Canvassing tips - get out the vote!

[Taylor4change]

Run time: 03:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTYbo-IwgyA   Posted on YouTube: September 03, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 12, 2008 By DU Member: Taylor4change Views on DU: 472

 
Tips for canvassing and more to come - be prepared if you're going out there!!

[szatmar666]

1. camera in people's faces?!!

what a crazy dumb idea! Try without the camera. I do the rounds in Sensenbrenner's district near Milwaukee. It doesn't get more republican than that even in Texas and had much nicer experience talking to born again christian republicans.

[Taylor4change]

2. It was for protection - not that it wound up working well

We saw a buncha nice people, too - but I wanted to alert people to some of the bad stuff you run into - that's not the worst of it, either!

[szatmar666]

3. yeah, I usually don't bother when they don't want to talk

just say goodbye and that's that. But every now and then they talk and the two most important issues that I get around here is A) abortion and B) guns. My answer to both makes them think, which is good.

A) abortion: I always ask an obvious question: "I assume this is important for you because you care more about saving babies than politics" and of course they do and then I proceed to explainin how in my home country (Romania) the commies outlawed abortion in 1964 and all of it went underground and how horrible that was for women and doctors alike. Then I explain to them why the lowest abortion rate is in the Netherlands (5/1000): women's shelters and helping women with adoption, welfare and universal single payer healthcare the kind of stuff Obama is talking about, not republicans.

B) guns: most of them believe that they need them to protect themselves from the government. I tell them the story of the 50,000 anti communist guerrilla fighters in the Carpathian mountains who fought communism for 20 years (1945-1965) with no success, 2000 executed or tortured to death the rest in labor camps. these were all combat veterans of WW2, and then I ask them if they are veterans with actual combat experience ... that usually makes my case, if they are I ask them about infantry tactics which they enjoy and realize very fast that their gun is useless against a professional military ;)

Overall you have to make them enjoy a conversation and think. even if they will never vote democrat, that's a good thing cause at least they will not easily buy into propaganda that demonizes us.

[Taylor4change]

4. Excellent advice!

And just walking away is usual, but some of them don't give you the chance! I just wish I had video of the guy who saw my t-shirt and started screaming swears at me from the kitchen while his dog kept attacking the door... I mean come on - he didn't even have to answer the door (and didn't).. and I wish I could post the very last video I shot, but I can't. I'm just going to post some of the weirder stuff when I get it all edited.