Warning: This diary contains pro Sanders suggestions. Could cause nausea. Heart-Bern has been noted as a possible side effect. If you maintain a rage after 4 minutes into the diary, please contact Dr. Ben Carson.
Attended my local grass-roots Bernie Sanders today. All said, the heated discussion occurred after the meeting was over when the data-collector, and Co-organizer and data provider got into a yuuge argument, that had nothing to do with politics. Since I had gotten a ride from the other co-organizer and had missed the recent few events, I asked:"What happened? We had such a mellow group for so long?--we had our first meet-up 2 days after the formal Burlington announcement, but we found ourselves rather immediately after Bernie's short announcement in DC. And everything has gone smoothly.
We've done honk and waves, tabling, phone-banking to Iowa, and some of the group even went to Reno to knock on doors last weekend.
Ah, doors! Going door-to-door, that good old fashioned grassroots-y thing. Then it crossed my mind: hearing how well-armed many citizens of this country are now, how confident can one be of that approach? Must we carry signs that say "Don't Shoot-We are just campaigning!"?
More doors have those peepholes nowadays, or homes and apartment complexes have surveillance systems for their domicile. One of the issues I brought up about phone-banking is how many people have landlines and if they do, how many have answering machines, and how many others have cell-phones with particular screening applications, or just let things run through to voice mail? Social media has its limitations: good for reporting things that have already happened or commenting on the those events--but how do you use it for outreach, and are there better modes of social media for outreach vs. broadcast vs. education?
One member of the group today was trolling (the other meaning) for something more creative. And an LED went on in my head: Knocking on doors may be a lot safer on Halloween. If you are not a child they might even think you are T&T-ing for Unicef.
And along with that you could have the visages of Hillary and Bernie , perhaps attached to coffee-stirrers (how caffeine-culture!) with the words "Trick or Truth" stuck on them, respectively. (Do I need to page Dr. Carson for anyone, now?) If a certain one is selected, you can add in some campaign material (position material might be best?) or buttons, bumper-stickers, etc., but xeroxed material is cheaper for most of us.
More creative campaigning suggestions will be much appreciated.
And I will add a poll that is not ambiguous, for all you good sports.