I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: door-knocking can be mentally fatiguing. Because we are sweeping through precincts a second go-round, most of the doors belong to Independent voters.
Recent research has revealed that really only a small percentage of these “Fencers” as I call ’em, are truly Independent – not leaning towards a particular party. So…we really have no idea what kind of reception awaits us. I’m of the super-sensitive type trying to grow an eighth layer of skin. In the meantime, I usually sit in the car while Art hits the first door, psyching myself up before I join him. Tonight was a tremendously rare one because we both needed a bit of positive self-talk prior to visiting with voters. After some bantering back and forth (“Hey, look- there’s one of your yard signs!” and “We are on the home stretch- only 68 days left!” and “We’ve never had such an incredible volunteer support team before- they rock!”), we had smiles on our faces and were ready to speak to voters!
This was an evening of diversity and contrasts. We met folks with some unusual jobs such as Jessica (names changed) who is a music therapist with a master’s degree, pursuing her doctorate. We met Jim, a flight test engineer. We met Barry, an economics business consultant. We met a man who wanted Art to run for mayor of Cedar Rapids, and a man who wanted Art to run off his front porch. We met people experiencing “political information overload” to such an extent, they were totally confused about who to vote for. And, by comparison, we met people who hadn’t paid any attention to who was running for what, and probably wouldn’t decide who to vote for until November. We met a man who wanted to abolish taxes completely! (Jeff said corporations just pass their tax increase onto the consumer so why tax private citizens? Not fair, says Jeff, as he waters his lawn with clean water obtained from an incredibly complex municipal water system, and while his children attend our top-notch public school system.) Then we met a man who wanted an “equal dollar” tax system. (Darren wanted every dollar of income taxed, regardless of the source.)
It ended up being another good night, despite (or perhaps because of?) the medley of opinions. We met some neat people and agreed with a lot of them. And the rest? Well, they gave Art something to think about…and me something to FaceBook : )
