"Let's keep the momentum going!" I told so many answering machines. Three to four people who actually answered the phone, out of 71 calls--thanks to caller i.d., which clearly reads "Democratic . . ." when we're making the calls--three to four phone answers supported us with enthusiasm. There were about two "I guess so"'s, a few hang-ups, one "none of your business" (so why did he pick up the phone?).
We sat around a large square table. The room was filled with disparate phone styles, from slippery-smooth to nervous and hesitant to Madison Ave.cool to heartlands-wholesome, and more.
A man with a TV-sized camera came in to film just as I was getting up to leave. Nothing I wanted less than to be photographed on one of my calls--I am so jumpy. I need to be pacing back and forth in this milieu. Not one political argument, because all of the opponents were so mean. Maybe they feel guilty? I think they want Turkish taffy in the White House, not a president.
We phonebankers always wish those teeth gnashers a great day and even a "don't forget to vote!"
How dare we be Democrats? How dare we oppose them? Is this America or China?
Again I say that dissent may be the venom instead of the lifeblood of democracy. Again I say that perhaps Donkey will stand side by side with Elephant next week when Stewart and Colbert come to town, laughing our guts out to get rid of some of the tension, the inverse, that will knot up our stomachs even as laughter made them shake about. Hohoho.
I don't want to preach to the choir. As gratifying as those few active supporters were to my efforts, I realize that, unless my umpteen voicemail pitches changed a mind, everyone I had spoken with knew what they were going to do on November 2 or sooner. The few labeled "U" (undecided) were not terribly friendly nor in the mood to chat.
But that was just one small space, an unpracticed one, amid a large roomful of voices, reiterated in another room of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in DC, its new office in the Northwest, and countless districts coast to coast.
To refer back to an early Words, UnLtd. post, let's push that rock up the hill and keep it there.
So many voices fighting against so much money with so little time.
It's the tone-deaf, and not the choir, whom we need to reach. And teach them how to sing.
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