I’m going to begin with a little bit about me, but the moral of the story is this: If you read Daily Kos and use it to help you be more informed, you already have one of the major tools you need to be an excellent phonebanker for Obama (and, very likely, for any other issue/candidate that has your backing).
I’ve been reading Daily Kos for years now, but I was the lurkiest lurker who ever lurked. Only about 2 weeks ago did I actually register an account. Since then, maybe I’ve posted a few comments, and that’s it. That being said, I’ve read DKos and a few others (FiveThirtyEight, Swing State Project, AmericaBlog, and MyDD) most every day. Other news sources as well, I like to stay informed. That being said, while I’ve been good about voting myself, I haven’t really been too involved in a campaign ever before.
Until today.
Today, I decided enough was enough, walked into the local Obama headquarters in my town, and said, “How can I help?”
If you ever feel down, and need some sort of confirmation about your value as an individual, go into a campaign office and do what I just did. You’ll feel VERY wanted, very quickly.
I got a few minutes of training in phonebanking, met the exceptionally friendly staff, and then went to work. I was calling mostly people in their 50s-80s, mostly undecided voters or those who would refuse to tell me how they would vote. I had only one nut who railed at me for being a tool of the Obama conspiracy of government obstruction and something-or-other. Mostly, however, I ended up circling “NH” (or, “Not Home”).
But then, something interesting happened. I called a woman who professed to being a lifelong Democrat, but felt “unsure” about Obama.
“Oh boy,” I thought. This is where I wished I’d had a few more minutes of training.
But then, answers started coming out. I forget how I got her to move away from the Rev. Wright issue, but I did. Next came accusations about ACORN, and I was able to explain how ACORN really works—and how ACORN was flagging suspicious registrations—something I could do with calm authority, having only read about it a few days ago here. Having assuaged one fear, there came another—what horrors will Obama wreak upon the government when the Dems are in control of everything. I was able to mention a few brief minutes of the Frontline special on PBS about Obama and McCain—which mentioned how Obama won his position on the Harvard Law Review thanks to being open with its conservative members, and how, when elected, he had more far-right-leaning members than far-left-leaning ones, because his emphasis was on creating the best publication, not playing favorites with those he agreed with most politically. Next came wanting to sit down with the President of Iran without preconditions. Again, thanks to what I’ve read here, I was able to draw a contrast between “Meeting with our enemies” and “Preemptive surrender to our enemies.” The list goes on and on. This woman, who seemed to want to vote for a Democrat, but not Barack Obama, aired most of her worries about him to me, and each time, I was able to calmly, not confrontationally, talk her out of her misconceptions—or at least help her question them.
I can’t say she was a raving Obama fan by the end—she said she wanted to wait until after the last debate to decide—and if I’d called tomorrow she would know how she felt. When I told her that I’d be traveling tomorrow and wouldn’t be able to call her myself, she seemed genuinely stunned that I would actually follow up with her. From that point on, I could tell I’d struck something. She said goodbye to me far more happily than she did when I told her why I was calling and what candidate I was calling for.
I hung up, feeling like I’d actually done something. At the very least, it had been better than sitting on the couch. I turned around to see why it was so quiet, and found that what few people were in the office in mid-afternoon were all looking at me.
“How did you do that?” One asked.
Now, I’m not trying to toot my proverbial horn, here. My point is that anyone can do this, if you know your stuff. DKos is one of the best ways to do that, and if you come here every day during election season like I do, you already have the most useful phonebanking tool: Genuine, unscripted, unrehearsed command of the facts. Even in an age where facts don’t matter, they certainly seemed to help.
So, if you feel at all inspired to stop being a lazy bum like I did, here are some tips from my first day:
- Don’t try to jump down anybody’s throats, and refute things right away. Recognize people’s concerns even if you secretly don’t think they’re at all valid. Work slowly, emphasize that what you know is not spoon-fed to you from the Obama campaign (the local office had scripts, but encouraged us to ignore them), but from other news sources out there. Also, by letting people talk, you get to know all of their argument (allowing you a better chance of comprehensively addressing it) and appear polite.
- Be patient. Let people talk out what worries them about Obama, even if they don’t know themselves. I talked to the woman I mention above for roughly half an hour. I talked to another man, a virulently independent person who was leaning McCain when I said hello, into leaning Obama, but it took 45 minutes, and stopped mainly because the Obama HQ staff were turning the lights out and locking up. But I was, and I quote “the only Obama person with half a brain who’d called” and by demonstrating that I was informed and happy to engage him in a long chat—even though, despite the fact that he said a lot of things I didn’t agree with him about, I was willing to stay genuine and away from the talking points.
- Be willing to admit some imperfections: This doesn’t mean letting people’s false perceptions about Obama get away unanswered, but it does mean not trying to be an automaton, which, when you call an undecided voter in a suburban-to-rural area of Ohio, they assume you are. Both people I talked to for 30+ minutes were very wowed by my willingness to say that I didn’t agree with Obama on FISA, and that I wasn’t a die-hard Obama supporter from the beginning (In case you’re interested, I was with Chris Dodd until he got 0.01% of the vote in Iowa, switched to casual support of Hillary until the Indiana/North Carolina primaries, when a variety of factors made me switch to far more heartfelt support for Obama). Showing that you have thought about your choice thoroughly, and have come out to volunteer for Obama in just as thoughtful a manner, seemed to impress the people I talked to. And while neither said, “I’m voting for Obama for sure!” I have a feeling that, when you spend that much time talking politics with a stranger on the phone, and coming away happy, there’s a good chance you will.
- These long, dramatic Adventures in Phonebanking are exceptions, not the rule. Most people I called were not home. But if you find yourself with a person who clearly needs to talk to somebody about his or her decision, you know what to do.
In conclusion: Phonebanking: Yes You Can.