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Phonebank Ponderings

After phone banking for a little while I'm starting to see a pattern emerge among the voters I've talked with so far. (IA, NH, NV and SC)

Almost everyone (besides true progressives) falls into one of 3 groups with varying degress of interest.

Establishment voters (GOP, Rubio, Bush, Hillary)

Emboldened bigots (Die-hard Trump voters)

People sick of the establishment (Trump, Sanders)

First you have the typical establishment voter. This person isn't stupid, they just don't think about politics much. And they trust their party affiliation to decide for them. They don't like change if it's not incremental. These voters are NOT interesting at all. Next group.

Next up are what I like to call the emboldened bigots. These are the people that are exicted for Trump for the wrong reasons. These are the people who are genuinely racist, sexist or otherwise xenophobic and are encouraged now, thanks to Trump, to express their hate publicly. These are the people at his rallies who either assaulted a protester or minority or watched someone be assaulted and did nothing. This group is hopefully very small and also NOT interesting. Next group.

The last group is by far the most interesting group. I believe this group represents the vast majority of Trump movement. It also represents a lot of the Bernie movement. Both are populist anti-establishment candidates. Neither are typical politicians. Most voters in this group don't know a lot about politics, but they know enough to know that their respective parties typical groomed candidates just aren't going to cut it anymore. They just know they want something different. And whether they (or their parents) tend to lean one way or another determines a Bernie / Trump voter.

Will have to see if this holds up over the course of the primary season.

EDIT: 10-May-2016 This absolutely has held up across the rest of the primary states so far. Another thing is that Trump people generally like Bernie and generally despise Hillary. Today is the WV Primary and it looks like CNN heads are starting to question whether or not Hillary can beat Trump in the general. Several polls say Bernie beats Trump by double-digits, while Hillary barely eeks it out in some, and wins by only 5-6 in others.

#notmeus #feelthebern

Our crew from Atlanta canvassing in Anderson, SC.

#feelthebern #notmeus #bernie2016

Phone banking party in Atlanta! We’re not giving up and neither should you!

#feelthebern #notmeus #bernie2016 #stillsanders

Bedridden Bernie Supporter Gets His Vote

Last night, on the eve of the Missouri primary, I was phone banking and talked to a nice lady in St. Louis. I was calling to ask if her husband would be supporting Bernie and she informed me that in fact, he is a huge Bernie supporter, but he was currently in the hospital and not able to vote in the primary. She asked if I knew how to get a hold of an absentee ballot for him. After taking down her information I started calling St. Louis Bernie field offices. Even though it was late, about 9:30 PM local time, I finally got in touch with a local Bernie staff member. I explained the situation and he said he would follow up with her in the morning.

A few minutes ago I called her back to see if she had been contacted. I was pleased to hear she did get resolution on the issue. I was not however happy with the result. Apparently the Bernie staff member got in touch with the local county board of elections. He was told the husband should have requested a ballot ahead of time if he knew he was going to be in the hospital. Of course, he didn’t know for how long he’d be admitted and his wife was more concerned with his 104 degree fever and infection than anything else.

While this is frustrating there is a happy ending to this story. The man’s wife, while a long time Hillary supporter has decided to change her vote to Bernie. Her reason for doing so was twofold: first, to honor her husband’s wishes and secondly because she was simply amazed and inspired by the outpouring of caring, passion and support by us Bernie volunteers. Nearly every day phone banking I am fortunate enough to have at least one real and honest conversation with another American. Sometimes I feel it tug at my heartstrings. But after talking to this lady today I am having to wipe the tears away while typing this post. I just wanted to share this incredible and moving story with everyone. Together we can make this revolution happen!

#FeelTheBern #NotMeUs #Bernie2016 #MoPrimary

A deeper dive by Benjamin Studebaker on the various ideologies driving many of the presidential candidates we've had here in the US.

#feelthebern #notmeus #politics

Brilliantly analytical take on US political landscape over the last 30 years and the rise (and fall) of neo liberalism.

#feelthebern #notmeus #politics

On protesting Trump rallies

I’ve thought about and discussed this over the weekend and I absolutely condone it. This isn’t just some opposition candidate I disagree with. This is a dangerous man spewing hate and encouraging violence. (If you haven’t seen any of this you either haven’t been paying attention or you’re complicit.) He’s running a campaign based on feeding irrational fear and hate. He’s not dangerous because he would necessarily DO any of the things he says, but because what he’s made acceptable public behavior. He’s emboldened the seedy underbelly of America and brought about a movement of latent racism and hate. I think a lot of the damage has been done and has already set race relations back years. And if you’re one of those people that say “I’m just gonna vote for Trump to burn it all down.”, I get that, but that is white privilege speaking. You probably don’t have Latino, Muslim, black or gay friends that fear for their safety. Well I do. He also wants to shut down what little “journalism” left here by enacting draconian libel laws. Yes, that means throw you in jail for criticizing leaders. And if you think your 2nd amendment rights aren’t next, think again. We have to stop this.

#lovetrumpshate #feelthebern #notmeus

Just got my new Bernie shirt created by Shep Fairey! https://store.berniesanders.com/products/shep-fairey-bernie-t-shirt-black

#bernie2016 #stillsanders

Trey and I drove down to Tallahassee early Saturday morning and picked up Tommy - a last minute Facebook add - on the way down in Columbus, Ga. After a few hours of hardcore political talk and contrasting a Drumpf with a Clinton presidency, we arrived at the Tallahassee field office.

The field office was actually just a house in a neighborhood. The owner was a Bernie supporter and in between tenants and decided to let the grassroots team from Florida State set up shop. These guys and gals were super organized and had been working their asses off to get volunteers in to phonebank and canvass.

Our first day we went out and knocked out a few canvassing lists, then came back to the office to do some special assignment phonebanking into the university. A lot of locals came by the office to help phonebank. Mostly younger people, students I think. This was the Saturday night before the big Super Tuesday where Florida, OH, MO, IL and NC would vote. We ordered some pizzas and enjoyed some local beer while spreading the good word about the Bern with some good-hearted panhandle Bernie folks.

The next day we got up and after breakfast Trey and I started working on cutting up the canvassing lists. This isn’t normal to use paper anymore, but this grassroots field office didn’t have access to the miniVAN which uses online databases and mobile apps. But clipboards and paper was what we had so we made the most of it.

We were lucky to get a great neighborhood to canvass. Neil hooked us up! The first day was a very progressive neighborhood. Lots of Bernie folks. Gave away lots of stickers and pins. On Sunday we were in a nearby neighborhood with more Hillary voters. This was more fun though because many of these folks didn’t mind talking about Hillary and Bernie. Out of 100 houses canvassed I was able to talk with 30-40 people and of those I had 3-4 solid 15+ min conversations about their important issues. It was so fulfilling to get out and talk to fellow voters to hear their perspective. What an awesome day canvassing!

On the way home we watched the live call map on berniepb.com on someone’s phone. It looked like thermonuclear war on Ohio and Florida. Later we watched the live coverage by TYT on the Maine caucus. All while going 80mph on I-85 North. What a great time to be alive!

I want to thank Steven, Deanna, Neil and Rolando for welcoming us and being such awesome hosts!

#feelthebern #bernie2016 #notmeus

Missive from a young Trump supporter. Barely missed me. I was standing outside Briar Lake school (polling location) waving a Bernie sign on Super Tuesday. This was in a Jewish suburb of Atlanta. WTH?

#lovetrumpshate #bernie2016