Ba-rocking the Vote
for some reason, I just love saying that.
Anyway, yesterday I did just that in Germantown, Pennsylvania and it was great. So a couple weeks ago I was at the Metropolitan, this gay bar in my hood, and this woman came up to my table saying she was organizing a free bus of queer women (AND allies and friends) to go volunteer for the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania yesterday.
And since I always want to do political things, but don't often actualize my goal beyond talk, and because my vote in NY doesn't matter, despite the fact that I had to wake up at the super-early hour of 6 a.m., me and a few queer lady friends went to Ba-rock the vote (ugh, I said it again. I can't help myself).
So after free bagels and coffee at Henrietta Hudson, we had a bus ride where we watched But I'm a Cheerleader (duh), and arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, an area right outside Philly.
It's a predominately black, working-class area where 95% of people support Obama, but with "historically low voter turnout." We went to one of the 79(!) bustling campaign offices in Pennsylvania, then split up into teams of two. Me and my friend were dropped off and picked up at locales by another Obama volunteer, who was also volunteering for the first time.
Let me say, after knocking on doors (in the rain, fyi, just to demonstrate my hardcoreness), I am SO impressed by the Obama campaign operation. All the doors we went to were voters identified by the Obama campaign, and we were just following up.
We gave them these handy sheets with polling information and telling them they had the right to vote, and clearing up wrong information, since you know the Republicans will try to engage in voter suppression. This all strikes me as brilliant get-out-the-vote activities, and it's amazing that the campaign has the manpower to do all this.
While one (white) woman said it was "too soon to tell" who she was voting for--really? too soon? what the hell is she expecting to change her mind at this point?--almost everyone we talked to was voting for Obama and knew where there polling place was, and seemed excited about the election.
Granted this was not a representative sample, but I just get the feeling that everyone is so excited about this election, and that we are going to win. Like, it was so close the last two elections, and Obama just needsso a little extra to get the edge, and I feel like he has it. And it was just so amazing. Everyone who worked at the campaign office was just SO nice and happy we came. If you have a day to do this form now until election day, I recommend it.
Spending the day knocking on doors in Germantown, Pennsylvania kind of made me wish I had just worked for the campaign and given my whole life and soul to the campaign. BUT making a tiny difference is better than making zero difference.
I seriously am so excited about this election and just want it to happen.
Here's this cute video one of the organizers of the bus made.
Anyway, yesterday I did just that in Germantown, Pennsylvania and it was great. So a couple weeks ago I was at the Metropolitan, this gay bar in my hood, and this woman came up to my table saying she was organizing a free bus of queer women (AND allies and friends) to go volunteer for the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania yesterday.
And since I always want to do political things, but don't often actualize my goal beyond talk, and because my vote in NY doesn't matter, despite the fact that I had to wake up at the super-early hour of 6 a.m., me and a few queer lady friends went to Ba-rock the vote (ugh, I said it again. I can't help myself).
So after free bagels and coffee at Henrietta Hudson, we had a bus ride where we watched But I'm a Cheerleader (duh), and arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, an area right outside Philly.
It's a predominately black, working-class area where 95% of people support Obama, but with "historically low voter turnout." We went to one of the 79(!) bustling campaign offices in Pennsylvania, then split up into teams of two. Me and my friend were dropped off and picked up at locales by another Obama volunteer, who was also volunteering for the first time.
Let me say, after knocking on doors (in the rain, fyi, just to demonstrate my hardcoreness), I am SO impressed by the Obama campaign operation. All the doors we went to were voters identified by the Obama campaign, and we were just following up.
We gave them these handy sheets with polling information and telling them they had the right to vote, and clearing up wrong information, since you know the Republicans will try to engage in voter suppression. This all strikes me as brilliant get-out-the-vote activities, and it's amazing that the campaign has the manpower to do all this.
While one (white) woman said it was "too soon to tell" who she was voting for--really? too soon? what the hell is she expecting to change her mind at this point?--almost everyone we talked to was voting for Obama and knew where there polling place was, and seemed excited about the election.
Granted this was not a representative sample, but I just get the feeling that everyone is so excited about this election, and that we are going to win. Like, it was so close the last two elections, and Obama just needsso a little extra to get the edge, and I feel like he has it. And it was just so amazing. Everyone who worked at the campaign office was just SO nice and happy we came. If you have a day to do this form now until election day, I recommend it.
Spending the day knocking on doors in Germantown, Pennsylvania kind of made me wish I had just worked for the campaign and given my whole life and soul to the campaign. BUT making a tiny difference is better than making zero difference.
I seriously am so excited about this election and just want it to happen.
Here's this cute video one of the organizers of the bus made.
posted by diana at 2:24 PM
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