Boots on the ground

by Doctor Science

The second weekend in October I went down to Philadelphia with a bunch of other NJ Clinton volunteers to do Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) canvassing. PA, of course, is a "battleground" state, and NJ is not. We don't even have a Senate seat up this year.

It turns out I'm not a cost-effective canvasser these days: because of my knees, I move too slowly and painfully, especially up and down the lovely stone stoops in Center City. But I did register one voter ahead of the deadline, and talked to a bunch of people. And the next day I came down with bronchitis and I've been sick ever since.

Since I'm not going to be able to do much more than office support work (data entry, etc.) for the Hillary campaign before November 8th, I'm urging you-all to seriously consider signing up to work some part of Saturday, November 5th through Election Day. They'll need LOTS of people to canvass door-to-door, others to make phone calls, but there will be work for shy people, too: data entry, office support, and driving people to the polls.

It's not that the Presidential race is close and Every Vote Counts lest we have a horrible re-run of 2000: Sam Wang of Princeton Election Consortium (accept no substitutes! Your Yoda he will be!) gives a Bayesian probability of 99% that Hillary will be the winner.

Yet now Republican Senators are talking about not approving *any* possible Hillary nominee and letting SCOTUS be understaffed for *years*, while Representatives are already planning impeachment hearings. It's been going on for decades, but this time they're letting us know ahead of time: the Republican Party will not consider a Democratic President legitimate. When Donald Trump said he's keep us "in suspense" about whether he'd accept the election results if he lost, he was (as usual) baldly stating what the GOP already believes: democracy doesn't count if they don't win.

So we have to A) run up the score for Hillary, to make it as clear as possible how Republicans are rejecting democracy; B) get a Democratic majority in the Senate, so we can have things like a Supreme Court; C) try to get a Dem. majority in the House, so we can have things like a Federal budget.

Canvass for America! but also do it for yourself. The goal of canvassing isn't to debate people, it's to have a series of human-to-human contacts. It's extremely effective and profoundly democratic: in a democracy, power should scale with the number of human connections.

For you as a volunteer, canvassing will re-inforce the feeling of being in a democracy, where everyone is different but all have something to add. It will get you away from the people you know and regularly interact with, give you a sense of our country's scope and diversity.

Years ago in the run-up to the Iraq War, I wrote a post titled "Activism More Satisfying Than Ranting, Scientist Says". In this horribly stressful and drawn-out election season, helping GOTV will let you feel you've done something, it'll reduce your sense of helpless anxiety. It's also physically tiring, which will make it harder to get worked up over minor things.

Here's the link to learn more and to sign up. Depending on where you live, there may be lots to do nearby, or they may be looking for people to travel to the nearest "battleground". Young people, this is where you can shine! You may not have money, but you do have things like energy and better joints. Do what I can't do!

Society Hill Row Home, oil painting by Ed Ryder. The neighborhood really is that pretty, but going up and down those stone steps was *murder*. Someone bouncier than me should be doing it!

Comments

[Ugh]

Just early voted with my 5 & 7 year old boys. Of course this being the HQ of democratic based voter fraud in DC they asked if we needed three ballots.

[Traveller]

Very good...you may have shamed me into doing something positive alos...Thanks

[wj]

Happily, we seem to have a Plan B on offer:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/queen--offers-to-restore-british-rule
Just in case things go south. Which, from somebody's perspective, they will.

Always good to have options.

[Hartmut]

But there are 'good news' from Ohio :-(

Fox News host Bill Hemmer called it “good news” that more whites were casting votes in Ohio while “the black share of the vote is down.”

On Tuesday, Hemmer found a silver lining for Republicans in the midst of national polls showing Donald Trump significantly behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“I’m looking at early voting,” Hemmer told RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer. “You have good news in Ohio, white share of the vote is up 3 points from four years ago, black share of the vote is down 7.”

For his part, Spicer ignored the racial demographics and focused on the GOP’s lead in absentee ballots, which usually show an advantage for Republicans.

“Our people are coming out,” Spicer said.

[Marty]

My significant other, who has never worked for any candidate ever her 50+ years, started yesterday working for the Trump campaign as a get out the vote volunteer. In FL.

Strange times.

[Doctor Science]

Marty:

I would love to hear more about how that's going. I'm working on a post about how (& why) the GOP blew their GOTV advantage, which happened well before this election, but I'd like more of an idea what's actually going on w/ the Trump GOTV from someone who's actually doing it, instead of from articles like this one from US News or this personal report.

For instance, are there a lot of other volunteers? Is she making phone calls to voters, or to round up other volunteers? Is she going door-to-door? that sort of thing.

[Countme-In]

I have a satirical sketch in mind comparing Doctor Science's canvassing efforts for Clinton to Marty's significant other's canvassing operations on behalf of Trump in Florida, if she (or he) is the typical Trump supporter we've come to fear and avoid.

But never mind, since Doc's query is in good faith.

I was thinking about the differences between the style of the boots each are putting on the ground.

Maybe also the difference between Doc's probable politically correct (that's a good thing, until next Wednesday at 12:01 am) reference to Trump as (please don't vote for) Mr. Trump and the significant other's nomenclature when referring to Hillary Clinton.

Alas, I'm in the giving vein today.

[hairshirthedonist]

Doc Sci, do you have any insight on ballot question #2 in NJ? I'm getting a lot of conflicting interpretations about what it ultimately means, even though the question, itself, seem fairly straightforward.