Adventures on campaign, so far.

[raven]

It is twenty-six days until the New Hampshire primary. It is becoming increasingly apparent that I should not be allowed to talk to people.

Well, there are people who have problems understanding my accent. (This may well be cultural dissonance - why, one might ask, is someone with an English accent asking me to vote for Hillary Clinton?) Still, I've had a handful of conversations to the effect of "Honey, speak slower - no, you gotta speak English, I only speak English - do... you... speak... English?"

I merely said, "Thank you for your time, dear" and hung up. To some mockery from one of the permanent staffers, who said, "Oh my god, dear, you're so sweet!" and dissolved into slightly manic cackles. I get the sense the staffers have been doing this for so long that they've descended into a strange new campaign-defined mental state. I don't know how they do it; they're on the phone all day, every day, cajoling the electorate into voting Clinton and voting absentee and voting at all, while stacks of paper mount up all around them and five inches of snow builds up against the glass. I was on the phone for an hour today, having finally been cajoled into it, and it broke my head a bit - it's very different, I don't quite understand the cultural nuances (and, as seen above, some people have trouble understanding me), and besides, I think the hardest point is being cheerful and friendly for every conversation. I did have one or two nice conversations with people who were sure they were voting for Clinton, but mostly I was afraid of people hanging up on me or yelling at me or whatever. It's not personal, of course, but it makes canvassing quite nervewracking.

I much prefer doing data entry. It needs to be done - each phone call results in another piece of information that needs putting in the database - and it lets me eavesdrop on everything else that happens in the office, the conversations with the voters as well as with the people who come in demanding lawn signs or bearing cookies. It's a lovely place to sit and work, too - it's got a delightfully amateurish feel, with signs everywhere, some upside down, and a Christmas tree in the middle of the floor decked out in "Hillary Clinton for President" stickers, and photos and newspaper cuttings and "Hillary's Most Important Supporter" above a mirror. All very grassroots, very charming. The Republicans don't seem to go for this approach, and I think it's definitely their loss.

This is what the office looks like:



Me, standing outside of it:



narahttbbs (whose photos these are) noted that I seem to have chosen to stand in just the right place so "Turn America around" becomes the distinctly British-accented "Turn America round." I was amused.

Fishie thinks you should vote for Hillary Clinton:



We went home through swiftly falling snow. The temperature tonight is about ten below, and I felt vaguely like I was going to find the Northwest Passage, tramping through snow and across black ice - with some mishap - with nothing to identify me, should I have to be pulled from a drift in the morning, except my campaign badge. It's beautiful, though - despite reports of snow-related chaos in Boston, I can't help but think so. It's quiet, and lovely, and in the light from the streetlamps the surface crystals gleam.

In other news, Senator Clinton is in Nashua on Saturday and I'm very excited about it - I haven't actually heard her speak yet, merely read up about her and persuaded other people to vote for her. And tomorrow, in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, narahttbbs and I are going to a Mike Huckabee rally. Because it's not nice to say rude things about presidential candidates, I will not say that Huckabee is an anti-choice, homophobic, horrible little man, and merely note that hearing him speak should be very interesting.

So there! This is wonderful fun.

Comments

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

It is so ridiculously cool that you are over there doing this. ♥ Why are you going to Huckabee? No really, why?

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Why not?? :)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Well, that's always an answer I can get behind :) It just strikes me as needlessly masochistic! Try to have fun ;)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

We will! It will be fun, because he'll be so WRONG about EVERYTHING. *loves* How're you?

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Hee. I'm good, have done NO work but all other sectors of life moving along pretty damn well. See recent posts for details, or at least smugness :P

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Glad to hear there is smugness. Oh, and. Am very much enjoying being married to you, yesyes, but if for whatever smugness-related reason you wanted a divorce, I might be persuaded.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

It's okay, I think divorcing you while you were abroad and we couldn't have the full flat-shaking drama would just be a cruelly missed opportunity :)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I'm sure we will. Think of it as a sort of Trojan Horse strategy. You know, beware of Greek-Americans bearing gifts.

[shimgray.livejournal.com]

Free standup comedy?

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Plus taking up space that actual Huckabee voters might want! A worthy goal!

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Hee, keep up the good work! (Not that I'm voting for Clinton in our caucus - I'm supporting our sort-of-local Governor Richardson - but I expect it will come down to someone else, and I will cheerfully support him or her in the general election.)

I have to say that it would probably weird me out to have someone with an English (or other non-American) accent promoting a candidate. Even though my dad, for example, has a very distinctly non-American accent (he was born in what is now the Czech Republic) and has been a naturalized citizen since I was wee.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heh, yes, I imagine I would find it strange if someone with an American accent encouraged me to vote Labour. But the campaign seem to think the accent isn't a deal-breaker, so somehow or other I ended up press-ganged. *g*

[leiascully.livejournal.com]

And he was my governor. How I loathe him.

But yay, Nashua!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yay, Nashua! Woe to Huckabee! *g*

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

You are currently the most awesome person on my friends page.

Just so's you know. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*hearts* :)

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

This may well be cultural dissonance - why, one might ask, is someone with an English accent asking me to vote for Hillary Clinton?

Heh. Although I'm used to my fellow Americans (...cough) having a variety of accents from other places of birth, I admit someone with a British accent exhorting me to vote would introduce about twelve kinds of cognitive dissonance all at once. :) ("Uh, dude, hang on... did I wake up in some alternate universe where we lost the Revolution?" "Yes, dear. And remember -- Hillary Clinton for Prime Minister!" *click*)

That's really cool, though, and you're braver than I. Get me within about five feet of those telephones and I'd probably turn into a gibbering idiot. :) I remember a project I had to do in college that involved conducting a random-number phone survey, and I was a nervous wreck trying to get through it, because I'm terrified of bothering other people. When it was over I was so relieved. ;)

(And methinks that with this comment, I've hit my smiley quota for the day.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

("Uh, dude, hang on... did I wake up in some alternate universe where we lost the Revolution?" "Yes, dear. And remember -- Hillary Clinton for Prime Minister!" *click*)

Ahahaha. Love. Yes, that's probably it. And hey, I was terrified of the phones. I only stuck it out for an hour before I decided my brain couldn't take it any more. It's that fear of bothering people. *g*

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

You're very brave to even take a stab at phone-banking in a foreign country. I had to care a hell of a lot about my candidate to work up the social gumption to do phone canvassing for the first time, and I was talking to people who lived in my own zip code!

Data entry is good. And that picture of you is great. You're making me nostalgic for the fall of 2004.

If you see the real thing in Nashua, you'll tell us, won't you? :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Thanks! I was terrified of the phones. Still am.

The real thing! Yeah, I will. :)

[outintherain.livejournal.com]

Wow,you're certainly leading an interesting life!!!! *is madly jealous of all that snow*

I'll echo my awe at your bravery... it's a widely known fact that I won't even answer the phone at work, *that's* how much I' scared of it!

I'm just starting to look in to the presidential candidates now (although I don't know why, since I live in Ireland.. but it has to be said that whoever is in power in the States rather rules the world by proxy) and I had a very disappointing conversation with someone who believed flat out that it'll be a Republican victory.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

My life isn't always this exciting, honestly. *g*

The presidential election affects us too, I think, even in Britain. It's worth taking an interest in, and worth thinking bad thoughts in the direction of a Republican victory. *g*

[outintherain.livejournal.com]

*sends apocalyptic doom thoughts their way*

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

:) This is so interesting and cool! Keep us updated. <3

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Will do. :)

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

What an amazing experience you're having! I can't help being reminded, of course, of the flashback scenes to the beginnings of Bartlet's first campaign in The West Wing. When you said Nashua, I was thinking of Josh taking Sam away from all this up to NH to hear Bartlet speak. Theirloveissoslashy, but I digress :)

And tomorrow, in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, narahttbbs and I are going to a Mike Huckabee rally.

I did very similar things during the 2006 Italian election campaign. I went to hear Berlusconi speak, because I was curious about his popularity; I even went to hear the supposedly 'post'-fascist leader Fini's closing rally. That was the event where the official merchandise stand included a copy of Mussolini's last speech, and lighters with Mussolini's portrait on them. Talk about cognitive dissonance...I was standing in central Rome in 2006, hearing the deputy Prime Minister speak, and his party was selling fascist memorabilia!

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I can't help being reminded, of course, of the flashback scenes to the beginnings of Bartlet's first campaign in The West Wing.

Do you know, I really wish I'd seen those. But of course I probably would have been sitting there grumbling "that looks nothing like New Hampshire..."

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It is really, really awesome to be here. And, probably the first thing I'll do when I get home is re-watch the TWW episodes set here. And, hey, the Josh-in-the-rain bit at the end of the episode is just my favourite bit of television ever. The real thing! Yes.

It's good to know thine enemy, I think. And like you say, politics is pretty much always interesting.

[schlagen.livejournal.com]

I have to ask as I've obviously missed something huge here. How on earth did you end up in New Hampshire campaigning for Hillary Clinton?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Excellent question. I had been thinking about it for about eight months, ever since narahttbbs suggested it, and suddenly it seemed to come together. I'm as surprised as anyone. *g*

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Actually you are kind of Lord John Marbury now. *glomps*

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

"Thank you for clearing that up, Leo. Having been educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne I am, as you know, exceedingly stupid."

♥

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Hee! ♥

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Nashua! The real thing!

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Squeeee!

Next term I will just spend all my time FANGIRLING YOU, omg.

[kuteki.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, this is so incredibly awesome, I mean you are actually campaigning at the New Hampshire primary, wow! Go Iona Hillary!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thank you, sweetie.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

It's wonderful that you're able to go and actually do something to try and make America a little saner.

Next thing I know, you'll be *in* The West Wing.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent office, and you look very snug in the scarf and gloves.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I have now lost the gloves. *headdesk*