Our Tuesday Night Postcard Parties
Messages from the Continental Edge to Swing State Voters
I have friends and neighbors who support Barack Obama but, like me in previous years, don’t go much farther than keeping current, talking with friends, donating a few bucks and always voting. They aren’t into phonebanking*, canvassing or ‘grouping up’, but they want to do more in the 2008 election. And so we love Lynn Branco’s ‘event’ linked to a national event: Postcards for Votes. It’s a terrific reason to gather locally and discuss which of Barack’s policies will benefit our community and why, and how that translates nationally and globally. There’s not much surfing in Ohio, but they need the jobs that will be created in clean energy industries. Now shuttered factories still have their prime transport locations.
Thanks to the postcard format, we each communicate why we support Obama/Biden to a voter in a swing state. The postcards are sorted by message to target states from a central location. No postcard party is required. Anyone can write a card when they have the time. It has been terrific preparation for me when I phone bank and travel to swing states to talk to voters. Last I heard from Lynn, we had mailed over 12,000 cards from Southern California via her event posting since the start of the general election. I bet we’ll over 16,000 by the deadline.
You might think a postcard couldn’t win an undecided voter over, but it could be just the message they are waiting to hear. Every engagement I have with voters in this campaign leaves me with the strong impression that no other effort so tirelessly, directly, and personally connects with people like we do in the Obama campaign. Phone banking is a great way to meet fellow supporters, but it’s only measured significant impact on election results is during GOTV efforts.
The message we send is that we don’t seek the liberal vote, the blue vote, the Democratic vote. We want the vote of anyone who believes that truth is better than fiction, that courage is better than fear, that intelligence trumps bravado, that those who put their lives on the line deserve the best we have to offer, that a good education can transform a society, that tolerance breeds understanding and that we are one people to whom much is given. And so from us, much is expected. We can work our way back, one voter at a time.
* for research notes on the efficacy of phone banking, go to the page below
http://research.yale.edu/GOTV/?q=node/10
