, Republicans have tried to suppress our votes in many areas through voter ID and shorter poll hours. But I can confirm the ticket’s Trump Turd is proving effective enough we need to capitalize on it.
I’m of the belief that’ Clinton’s got this, but we need to ensure she has support on Capitol Hill. To that end, I’ll work to get Patty Judge in as the newest Iowa senator and Monica Vernon as my representative. It won’t matter if Clinton wins Iowa, but if her coattail can sweep in down ballot against non-voting conservatives, I can work with that.
Yesterday I picked up my route papers and was delighted to find I would be working my own neighborhood instead of a mile away. First house I knock, both adult occupants wanted ABRs, and he wanted to volunteer. Excellent! Next house is an unsure female voter, so I prepare to drop off campaign literature. A male voice inside calls out to the front if he can vote third party. I say to her with a smile, yes you could do that. He apparently heard me as he then says, “I want to vote for Mickey Mouse.” Why not, I’m thinking, he has about as much chance as Donald at this point. A couple of undecideds later I get to another home with two more ABRs. I asked them about their level of support of Clinton (good to go) and then ask about Judge-Grassley. And she lets loose with disgust about his holding up Garland and the other judgeships. My kind of voter.
Rather quickly and unfortunately I exhaust my supply of ABR forms so I have to head back to HQ. They were as astonished as I was for how many requests I had, and I stated I’m going to need more with the way this is shaping up. Usually I get three per packet totaling around two dozen by the end of a campaign season. I got twice my number and was unable to complete my packet (not going to visit a house without a request).
We’ll see how things shape up moving forward. Polls have Judge behind a senator who remains popular for past deeds to people unaware of his current lack of productivity. Can’t win if you don’t try. And since my district is fairly blue anyway, we have a chance to knock off Blum, one of the guys who actually voted against Boehner for speaker as one of his first congressional votes in favor of someone even more conservative. I know nothing about you, buddy, but I can tell that snippet all day long as proof of who you are. Makes my sale a whole lot easier.
(Shout out to local hero, Grant Wood and his American Gothic above)
Happy Canvassing!