Don't read this blog

I figure that this week, instead of blogging, my free time can be better spent making political phone calls.  And I'd like to encourage all of you (at least those in the US) to spend the time you would have spent reading it doing likewise.

MoveOn has made it incredibly easy to do this from your own home.  Go to www.callforchange.com and sign up, and they'll tell you exactly what to do -- who to call, what to say.  You need to be able to get online and call at the same time.  I've been using my cell phone so I don't have to pay for long-distance calls.  Right now, they're trying to ID people who are likely to vote for Democratic candidates in targeted races, but who have a history of not always making it out to vote.

The tool is very elegant -- you click on different buttons to tell them if you get an answering machine or a bad number (or got hung up on), as well as to provide the responses you get if you reach a real live person.  If you get a bunch of no answers in a row, they give you a little pep talk.  And they track how many calls you've made, and how many responses you've gotten, so you can feel like you're making real progress. 

A big thanks to This Mom for pointing this website out to me.  I got overwhelmed by the email, and so got off of the MoveOn list.  I've been meaning to volunteer on some of the local campaigns, but only made it out one afternoon.  After working all day, it's just hard to give up my time with the boys in the evenings or weekends.  And they're not quite old enough for me to drag them with me when I knock on doors.  But this I can do from home, after the boys are in bed. And if I only have time to do it for 10 minutes, I can do it for 10 minutes.   (They ask you to sign up for specific shifts, but that's just a way of making you feel committed -- you can actually hop on any time you have a few free minutes.)

Comments

[CGG]

The problem with Moveon is that they can't coordinate with the Democratic party. People get multiple calls, and man are they sick of them. Another idea is to call your local Democrats and phone bank for them.

[kyra]

yay! for you! and boo hoo to think MoveOn hasn't coordinated with the democrats. i hate to think i'll be double calling. so far, it hasn't happened.

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for the links - I can always count on you to being my mind (with eneregy sometimes following) to that which is purposeful and good for citizenship.

[Meredith]

Thanks for the tip! This is the first election where we can't vote -- we just moved across country too late for the new state's voter registration deadline. This is something I can to to help - it is important this year!

[amy]

I'm voting for a Republican. I can't believe it, but it's true. I really thought that this year I'd vote for a dead ferret in a shoebox so long as it was marked "Democrat", but when it comes down to it, I can't vote for the guy with the pie/sky liberal agenda and the tearful promises never to forget the little people. And in the end -- after four years of living with a spouse's profound mental illness and the social services that go with that sort of thing -- I don't want to support them anymore. In practice, I don't think the social-services people and the vast needy are my friends. I think they'd suck me dry in a heartbeat, if they could, and talk about how moral they were for doing it. I think the semi-stingy ex-Foreign-Service Republican who votes consistently to protect the environment, arts, and abortion rights, and can come up with a thoughtful, realpolitikal protest against going into Iraq -- that guy's my friend. I'm also, in the end, persuaded that it's smarter to vote for a smart guy who is committed to the process, even if it hurts, than to vote for an ideologue promising salvation.

So I'll be voting again for Jim Leach, God damn it.