Being part of this campaign was the best thing millions of us have ever done, or will ever do.
I am back home from a three week stay in rural Pennsylvania. I was involved with the Obama campaign for 10 months. I estimate that I knocked on over 3,000 total doors during the primaries and the General Election and made over 5,000 phone calls. I've campaigned in five states, always in rural areas. I was on the front lines of this election; I've seen this country as it is, in all of its unvarnished beauty. I've been booed in parades, had doors slammed in my face, and been on the receiving end of the words "nigger" and "nigger lover." I've dealt with people who were border-line threatening to me or my fellow volunteers. I've seen signs that read "Obama: Marxist and Racist" and "Obama/Wright '08: God Damn America" pop up along the roadside.
The media focused on such incidents for a good bit. They did so because the behavior behind them is so outrageous that it creates controversy. And controversy sells ad space. In the eyes of the press, this election was a referendum on how far this country has come on issues of race. There is no doubt that the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency is a giant step towards overcoming demons that still exist in this country, but as a person who has been on the ground I strenuously disagree with the press' point of view.
Obama's campaign was well run, but it was not mistake free. There were tensions with some local activists in some places. There were the typical hangers-on who showed up during the campaign with their own agendas and made things more difficult. The typical conflicts of national campaigns existed within the Obama campaign, but the Obama campaign did a better job than most campaigns of keeping that conflict out of the press.
But these are not the things which I will remember. Instead, I will remember what won the election. I will remember the 91 year old lady who baked cookies for the office I was at for the last three weeks. And then, as she saw us making calls, picked up a sheet, grabbed a cell phone, and started dialing. I'll remember that fact that this person, who has a hard time walking, canvassed her block of us. I'll remember the retired mine worker, who has screws in his back from years of labor in the mines, who sat and made calls for the campaign for hours because his first choice, Senator Hillary Clinton, told him he needed to make phone calls for Barack Obama.
I'll remember the people who didn't have much, but took me into their house, and shared their space and food with a perfect stranger to help elect a President. I'll remember the fact that they spent countless hours on the weekends making phone calls in a conference room that was part of a truck stop. I'll remember that they gave up the beauty of the fall colors to help elect a President. I'll remember the person who had never been involved before, but decided to go out and knock on doors because they believed in something greater than themselves.
I'll remember that maxed out donor, who after he cut a $2,300 check to Barack Obama, asked what else he could do to help, and began to canvass every weekend in Virginia. I'll remember the retired teacher with a bad back who entered thousands of pages of data in the primary. I'll remember the workers who gave up their vacations to come out on the campaign trail for a few days and canvass for change. I'll remember the staffers who worked 14 hour days, ate a diet where Taco Bell is considered healthy, and put up with lots of people yelling at them because they believed that this country could be a better place.
And I'll never forget February 12th--the day of the Maryland Primary. It dawned cold and snowy. 7 inches of snow, the biggest snowstorm of the year, fell on Hagerstown that day. We went through the snow. It was cold and miserable. 6 volunteers helped us canvass, and get out the vote. Hagerstown has a small, but significant, African American population. We focused most of our efforts on that precinct.
Shortly after lunch, another volunteer and I went back out. By that time, our clothes were covered with snow. We were cold and wet. Our literature was soggy, and our papers useless. We had split the sides of the street. Nobody was home on my side. I noticed my friend was still on a porch talking with an elderly gentleman. I went over to see what the conversation was about. The gentleman was deeply moved by our presence on his doorstep. Here were two white people on his door asking him to vote for an African American.
He retold the stories of his life; of not being able to stay in the motel he worked at because of the color of his skin; of not being able to sit in the good seats at the ballgame or the movies because of the color of his skin. The pain of those experiences was obvious. And then he asked my friend, "What makes you, a white woman, come to my door for this black man running for President?" My friend said, "Because I like what he has to say." The gentleman smiled and asked the same question of me. I responded by saying, "I like his health care plan."
Democracy has always been about ideas and ideals. In this election, a large group of citizens who didn't like the direction this country was going decided to do something about it. We went to the forgotten corners of this country, we knocked on doors and made calls. We talked to people; we were yelled at by some people. We saw Republicans who put partisanship aside and joined us. We saw that this is a great country, which still has a few flaws.
But we ultimately saw that democracy is still about ideas and ideals. We ultimately saw that the American people are willing to listen to new ideas that inspire this country to reach for the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. We saw that democracy is alive and well. We saw that our system works. And by being part of something greater than ourselves, we allowed ourselves to write these words: President-elect Barack Hussein Obama.