With barely three weeks before the midterms, I find myself volunteering for two different Democratic organizations. I’ll be putting myself out there in situations where I’m a total novice, willing to subject myself to unknown psychic trauma because I’m so desperate to keep Dems in power or remove Pubs from it.
My commitments:
Canvassing for a Lake County (IL) Board member running for re-election. (I’m also helping her with email and social content, but that’s totally in my wheelhouse)
Phone banking for Wisconsin Democrats, hoping to unseat Ron Johnson and re-elect Tony Evers.
I’m taking some vacation time from work for this stuff, but it’s still a lot to add to my workload. I’m going to be exhausted. Plus, I’m aware that I’m potentially setting myself up for a double dose of crushing disappointment.
So … I’m not sure why I’m posting this. Self-care advice? Sympathy? Encouragement? Been-there-done-that wisdom? I just trust all you Dopers and have a feeling I’ll be leaning on you a lot the next 23 days.
Thank you for volunteering to do this work. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. The good news is that this isn’t a long-term commitment, and your life will get back to normal soon, so hang in there.
Regarding volunteering in general, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has the time and energy. It’s a great way to give back to your community and help people or causes you are particularly interested in.
I retired a few years ago and have volunteered quite a lot. Some of it short term, like you, others much longer term. I worked for AARP Drivers Training for ten years and have now become responsible for our town’s regular blood drive with the American Red Cross. I enjoy volunteering and don’t find it particularly stressful or time-consuming. YMMV.
Particularly in regard to the Wisconsin races, the people you’re calling will have likely been absolutely barraged by advertisements, phone calls, knocks at the door, etc. Don’t take it personally if yours is the call that makes them explode. Be polite, don’t argue, get in your script if you can and if not just move on to the next call.
I’ve volunteered for many political campaigns over the years, and it can be boring, aggravating and frustrating - but I’m still glad I did it. Thank you very much for your commitment to grassroots democracy - win or lose, it’s important, vitally so, especially with so many people being cynical and/or apathetic. You should be proud of what you’re doing.
I don’t know how competitive your district is, but the only advice I can give is to be mentally prepared for a potential loss, especially a big one.
I once did a campaign internship in California. Visited 600 houses in a few weeks, tabulated over 7,000 data-entry items, etc…and our candidate lost in a landslide on Election Night. It can be pretty deflating to put in all that mind-numbing work just to see it get washed away in a blowout.
Pace yourself. If you’re not careful, you can find yourself sucked into doing something for The Cause every waking hour.
Timetable what you can do, and when - and crucially, timetable your down time, and brace yourself to say no to all those additional requests for help (I’ve been on both ends of such conversations!).
First phone bank shift in the books. It was actually kind of fun!
Best call: Two or three, actually, where people were eager to chat about their disdain for Trump and Ron Johnson. It was like the voice version of a Dope thread!
Most disappointing: An elderly lady who said she was very upset with politicians like Johnson who tried to scare people about the Covid vaccine. Then she says, “But I’ll never vote for anyone who supports abortion in any circumstance. I can’t abide the killing of little babies.”
Worst: A weirdo paranoid guy who was astounded that I knew his name (it comes straight from the voter rolls) and said he was informing the police about me illegally recording his call (which of course I wasn’t).
I did door-to-door canvassing back in the day (for McGovern, which might date me a bit). It was fun, and our district went strongly for him in the Democratic primary, though he was slaughtered in the general election.
The thought of helping run a phone bank or doing other office-related tasks sounds distinctly like non-fun, but I suppose someone’s got to do it.