Surviving The Election

Walking The Walk

Since it is the season for such things, a brief political aside, but one that isn't particularly partisan or about marketing.

In a past presidential election, I was particularly interested in the US Presidential election, and fortunate enough to have personal time accrued and a relatively stable job. So I went all-in on the campaign. Wound up writing a book about the experiences, spent thousands of hours phone banking and walking the streets in a swing state, donated the personal maximum and was a loyal foot soldier in the front lines of a Get Out The Vote campaign. By the time I was done, I had probably talked to a few thousand people, and had experiences that will stay with me for a very long time.

It wasn't a universally great experience. I ran into unforeseen expenses from my car getting broken into, which led to a dead battery, which led to a lost weekend and serious expense in getting home again, then getting the car fixed while remote. I was interviewed for local television, but since I didn't go along with their preset narrative of Angry People From Other States, the interview did not get aired, which did not exactly fill me with good feelings about the press. There were many hot and sweaty days spending my time in not very efficient ways, talking to people who were tired of the entire process, or trying to overcome the fatigue, cynicism and go-it-alone tendencies of my fellow canvassers. It cost money, gave me sore feet, and at the end of the process, the disappointment was acute.

But what I also got out of it was a much deeper understanding and charity for my fellow citizens. Undecided voters in particular became time-stressed people with much harder burdens in life than I, hopefully, will ever have to bear. Local organizers and politicans who got support from the national campaign become additional points in the way, and I felt good when they won, even when the bigger contest went the other way. People in my social circles thanked me, strongly for my work and choices. I made friends and contacts, and as always when you get out of your comfort zone, grew as a person.

It was also oddly akin to my past career as an original musician... in that when we played a free or unannounced gig, or one with a very small cover charge, people were much more likely to be critical. But when the crowd had to pay to see us, had heard something about us from a reviewer, or even just caught the news that we weren't local (in that we would travel and play cities outside of our home area), those crowds were always much more positive, much faster to cheer us on. The act of paying made people invested in our music, and much more willing to go along with what we were trying to do.

The same, of course, goes with candidates. People who I didn't feel very strongly about supporting in the primaries got better service from me, as a canvasser and advocate, in the general election. Even though they were not my first choice. Part of this was clearly the urgency of the event, or the strong preference that I had to avoid the ascension of their opponent, but that wasn't the total appeal. Buying in made me connect, even when I didn't want to.

So if you find yourself just wishing the process was over, or getting through the campaign as if you were on an uninspiring diet or weight loss regimen, I've got one contradictory and difficult piece of advice for you: commit more. Lean in. Not so much for your dislike of one particular candidate, but for your strong love of country, and your desire to see a better path in the future. Stand up for a candidate in real life, and away from the empty rhetoric of your own social media circle or like-minded peer group.

It's not easy work, something you can declare on your taxes, or even something that will result in gratification for, well, roughly half of the audience. But you will gain a much better understanding of why things are the way they are... and you'll be forever changed about the way you think about candidates, and the people who support them.

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