According to Sarah Palin, I do not live in the Real America. I did not grow up in the Real America, and I do not have any connection to the Real America. If she knew what Real America was, she wouldn’t have been so sure of herself out there on the campaign trail. Here’s what she doesn’t know about the America I live in.
For the past few months, we have been working for the Obama campaign as much as possible. Myself, my wife, my brother, my mother, my father, my aunts, my cousins, my friends, my neighbors. We have donated money and time, sacrificed sleep and food, and canvassed, called, texted, and spoke to as many people as we could. I canvassed at least 7 times in the past week and a half, knocking on hundreds of doors in addition to making hundreds of phone calls.
What really sums up my America, however, was Election Day. Our house was mission control for our region’s get out the vote operation. Travis was in charge of organizing volunteers and getting them out to the neighborhoods and on the phones to the voters. People started showing up at 8:30 AM saying “I’m here all day, tell me what I can do to help.” We hit the streets in 3 shifts (9:00, 1:00, and 4:00). We made phone calls all day long. There were somewhere between 50 and 70 people in and out of our house all day long; total strangers, all happy to be around each other contributing to the same cause.
I saw a McCain canvasser come down to our end of the road and I literally saw him stop in his tracks when he saw the 15 Obama cars in front of our house. He didn’t know if he should keep going.
We drove people to the polls who couldn’t drive. We dropped off absentee ballots for those who forgot to send them in. We answered questions of confused voters who received misinformation (frequently from the other side). One man was sent away from the polls because a POLLWORKER told him that registered Independents could not vote. Many students received text messages saying they could vote on Wednesday. There were even reports of McCain supporters showing up to Obama canvassing locations, stealing all the paperwork when no one was looking and then throwing it away somewhere unknown.
If this election showed us anything, it’s that there is no such thing as stooping too low for Republicans. Now, I know that not every single Republican is a bad person, but as a whole, they have no problem fighting dirty.
As I was turning in someone’s absentee ballot downtown, a woman walking past me said (in response to my “change” sticker) “It will be change allright, for the worse!” I told her “Keep your thoughts to yourself.” I haven’t said anything mean to McCain supporters. I haven’t yelled at anyone on the other side. I try to respect people.
But what we have this year is a Republican party that is down and out. They’re afraid. They don’t know what to do, so they start fighting dirty. Try anything! Disenfranchise voters all day long. They don’t care. Win at any costs, no matter how unfair it may be.
The reason they were afraid is because of our organization. At 5:00 PM, we had completed all of our calls and door knockings. Headquarters told us to head out to the student section of town to help out the canvassers there. Once we arrived, they told us they had such an overwhelming number of volunteers respond that they didn’t need us. So, did we give up and wait? No! We started calling Colorado and Nevada voters to get them out to the polls. After a few hundred calls, we got word that Obama had won Pennsylvania. The regional leader told us to stop calling and go to headquarters to start celebrating.
Upon arrival, the mood was electric. Volunteers started showing up, bringing beer, wine, food, and excitement. NPR had a reporter there to interview campaign workers. A large TV was showing the results as they came in. The crowd went through the roof as Ohio went blue. We knew it was pretty much over at that point.
From there, we went to a bar which was the official Democratic watching station/party. They had 3 movie projector screen TV’s going on the wall, including Fox news, which as we all know is the final say on who wins (I’m looking at you 2000). All of a sudden, without much prompting, the screens read “Projected winner, Barack Obama.” The place lit up. People were screaming, jumping, crying, laughing, hugging each other. It was utter jubilation.
Florida still hadn’t come in with a winner, so despite our joy, we wanted the icing on the cake. We had all worked so hard for so long that we weren’t going to be happy unless we won Florida. The numbers were coming back favorably, with most big counties overwhelmingly blue. Broward county was 70% for Barack Obama and Dade was near 60%. Finally, the moment we had been waiting for came. Florida went blue. We didn’t mess it up this time, we actually came out on the right side. It was amazing, totally stunning. The tears came even harder, as we realized that we made our state a legitimate battleground and we were personally on the front lines. Champagne bottles popped, I bought a bottle of Ommegang Belgian Ale with a cork, just for the pop. I even renamed it Obamagang.
Barack’s speech floored the whole crowd. Hardly a sound was made from the entire bar as he spoke. We yelled “Yes we can!” back at the TV, drunk on pride, exhaustion, and of course, some beers.
It truly was a historic night.
Now, we’ve got a tough road ahead of us. The Democrats are solely responsible for their success or failure. I truly hope that Barack will motivate and lead the nation just like he has his campaign. We shall see what will happen; however, I feel that America has started to make the right choices for getting us back on track.
