On Canvassing
September 20th, 2008 by Matt IngogliaI met some terrific folks while canvassing for Obama, Warner and Gerry Connolly in Fairfax today. A quaint condominium development about 10 minutes away from the Vienna/Fairfax Metro station, it made for a delightful day of door-knocking and good old-fashioned face to face persuasion. Virginia being Virginia, our targets included lifelong union members, single mothers, new citizens, veterans, and even a man who canvassed for Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. There’s something intangibly gratifying about having political heart-to-hearts with complete strangers, knowing they’ve got concerns and have for the moment entrusted a college student like you (!) to address them. It’s a hell of a responsibility, and one that often requires some serious improvising, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’ve said it before and I’ll do so again: canvassing is the most meaningful way to help a candidate or a cause. I applaud the Obama campaign’s outreach innovations (and happen to believe they’ll give us the upper hand on November 4), but newfangled technology isn’t what wins elections. Long hours spent crossing highways, traipsing through unfamiliar terrain, and searching for votes behind every door are what puts a candidate over the top. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and tiresome, but it’s irreplaceable and ubiquitous for a reason: it works. I would encourage anyone, no matter your political persuasion, to get out there and meet the real people who decide the course of history. It’s exciting, informative, and about as American as it gets. But for myself and many others, it’s a personal thing. I want to know that I’m doing the most useful work possible for something I truly believe in.
And if Barack Obama becomes the next President of the United States thanks to a hundred extra votes in Virginia, I’ll be able to tell my kids “Yes, I did.”