I know that many of you are waking up in a swing state this morning, preparing to go canvass and get out the early vote, and I'm hoping to get some advice.
All the anecdotal evidence we've been hearing, about how the economy is trumping racism, has a lot of truth to it. One interaction I had yesterday in particular has really made me question how big of a factor race will be on November 4th.
I canvassed an entire family yesterday somewhere in the rural mountain west. They were all ID'd as Undecided, and I came armed with plenty of information to swing them.
The first questions I got were disappointing- "are you sure Obama is a citizen?". I calmly explained that the whole thing was a smear campaign, that the lawsuit against Obama's birth certificate was without merit, and that more than one organization had physically examined Obama's birth certificate and proved it was real.
I pointed the father of the house toward FactCheck.org to see for himself, and he seemed satisfied.
The next question gave me a lot of hope- "What exactly does Change mean?"
I gave the father a fact sheet, pointed him toward the Blueprint for Change, and explained Change in terms of the economy- middle-class tax cuts, ending the war so we can invest at home, and etc.
The three people I canvassed acknowledged that Obama had a better plan for America, and that, quote, "McCain is an idiot".
They were very concerned about other issues as well, like gun control. I explained Obama's stance on guns, and they all seemed to like it- they even agreed with the assault weapons ban, and were especially impressed with Obama's vote against taking people's guns away in an emergency.
Here's where it gets tricky.
"Don't you think that once he gets into office, he's just going to help Black people?"
One of the younger family members explained that he had never met a black person that wasn't racist. I explained that I grew up in Sacramento, the most racially diverse, integrated city in the country. I explained that many of my friends and co-workers are black, and that I didn't agree with him that they were "all racist".
Then it got worse. The father of the house told us that he believed black people are black because they were descendants of Cain, and that their blackness was the mark of a curse from God. The son told me that when he was in prison, "all the black people" used to brag about "wanting to 'dirty' the gene pool."
I hauled out a lot of arguments I'm not proud of making, and I won't repeat them here. The person I was canvassing with, who was much braver than I, proceeded to argue theology with the guy who based his racism on the Bible.
And here's the thing- the guy was listening. He was obviously struggling with his prejudice, and it probably helped when his wife came out and said "I'm not prejudiced. I'm with you guys."
We eventually left, having given the family plenty to chew over. The son didn't register to vote because he hadn't heard about a new law giving felons who've served their time the right to vote, so I promised to get him some info about getting his rights back.
I don't know whether the family actually went and read the Blueprint for Change, and I don't know how they'll vote. They certainly don't like McCain, but they're "scared" of Obama. I'm inclined to think we made an impact, but I can't be sure.
Have any of you dealt with similar situations? How did you deal with them? If I run into the same thing today, what should I do?