I spent the afternoon today registering voters outside of an international grocery store. It was my first time doing anything like this, and I was doing it through the Obama campaign, although we were willing (and obligated) to register anyone who wanted to register, regardless of party affiliation.
Because we were at an international grocery store it was somewhat fascinating to see the different reactions we got from different ethnic groups. We were warned that very few of the Korean and Vietnamese people would speak English, and that seemed to hold up, even though we had a sign in Korean, Vietnamese and Chinese. Mostly they just gave us blank stares as they walked by. We had a lot of middle eastern and Indian people who would call out that they were already registered as they walked past us, often with huge smiles and fists raised in the air. I choose to believe that their reaction was not about recognizing fellow Obama supporters (although I hope they are), but because they appreciated that they had the right to vote.
Also interesting was that we had many people, from all backgrounds, show surprise at how easy it was to register (its a 7 box form takes 5 minutes at the most to fill out), and we had a lot of foreign people stop to lament that they were not yet citizens and couldn’t vote, but wished they could. We were there for about 2 hours and we collected 9 forms and sent around a dozen forms home with people who either didn’t want us to mail it in for them, or were bringing them to husbands and adult children.
It was really a great feeling to know that I was helping people get registered to vote. Because aside from my political affiliation, I really do believe that people should exercise their right to vote (even republicans). There are people all over the world and throughout history who have died for the right to vote, and yet in this country we are excited if we get 60% turnout. Its appalling.
It was also a really great feeling when people walked by and said “I’m registered and I’m voting for Obama!” Or “Thanks for doing this! Go Obama!” or similar statements that let us know they were with us. Its a great feeling of community, especially in an area that is characterized for being fairly conservative (although it is changing rapidly).
We had 2 or 3 people who made a comment about how we were supporting the wrong candidate, but that was fine, I respect their opinion. I don’t understand or agree with it, but I respect it. And I would hope that they would be respectful of my opinion. But not everyone was.
At one point, a man came by with his teenage son. We did the usual “Anyone need to register to vote?” And I saw the guy roll his eyes and snicker and I thought “well that’s an odd reaction, but whatever.” He and his son walked out and then he came back in and took one of the pamphlets outlining Obama’s energy plan and left with it. I thought “Oh, i must have misunderstood his eye rolling.” Then I saw him call his son over, laughing saying “come here, come here, watch watch,” like a 13 year old about to do something juvenile. And he blew his nose into the flyer. He thought he was HILLARIOUS. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t catch is breath for a few minutes.
Then he came back in and walked past our table again and stopped about 10 feet from us and said “So let me get this straight: You’re registering voters, but you have an Obama sign up?” We said, “We will register anyone.” And he said “That’s not right. You can’t have party stuff up.” One of the other volunteers said calmly, “it’s perfectly legal and allowable,” and then went back to asking other people if they needed to register. The guy said “Its not right.” Then turned away. My friend said, more or less under her breath, “Take it up with the state legislature.” The guy heard her and said “I don’t need to lady.” And then he stalks right up to us, and I’m not gonna lie, my heart was pounding, my body tempture shot up and I knew my face turned red. And I know she was having a similar reaction, but neither of us moved. He got right in her face (he was a good foot taller than both of us) and said “You can’t do this.” And she looked him straight in the eye and said in an soft and calm voice, ”Its perfectly legal.” He said, “Oh really?” And i said, also looking him in the eye and also calm, “It is only at the polls that you aren’t allowed to display candidate information. We are absolutely within our rights here.” And he said again “oh really?” But I think something must have clicked in his mind that made him realize we were right because he just turned and walked away.
And then I started to shake. I wanted desperately to say “So disrespect is one of your family values? Its great how you’re passing that onto your son.” But I am not a confrontational person, and he was scary and so I didn’t say anything.
But what this interaction did for me was to remind me of why I was spending a beautiful sunday afternoon working for Obama, and why I’ll spend as many hours working for this campaign as I can between now and November 4. To me, this man was a perfect symbol of all that is wrong with the other side right now. The side that claims to be about “America”, but only the part of America that is exactly like them (rich, white, militaristic). They claim to support “family values” but include hate and disrespect at the top of the list.
This man’s behavior was juvenile, pointless and utterly uncivilized. I may passionately disagree with the Republican platform, and I may wake up in the middle of the night terrified at the prospect of what will happen to this country if they will win again, but I would never deface a McCain pamphlet, nor would any of my liberal friends. But the fact that he went out of his way to model that behavior for his child is perhaps the most disturbing part of that entire encounter, b/c that is how that kind of behavior gets perpetuated. That’s how those kinds of “family values” become engrained.
