I volunteered again last night, this time to call women in low-income neighborhoods of PA. The women were randomly picked, not necessarily supporters of the President. It was depressing. Only a tiny minority were Democrats. Time and again, I got insulted and hung up on. The level of hatred against the President among some of the people out there is incredible. Over and over, I was told, "We are definitely not voting for that man," meaning the President. (Interestingly, not a single person said they supported Romney. It was always that they were against President Obama.) Worse yet, I was surrounded by a group of really sweet women also getting hung up on in the same way.
I hope my posts don't appear to be self-congratulatory. I really appreciate all the encouragement, but at some level I am being very selfish, in that I probably wouldn't volunteer if it weren't for the great feeling I get afterwards: the feeling of possibly making a difference, of taking part in something potentially historic. The reason I'm posting this is that I think it's really important that everyone who supports the president, is physically fit, and has a few hours to spare, get out there, make phone calls, knock on doors, enter data, or sit at a table to register voters. It is far from clear that we will win this. Even with all the mistakes Romney is making, there is a lot of hatred out there directed at the President. People who have suffered as a result of the economic downturn express their frustration in the form of hatred against Obama, and their hatred is probably at least partly racist. This election, given the economy, would be hard enough to win even in the absence of such hatred. Everyone, please get out there and do something.
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