Once upon a time before the neverending election, we had a strange, bizarre, and totally freaky precinct organizing meeting at the county Democratic headquarters. (disclaimer — I am one of the participating precinct persons in the story; I was there.) Prior to the 2020 election, we were notified of a new person who was willing to coordinate precinct people to walk neighborhoods. This was not long after caucuses, at the height of covid-19 lockdown, so we would mask and distance. I was skeptical, but I went. The meeting was scheduled at 11:30 a.m., so I figured it would be short and done before lunch.
The new coordinator talked for freaking-ever about herself, what a wonderful organizer she was, and her house and her neighborhood. (Yeah, we know it’s all new McMansions out there; how is this relevant to our meeting?) People were starting to fidget. Then she told us that her husband was at home sick with covid and she started complaining about how hard it was having him sick and taking care of him and doing everything else she had to do. If she was wanting sympathy, it didn’t work. I got up and moved a couple chairs farther away from her at that point. I was pissed. WTF are you doing here in a closed room full of people, lady? I was REALLY pissed.
She mentioned her own neighborhood several more times, like we were supposed to be impressed or something. She repeated rude comments about trailer parks and darker, poorer neighborhoods and I’m trying not to notice her shoulder-length Fauxnews blonde hair and baseball cap. She said the same bigoted things several more times, each time pausing, waiting for … a reaction? agreement? applause? I don’t know. It was like she was throwing red meat to the base of the former guy. She didn’t sound like a Democrat at all. She got total silence in response from us.
Do we ask our volunteers
any screening questions?
Maybe we should.
By the time she sort of almost got around to talking about the reason for the meeting, it was 1 pm and people who took their lunch to be there had to go back to work. I asked her a direct question about my precinct and she started talking about her precinct. I said very bluntly, “I asked about my precinct, not yours.” Dead silence. Other people in the room just looked at each other. She did not answer me.
Then she needed something on the computer, and I’m thinking “Holy hell, they gave her the keys and the computer passwords?” But she couldn’t get logged in. She insisted she knew what she was doing and was punching keys and trying different passwords and nothing would work. If anyone else there had the actual passwords and codes, no one offered to help her. Ms. Expert Organizer poked and futzed around with the computer terminals until almost two o’clock. She was not the least bit embarrassed or sorry and seemed to intend to continue fiddling around all afternoon. It was giggling funny to her for some reason. After two and a half hours of accomplishing absolutely nothing except likely covid-19 exposure, I decided it was time to leave. So I did.
***
My question for all of you involved in local party politics is, what do you do for background checks on new people in your organization? Do you look at previous party affiliation and how long ago they switched? Do you require a minimum length of time as a Democrat if they apply for a leadership position? Does anyone check in with their thoughts and beliefs and general outlook before giving them the keys and the passwords? I will always wonder how this person wrangled her way into being a “leader” of anything here. My personal theory is that she was a plant. No real person is THAT dumb. I believe she was there intentionally, to waste our time and create chaos. Thank goddess she couldn’t get into the computer system. I wonder if I should have talked to the higher-ups about what happened that day. I didn’t because I assumed that someone who outranks me in the hierarchy had approved her.
***
We know people lie, but do we even ask our volunteers any screening questions? Maybe we should. We know that the other side thrives on misrepresentation and misinformation. Is that how Cinema and Munchkin got where they are? And possibly a few others. Have any of you encountered people in your local organizations that seem a little bit sus? What did you do?