What is the takeaway from two days of New Yorkers canvassing in Pennsylvania?
No one is home these days. Unless you are delivering takeaway. Or they are not home to those who do not know them, as many people on whose doors we knocked were clearly behind, somewhere not open to a stranger. Or they knew what we were up to and their suspicions led them to deflect contact. Those we did speak to opened with caution, as did we, becoming a bit more responsive as we recited our request in the form of questions; are you voting, how are you voting (in-person, absentee, by mail), will you vote for the whole Democratic side, do you know you need to turn the ballot over to do so? We recorded responses, if we got them, in our MiniVAN canvassing app. We gushed over the delightfully excessive Halloween decorations at one supporter’s house (she took a picture you are not going to see because I look like an old man in a hat; certain truths are best suppressed). Even one of the Republicans we spoke to, who should not have been on our GOTV list, was quite civil. One even offered my friend a beer after announcing he was in the other party. In several cases, particularly in Bucks County, we suspected a liberal Democratic woman somewhere in the house (on our list) while the clearly conservative Republican male (not on our list) answered the door and would not call her to speak to us. We received only one truly nasty response. And we saw a lot of signs, the best one outside a house with two trucks bearing Vietnam Veteran plates. “This veteran does not vote for convicted felons.” His wife was a delight; I think he was preparing for the football game.
The Trump/Pence sign in one front yard; ironic or had they just kept it up for the past four years?
So this is America. Two of us had spent the prior two days in the Hannah Arendt Center conference on Cosmopolitanism and Tribalism at Bard College before we started our 4 hour drive in my EV to Philly. Of course we did. As the canvassing organizer in Philly said, “That’s exactly what they think all us NYers are coming from!” But I’m a performer; I can keep my subtext to myself. At that conference, Sebastian Junger’s critique of the damage caused by constant cellphone use (he uses a flip-phone and keeps his daughters away from smartphones) echoed, though of course it would be exactly those devices we would use to track our canvassing. As did Fintan O’Toole’s reminder that a country (Ireland) can get over tribal divisions and move forward. And that decreasing religious power helps that process. Keep that in mind.
In NE Philadelphia, all of us (around 50-60) got a pep talk at the Country Club Diner from Pramila Jayapal, who represents the state of Washington in the House of Representatives. There she was in PA to remind progressives to keep at it. We heard from someone that the daughter of murdered Russian dissident Alexi Navalny was also in the state. Big shots are showing up everywhere for each side. Who is the supporting act, we canvassers or them?
In Bucks County, one neighbor (not on our list but clearly on our side) told us that Trump was in town, in nearby Feasterville. Indeed he was, serving up French fries at a local McDonalds to establish his working man creds, prompted apparently by Kamala Harris claiming to have once worked at such a place. Or perhaps he was there to audition for Ronald McDonald. Perhaps all the (S)Trumpets were at that event in the next town over. Perhaps that kept them away from us. Thank you McDonalds. Imagine Navalny’s daughter being handed a burger by the Putin Pimp.
While my husband and I have Trump/Vance yard signs on our street in rural NY (one neighbor/six signs), to this campaign carpetbagger walking through unfamiliar streets, such signs made it difficult not to feel like an invader. Why do they need us here? Why must we come over the border to do this? Of course it’s because their state (PA) is a “must win” “swing” state and ours (NY) is not.
Because PA swings both ways.
Because their Senate seat is up for grabs and this is the kind of grabbing we should do.
Because fracking divides and unites the state, earthquakes or energy?
Because we have to do something, anything, to feel we are impacting the result, more dreaded at this point than hoped-for.
Because we think we can clear the psychosis affecting this country through enthusiasm for democratic tradition and process.
Because we drove there, at my insistence, in our electric car, even though it meant being distracted by the logistics of finding a charger, because infrastructure improvements are not happening as fast as they should.
Because the getting there matters, as does what we do when we get there.
Because I am fairly prosperous and retired and can take the time to do this while many friends and family cannot.
Because I moved up a ladder and I still look behind me.
Because, echoing almost everyone in the large crowd of volunteers at the in the diner, we don’t want to wake up to Trumptastrophe on November 6 and feel we failed because we didn’t try hard enough.
Because the folks in that room of volunteers are the kind of people I feel comfortable with; the closest thing to church I care to experience in my adulthood.
Because the other “church” and their Lizard King believes in ignorant aggression, supported by falsity, fear and the will to violence.
Because our actions are a “yes” in an ocean of “no’s” even more damaging than climate change.
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