Hope And Respect On The Campaign Trail

The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.

It was the national day of canvassing for the Barack Obama campaign. We met at a local coffeehouse in Altadena, California, on a morning that began with pouring rain that luckily had stopped by the time we started walking. "Time to Turn the Page on Iraq" boasted the hefty box of pamphlets and flyers we were given to pass out. I opened one to see what we were handing out: information about Barack's position on the war, some of his basic policy outlines, healthcare. It all sported a nice glossy color printing. We were good to go.

My intrepid fellow canvasser Laura has had previous experience with local elections, having run a city council campaign. So I mostly followed her lead. "I love canvassing," she said. "It's here that the votes are really won."

The goal: a lower-income neighborhood in Altadena, a neighborhood that was traditionally African-American but had experienced a steady influx of Latino residents. I am African-American, Laura is of Chinese/Anglo ancestry but looks as though she might be Latina, so we are a pretty nonthreatening duo for this street.

It's not necessarily my idea of a good time to go knocking on the doors of potentially unfriendly strangers while being grilled on tough policy questions. But I feel so strongly about my candidate that I decided to get over myself. Besides, Laura knows how to handle herself in the political arena and was a good foil for any problem customers.

The statistics show that door-to-door contact is the single most effective way to reach voters. The only thing is, when you go knocking on people's doors, they want to talk. It can be a time-consuming process and takes a large number of volunteers to get the word out.

We got into Laura's car (easy to recognize with the not one, but two Barack Obama stickers on the bumper!) and drove to our assigned street. At first glance, I guessed it to be a fairly stable neighborhood. There were some very nice houses that showed evidence of recent renovations mixed in with some ramshackle bungalows.

We had a walk list provided by the campaign that indicated the Democrats and Undeclareds we were to try to reach. (Since Republicans can't vote in the California Democratic primary, it's a more efficient use of our time to focus our message on party voters.)

Laura is the initiator in our canvassing dynamic. I provide backup. I'm always in awe at the way she just strides up to houses and knocks on the door. I sort of hang back, sizing up the situation first.

One of the first houses we approached had vicious-looking pit bulls surrounded by a flimsy chain-link fence next door. Great!

As we walked up to the house, the pit bulls snarled and spewed spittle. I'm a dog lover, but really, enough's enough! I was ready to turn back, but Laura walked right past and knocked on the front door. An older heavyset black woman answered. We told her about Obama and why we supported him. She said she was a supporter too and took our pamphlet. We asked if she'd like to volunteer for the campaign. She responded that she worked full-time, but as we were leaving she yelled to her daughter, "Hey, you want to work on the Obama campaign?" We waited expectantly. The mom listened for a moment and then told us "Naw. She's too busy with school. She's in college."

Ok, next.

A few doors down was our next house. To say it was dilapidated would be too polite. On the sagging front porch sat a skinny elderly black man wearing scratched-up glasses, sitting on a beat-up couch, talking to his friend, another black man perhaps in his late 30s or early 40s standing in front of him. Both of them were swigging 40 ounces. It was 11 o'clock in the morning. Great.

Laura walked right on the porch, asking them if they were supporters of Barack Obama. The elderly man shook his head slowly. "I don't vote," he said. "I don't vote either," said his friend. They kept on swigging their 40s. I was getting the vibe they wanted us to leave so they could continue their conversation.

"Well, why not?" I asked. "I'm curious to know why you don't vote. Are you guys registered?" The older man said: "Oh, I'm registered. My wife isn't though, she won't get registered to vote. I don't know why." He called out to his wife inside the house. The screen door was open. "You want to vote for Barack Obama?" he asked. She slammed the door shut, "Leave me alone!"

I decided to press the issue. Laura looked at me nodding, as if to say "Go on, black woman!" I continued, "Well, I'm black," The men sort of perked up and paid more attention. (I sometimes have to tell people when I want to pull out my black credentials because I look racially "other.") "And don't you know that the Ku Klux Klan was formed to keep black people from the polls?... and now we are voluntarily not voting?"

The older man said knowingly, "I'm from Georgia. I know about that [swig]... Maybe I'll vote this time." Laura asked if he would like information about Barack Obama. He said he would and took a pamphlet.

His friend wouldn't look me in the eye when he said, "I've been incarcerated. I can't vote."

That took the wind out of my sails for a moment. How to respond? This feels so huge, like it's beyond what I can help with. Reading the recent statistic that there are more black men in jail cells than in dorm rooms struck me deeply. I know something needs to change.

I held out a pamphlet. "Well, maybe you can't vote. But you can still help the campaign by telling people about Barack Obama. And just imagine what a good role model he would be for black children. That they can imagine themselves as President of the United States."

He had an indecipherable expression on his face as he took the pamphlet from me. Did he think I was nuts... on drugs? He took it, opened it and pored over it very, very carefully. He was reading slowly, but he was reading it. I was proud that the cover showed Barack Obama's picture and that the Senator looked strong and in charge. That fellow looked at that pamphlet front, back and sideways, turning it around, examining it from all angles.

We thanked them for their time and moved on. Did we just rock their world, or what? They were just hanging out drinking their morning 40, and then these Barack Obama ladies show up!

A few more houses. More friendly faces. More people took pamphlets. People were pretty open and mostly hadn't made up their minds.

We climbed the stairs to a second-story apartment building and knocked on the door. A young white man, maybe in his late 20s, opened the door. He was dressed in shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops. Out popped a little child wearing a purple feline-type costume. "Is this the Purple Panther?" I asked. The father introduced his son, Andrew. "Andrew is a kitty cat. He's four years old," The dad explained. Andrew gave a big meow.

Andrew's mom, a pleasant-looking young white woman with a round freckled face, came out to see what was happening. We explained we were here to talk about Barack Obama. She laughed and said she was online at that moment filling out a political survey. She would come back in a moment when she finished. "Just skew it in our direction," we called after her.

Laura gave her opener about why she supported Barack Obama. We talked about Barack's early stance against the war, back when it was unpopular to do so, how he has called for accountability in government, and has a workable and practical healthcare plan. The father said that healthcare was very important to them.

Andrew has a genetic disorder that requires very expensive treatment. The treatment can run up to a million dollars a year but it can mean the difference between life and death for their child. The wife came back from completing the survey. She has the same disorder and passed it down to her son. The couple was afraid that if her husband ever needed to change his job, they wouldn't be able to qualify for private insurance because of their expensive, pre-existing condition.

They had such specific questions that I told them I would put them in contact with another Obama supporter who was a retired pediatrician. She would be better able to help them.

We left their apartment feeling that we'd had a very deep conversation with this young couple and with a better understanding as to how crucial some of this "abstract" policy is on people's lives.

I thought about little Andrew as we walked down the stairs. I know that the Republicans often say that to solve America's uninsured health crisis we should "let the free market decide." But why would the free market ever decide to help someone who is in need of regular, expensive treatment? The free market would decide that it couldn't support the cost.

On the walk we talked to a woman who was Indian-American and a community college professor. She said all her colleagues were Barack Obama supporters. She lived with her 90-year-old parents in a nicely renovated two-story farmhouse. Her father had answered the door dressed in his traditional robes. He asked us to come inside and sit, saying that Indian custom wouldn't allow him to let two guests stand outside on the front porch. Unfortunately we didn't have time and had many more on our walk lists.

We knocked on the door of a small bungalow that was part of a courtyard. The driveway was unpaved and stretched to the back, where there were three other houses. Two little boys were playing in the driveway. No one was home. The two boys, who looked Mexican and had accents, said "No one's home." They offered to help us knock on all the doors in the courtyard. We gave them some Barack Obama stickers. One of the doors to the bungalows was open. Spanish-language radio blared out. This house wasn't on our walk list, but we knocked on the door anyway. A shy dark-eyed girl looked out through the screen. Her father came to the door. He was a young man, strongly built, with a friendly smile. We explained that we were Barack Obama supporters. "No voting" he said cheerily. Since neither Laura nor I speak Spanish, the visit was brief.

I wanted to tell them of Obama's support of the Dream Act, which would help illegal immigrants go to college, but I didn't want to presume.

The next house was a Latina woman who was a registered voter. She said she was born in this country. She said that she was veering between Hillary and Obama. She liked that Obama cared about minorities. She liked that Hillary was a woman, but she didn't have any questions. We gave her some information and were turning to leave. Almost like an afterthought, she blurted out: "What about Obama and immigration? Where does he stand on immigration?" She explained that she had family members who were here illegally, and she felt that they were in a very difficult position, particularly because it is hard for them to get drivers' licenses. So when people get in accidents, because they don't have licenses, they're more likely to leave the scene, which is dangerous for all drivers.

Neither Laura or I knew where he stood on the license issue. But we did tell her that he stood for securing the border, while ensuring that we make the path to legal immigration and citizenship more accessible. We also told her of his support of the Dream Act. She seemed happy to hear about that.

There was the old Trinidadian man who said he wouldn't support Hillary because he didn't want a woman ruling over him. "We rule in the household, though" I quipped back. There was the 50-something white woman with cropped gray hair who said she wasn't interested and brusquely slammed the door. "Hillary supporter" we whispered to each other as we left. "That's her demographic."

There was the massive black man with cornrows and sweat stains on his gray t-shirt who was full of media conspiracy theories: "Did you know that in the computer voting machines there's a bug that will change your vote?... it doesn't matter which way you vote, they're going to change it." He wasn't interested in talking about anything else. So our response to him was: "Yeah, and the media wants you to think that Hillary is inevitable too." He nodded his head in agreement.

We finished our day of canvassing tired, hungry, but better understanding about what makes this election tick. And it really isn't media spin, who's ahead in what poll, or debating policy minutiae. The online world is meaningless to most people. Older people barely used their computers or only had a rudimentary knowledge of how to use them. Most people had really specific questions about what mattered to them most. And I know we got some votes for Barack Obama because we bothered to put on our walking shoes that day and make personal face-to-face contact. As Laura had said earlier, "This is where votes are won."

Comments

[lafrance]

Fabulous. I found it so interesting. Now I wish I had my list of people to call. I just talked to a lady at the Obama site who was asking for people to call Iowans about Obama. She is in Iowa at one of the offices and I live next door in Illinois. Yes, the state of Obama.
i feel so bad for that family with the kid and wife with the terrible illness.
these are things that will never be addressed if the democrats nominate Hillary.
I was also interested in that ex-con who read the information through out. He felt included. A part of it. I remember reading of some 22 year old student, black, who was at an Obama rally. He said something about Obama making it himself without help and be this far. And that he was a role model. I wonder how many young black men out there have had their lives and thinking transformed by Obama.

[Royce]

Thank you for sharing your adventure. Sounds like you did a great job. Makes me want to go try it, too!

[wizinit]

My own observations confirm your conclusion, that the overwhelming majority of voters are totally disconnected from the discussions on the web. We generally do far too much talking to each other in this virtual world and not enough with the population of the real world. That is great you canvassed. I am going out to NH myself tomorrow for another round of door-knockin'.

[ReggieH]

This is a great article! It makes me want to go out and do some canvassing myself. Here in Idaho canvassing sometimes seems kinda pointless but I'm still gonna log in some phonebanking hours and do some canvassing. The Obama campaign is having the official opening of the Idaho Campaign headquarters next Thursday. Talk about a fifty-state Stragegy!! No other candidate, Democrat OR Republican has done that in Idaho yet. And Obama won a mock caucus held in Northern Idaho earlier this week.

[DANIELLECLARKE]

Yes canvassing and holding events to gain visibility are the only ways to gain people.

Expecting people online to change their view is like trying to herd cats. That dailykos is a joke so are many of those sites because it just takes up your real life canvassing time.

I have held over 20 events and a few were with 15,000 and 6,000 people atending the events and many wanted and got stickers etc from me and a good talking too :)

[nonprophet]

Great post, Lonnee! I'm looking forward to more of your notes from the canvassing trail!