A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a MoveOn event called Call for Change. I’ll be doing this again in a couple of weeks, and I highly recommend it. I had a lot of concerns about doing political phoning, and every one of those concerns was answered.
- First, it was fun. I was meeting other political progressives in my area, and you know, it’s relaxing to just bitch about the state of this country without clenching for the inevitable counter-attack.
- Second, it was well-organized. There was very little figuring out what to do. Everything was provided for us in a clear and understandable way.
- One thing that bothers me is, as a New Yorker, I’m in the bluest of blue states. So there’s the preaching to the choir factor. Well, MoveOn had us phoning into a swing district. I have free weekends on my cell plan, so the fact that I was calling Pennsylvania didn’t bother me, and I was reaching an area where there was an opportunity to make a change.
The calls were non-confrontational. We were essentially gathering phone numbers of Democratic and potentially-Democratic voters so that get-out-the-vote calls could be made nearer election day. When we reached conservatives, we were instructed to thank them politely and hang up. Meanwhile, for the undecided and ignorant, we were feeding them the Democratic name and the idea that they could vote for him.
The whole thing took about three hours on a Saturday afternoon, and I was done by six. So…easy! I recommend the experience.
Okay all I really heard was good way to meet boys.
Which is reason enough!!!
Actually, not so much. I was the youngest person there. It seems to be a thing that 50 and 60 year-old women do. Plus me. And one old guy. And Arthur.
Sorry. I should just let you do it because they need the help, but then you’d blame me. 😀
True dat.
Since I am in the wrong country I can only wish you all luck.I do wish that there were a lot more politicians everywhere who realy wanted to do something about bush’s insane wars.
Personaly I am fortunate to live in area represented federaly by a woman who is a good freind of the peace mouvement and progresive causes.She is also a very down to earth person and I am very glad to say a personal friend.
I’ve been receiving those get-out-the-vote calls for early voting in my state. I intended to vote before going to the Samhain festival, but ended up doing it afterwards. Unfortunately, I only got recorded-message calls, but it didn’t affect my actions much.
I don’t know how the early voting thing works. I know that get out the vote calls are proven to work, but again, I don’t know if anyone has analyzed recorded calls vs. real calls. My gut tells me that recorded calls aren’t as meaningful to people (I hang up on them without finding out what they’re about because I hate them).
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