Adventures on campaign, so far.
Dec. 13th, 2007 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenIt 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:
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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.
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.
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on 2007-12-14 01:52 am (UTC)no subject
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