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In reply to the discussion: Driving around my deep red neighborhoods this AM, I'm astonished to see [View all]calimary
(81,085 posts)Just went canvassing over the weekend for a state Senate candidate and was partnered with a woman whod never even imagined shed be involved in any kind of political activism.
At least, until 2016.
And by Jove, last Saturday, there she was, schlepping through neighborhoods, knocking on doors, talking to people, talking up our candidate - and doing so as a well-informed promoter of that candidate. She was terrific! And shed never done anything of the kind before, until trump. I had the flyers and the basic spiel, she had the clipboard with our assigned route and the addresses of each house we were supposed to approach, and she made the notes after each encounter, as she threw in the parting words - the invitation to join us volunteers for this particular campaign.
What a great afternoon that was! Only one door slam. And another dude who, when I started in with our candidates proposals FOR access to affordable health care for all, started in with that selfish short-sighted crap about us taxpayers paying so other people can get it for free... he soon got to different mumbling about babykillers... and we just agreed to disagree and took our leave. But everybody else who was home to answer the doorbell was receptive, undecided because they hadnt heard about the candidate (WE took care of that!) or were enthusiastic and already kinda knew about him. There was also one additional guy who questioned us... which party were we? Whereupon we said Democrats and he eagerly took our flyer and said good! Thats all I need to know! We encountered a few whod already resolved to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot, which was most encouraging!
We didnt have to do much hard selling. Wed describe what our mans positions were on the issues and we got a lot of validation that those positions were theirs as well.
Ive done a number of canvassing things since the Hillary campaign. Always a challenge to kick yourself in the backside to get started, but once you do, it gets easier and easier, house by house. And it REALLY helps to have a good partner. Makes all the difference in the world.
We had a STELLAR absolutey kick-ass partner during the canvass for Hillary. We worked a little beach-ish community with a lot of apartments and small houses. There were three of us - a young woman who was a bit introverted so we had her handle the clipboard and the note-taking. The other woman was a local activist who proudly opened every discussion by introducing herself as the person who had pushed the neighborhood council to get a messed up street repaved. That street just happened to be part of our route. That tactic worked like magic! Everybody instantly became favorably predisposed toward whatever any of us had to say!
Thats a handy-dandy little strategy for your back pocket, with things like canvassing, btw. If youve ever done something beneficial for the neighborhood, that automatically makes you one of the good guys, and people will be far more receptive to whatever youre working on now.