Go, Indiana, go!
I forgot to tell y’all about my recent canvassing experience. The Obama and Clinton people have been swarming the city lately, and I was lucky enough to have a Clinton campaign worker knock on my door last Thursday. I was perfectly polite; I may be greatly disappointed at the fact that Clinton persists in this race in spite of there being no mathematical possibility she could pull out a win, and does so in a style that says “I’ll do anything to win,” but I’m not a jerk. Or at least I wasn’t a jerk that afternoon.
It was an older woman decked out in Hillary gear, literally head to toe.
Are you voting for Hillary? No, I’m sorry, it was a tough decision, but we’ve decided for Obama.
Why? I don’t like her politics, and I don’t like her style.
Quizzical look, and an expression that says, “Why did you just kick me in the stomach?” But, but, but Obama and all the Obama people on all the blogs are saying awful things about Hillary, like saying how they’d like to shut her in a closet and beat her. Have you read all the blogs? Have you? Well, I read many, many blogs, and I haven’t seen anything like that. In any case, I find the sexist and racist attacks against each candidate equally disturbing.
But the sexism is worse than the racism! (Exasperated look from me) This isn’t the oppression olympics. Listen, I identify strongly as a feminist, it’s an important part of my being, and I gave a lot of thought as to how that affects my responsibilities in this election. In the end, I decided for Obama.
But all these old feminists like Gloria Steinem are saying they should stay neutral, while all the black people are voting for Obama!! Women need to vote for Hillary!! (My turn to be quizzical) Be that as it may, we’re voting for Obama in the primary. We’ll be happy to vote in November for whomever gets the nomination.
Well, if Obama gets the nomination, I’m going to have to vote for McCain. Well, that doesn’t make much sense, but thanks for stopping by.
I wish you’d change your mind. I’ll give it some thought.
Of course campaigns can’t be held responsible for every brain perched atop every pair of feet they send out into neighborhoods, and I’m pretty sure their strategy is not “Berate the Obama voters!” and “Question the Obama voters’ motives!” and “Portray Obama and his supporters as woman-abusers!”
I was out of the house when the Obama people came by, and Tony said they were perfectly lovely. I guess it’s easier to be perfectly lovely when you’re confronting your own kind, but I love when canvassers come by and you get to say, “I’m voting for your guy! You can count on me!” It just makes everyone feel better.
So today I’m off to vote in a primary that matters, and for a black presidential candidate, both for the first time in my life. It’s all very exciting.
Well you’re a bigger person for being a lot nicer to the Clinton people than I was to the Obama people who, incidentally, gave me the same spiel that the Clinton people gave you. Apparently I’m a racist AND a socialist. Who knew?
But I thought Obama was the socialist?! I’m so confused about who’s more evil for what reason!
Ugh. The ramping-up of the whole betrayal thing has got to stop. Maybe you and I should get together and write a memo to both campaigns.
I’m jealous of my friends and family in the Hoosier State – and in the Keystone State and in the Tar Heel State – who have been visited by canvassers recently. The ‘Potomac Primaries’ seem so long ago, don’t they? And we didn’t even vote in them – we sent in absentee ballots which is really boring. In any event, it’s just my luck that when I finally get my chance to live “in the District”, the political excitement is back home in Indiana (and in PA and NC). I long for a rally, even a robocall, and definitely an eager albeit misguided canvasser.
Tell you what: If I get any more door-knockers trying to get me to the polls today, I’ll see if I can send them your way.
Where are y’all now, anyway? New York? DC? Pittsburgh? North Carolina? Israel? Chicago? Germany? Have you thought about implanting a GPS so we can keep track of your travels?
I got pretty angry when I first read this, but the more I think about it, the more I want to cut the lady some slack. It’s a contentious primary (far more contentious than is warranted considering the similarities of the 2 candidates), it’s gone on too long, and everyone’s nerves are a little frayed. Plus, canvassing is emotionally draining and it BLOWS. She’ll learn to just follow up her “why?” with “okiedoke, have a nice day” after a few more unproductive confrontations.
And surely that McCain business is just sour grapes. Can you imagine the logic: “I’m voting for Clinton because I’m a feminist, but if she loses I’ll vote for the guy who has already said he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and will actually get the chance?” No frakin’ way.
Well, I’m just glad I know smart and thoughtful people on both sides of the party line, otherwise I’d be a lot more angry and depressed. At this point I’m just looking forward to having a candidate and I know whoever wins will do their best to rally support for the party as a whole in an effort to defeat Darth McCain!
I’m also looking forward to the end of robocalls and bubble-gum popping campaigners trying to convince me…..well, of anything really.
Oh, and I forgot the best part – when she asked me why I support Hillary’s “socialist tendencies” I followed up my puzzled awe by asking her if she even knows what she means by socialist. The answer was no.
Two weeks away. Still technically undecided, but leaning strongly towards Obama. Shakesville has an impressive missive that I’d like to print out and learn by heart because, sad to say, it’s something that I feel the need to read to far too many male “liberals.” Grrr.
Of course, you know who’s REALLY socialist, ya’ll?
The nuns.
Damn nuns. Always helping the poor and sick and educating generations upon generations of children.
There’s been honest to God examples of both racism and sexism in this race, and it’s too bad. On the other hand, it’s a helpful reminder to all of us just how far we still have to go on the whole equality thing, and hopefully in the long term, a lesson for everyone in the Democratic coalition that being a Democrat or a liberal doesn’t make you immune to the urge to stereotype other people, even those who are supposed to be on the same side.
It’s also a lesson about just how unenlightened even major media personalities are on issues of both gender and race (though probably moreso on gender).
“Is Barack Obama gonna have to choke a bitch?” That’s what you should have told her. (Chappelle Show reference)
You know “all the black people are voting for Obama!” probably means we are all going to have to pay for reparations. She probably doesn’t like the idea of Obama getting all of THEM stirred up, just like that Martin Luther King fella’ did when he caused all those riots.
Of course, nobody talks about the real and possibly the most important distinction between the two: Obama went to Harvard, Clinton went to Yale.
But to give her credit, you haven’t read ALL the blogs now have you.
I try to read all the blogs, I really do. I should’ve been true to my academic roots and asked for citations including blog name, blog author, date posted, and number of responses and trackbacks. And then thwacked her upside the head with a copy of the Turabian manual of style. Maybe that would get our address put on the “Under no circumstances try to canvass this house” list.
Really? “All the blogs”? Like all nineteen bajilllion of them?
At least it wasn’t like 2004. I would rather have 100 people coming by my house to solicit support for a candidate I didn’t like, than I would one to come by to solicit support for a delusional, I mean constitutional, amendment that would “protect marriage”.
I would vote for a third term for George W. Bush before I would vote to constitutionalize veiled religious bigotry. Oh wait, I take that back, I forgot they were the same thing for a second.
Looks like Time saw something of the same thing. Or something like that.