I've been volunteering at the Nye County Democratic office here in my town, and for the last couple of weeks have been given lists of people who live in the county seat 65 miles away and been canvassing them by phone. I asked if they'd answer our survey questions about Shelley Berkeley (who is running for Senate against Heller), Steven Horsford (who is running in the newly created CD4) and, of course, President Obama. Out of about 120-140 folks on the list, about 75% were not at home; some numbers disconnected, and a couple of wrong numbers. Last week's list were registered Democrats; of the 3 or 4 that I was able to talk to, 2 were going to vote for the President, the other 2 were not. One of the other 2 (honest to God) told me that the only reason he was listed as a Democrat on our records was because when he voted for the first time (in 1956), he registered as a Democrat because his parents were Democrats. The man is in his 70's; do you think he might want to change his registration so I (or others in our office) don't call him again? Sheesh.
But the best was today where I called "non-partisans" or Independents. Of the same number of folks on the list, I reached about 10. One (ONE!) said that she'd vote for Obama and was uncommitted on the other two; a few just politely refused the survey, and 3 or 4 of them hung up (loudly!) when they heard I was from the Nye County Democrats. Only one man who was registered with the American Independent Party was nice enough to talk with me. Of course, he's not voting for Obama, but he was civil at least.
I understand that I live in a red county; I understand that with a lot of hard work in 2008, we turned the county pink (the President only lost our county by a couple of thousand votes); and I understand that with a lot of hard work and great organization, we were able to turn Nevada blue.
But there are a lot of folks out there who rely on Fox for all of their news (or Rush or Glenn Beck or "Heil" Hannity or the rest of the right wing noise machine) and won't listen to a differing opinion if their lives depended on it. Some of these people are relatives of mine. It's hard not to become disillusioned; but damn it, I refuse to bow down to these troglodytes and knuckle draggers.
Our local Obama office is opening this Sunday and Debbie Wasserman Schultz is coming to talk with us. I am determined that all of our efforts this time will not be in vain and intend to work with the campaign, doing whatever they need me to do. I can't contribute money this time because I'm not working anymore, but I can contribute all of the time they want from me, because that's the way we're going to get the President re-elected.
We may not turn the county pink this time (it's a crap shoot at this point), but we're damned well going to keep the state blue and keep the President working for us, the people, and not the 1-2%ers out there who want to decimate this country.
