It was such a mild and beautiful afternoon that not many people were home to answer the door. But that didn’t stop my friend from running through his turf.
He had been out knocking doors for a local Democratic nominee in a quiet, tree-lined suburban St. Louis community – one that’s so well known for being Democratic that in the past, gerrymandering Republicans have carved it up with street-level precision.
You’d not think that you’d come across a lifelong Republican in that neighborhood.
But when my friend knocked on the door at a classic St. Louis brick home, that’s exactly who answered.
The man who answered the door explained that he had voted for Reagan, Bush, McCain, and Romney. He had even voted for Trump in 2016. But he confessed that Trump was so much worse than he thought he would be. He couldn’t bring himself to vote for him in 2020, so he stayed home instead.
He said that he felt betrayed by his party. So this year, this cycle, he isn’t staying home.
He’s voting a straight Democratic ticket.
“Why do you think he told you all of this?” I asked my friend.
“I think he just wanted to tell someone,” he said. “It was clear that he’d been dealing with this foundational, internal struggle.”
“You were there to bear witness,” I said.
“I think so,” he replied.
I was curious if my friend’s experience at the doors here in Missouri was unique – or if others were seeing something similar. I knew just who to ask.
She’s one of the most dedicated canvassers I’ve ever met. After having knocked thousands of doors, she’s comfortable being in that space of potential disagreement – a place you need to be able to navigate well if you’re going to move the needle.
She comes at that comfort level honestly enough; she knocks doors in Tennessee (among other states). As you can imagine, she talks to a lot of Republicans.
“There’s so much fatigue on the GOP side,” she explained. “They’re sick of MAGA and Trump and negativity. They’re looking for an alternative.”
She finds common ground in the near-universal hatred of school vouchers, in the desire for common sense gun reform, and the distaste for arming teachers. She talks to them about Tennessee’s maternal health care deserts and how they’re a direct result of refusing to expand Medicaid and passing cruel and extreme abortion bans.
Not every conversation is easy. But she’s out there to at least introduce them to the idea of voting for Democrats.
She holds the door open for them. Whether they walk through is their decision.
She’s been surprised at how receptive they’ve been.
“I honestly think we could heal the world with canvassing,” she said.
She’s not far off.
Image credit: Republicans for Harris https://x.com/RepsForHarris
When I was a little girl, bearing witness was something you learned about in church. Bearing witness to the Lord was sharing the good news – going out and spreading the gospel. It was about persuasion and performance – about sharing your own salvation with others to bring them into the fold.
In politics we are accustomed to that flavor of bearing witness – we’re trained on how to share our “why,” give personal endorsements, and tell “stories of self.”
But bearing witness has another, in some ways more intimate, meaning. Bearing witness can be simply holding space open for another person – being a compassionate observer. Rather than being the speaker, it’s being the listener – letting another person share their story, their struggle, their thoughts.
It’s listening without judgment.
Right now, holding space to simply allow another person to feel seen and valued and understood feels like a radical thing to do.
We should do more of it.
As I was reflecting on my friends’ experiences at the doors, I realized that they – and plenty of other Democrats who are out knocking doors these days – are bearing witness in both meanings of the term. Of course they’re sharing their support of the Harris campaign.
But they’re also holding space for Republicans who are looking for an alternative, and simply need someone to listen. Particularly for those who have been rock-ribbed, card-carrying Republicans, they have a lot to process.
Republicans across the country are awakening to the idea that their nominee for president is a fraudster and a felon. They’re watching their nominee hawk cryptocurrencies and sell silver coins less than two months before the election. They’re hearing his apocalyptic rants and lies about pets being eaten. They’re reading his cultish ALL CAPS missives.
And they’re witnessing fellow Republicans turn their backs on that chaos and embrace competence and change. Well-known and well-respected Republicans have endorsed Harris (like Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan, just to name a few). Hundreds of Republicans with ties to the national security world have endorsed Harris. Over 200 former staffers of Bush, McCain, and Romney have endorsed her, as has the co-chair of Nikki Haley’s Iowa campaign and three former chairs of the Maine Republican Party.
There are plenty more.
Sure, some Republicans will swaddle themselves in a Don’t Tread On Me flag and pretend their nominee isn’t de-compensating before their very eyes. Some will turn up the volume in the echo chamber to drown out reality. Some will simply close their eyes.
But some will be ready to have a conversation.
It’s our job to knock on those doors – and when they open, be ready to listen.
Let’s get to work.
Actions for the Week of September 24, 2024
Here’s the part where – if you are so inclined – we roll up our sleeves and engage in what I like to call Action Therapy. Each Tuesday I share a few “small things” – usually a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. You can tuck these actions into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.
Small Thing(s) to Read: Election Law Blog + Banned Books Week!
First, Rick Hasan writes/compiles Election Law Blog; he has a new article at Slate entitled A Last-Minute Effort to Mess With the 2024 Vote Is Underway. It’s Scarier Than Expected.
**A note that it was written before the 11th-hour effort to change Nebraska’s electoral college vote allocation was thwarted.**
With early voting already underway, one might think that the rules of the game for November’s election are set, and that it will all just come down to turnout, as the cliché goes. Well, not so fast. In North Carolina, Georgia, and Nebraska, at least, Republicans have been looking for ways to make last-minute changes to the rules to their advantage in the hopes of eking out a presidential victory for Donald Trump that seemed all but assured a few months ago.
It’s a great piece that provides the lay of the land that’s before us right now. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/georgia-nebraska-north-carolina-2024-election-rules-scary.html
Also check out Election Law Blog, which is a fantastic resource for election law news. Find it here: https://electionlawblog.org/
Second, this week is Banned Books Week! That means we’ve got a dual “thing to read” and “action.”
The American Library Association has loads of infographics and resources to check out – including a list of the top ten most banned books. (That list can be found here: https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 – or you can check out the top 100 most challenged books of the last decade here: https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019)
Also check out this really great interactive map that shows the dramatic increase in challenges from 2014 to today: https://www.ala.org/bbooks/censorship-numbers
That leads to an easy action: head over to your local library to check out a commonly banned book. Did you know that circulation numbers provide librarians with proof that the community is interested in reading them? According to Banned Books Week, “Library staff can use circulation data to support keeping the books on shelves when they are challenged and to justify ordering more books by the same authors or on the same topic.”
So, head over to your local library and check out a banned book.
Image credit: ALA.org
Small Action to Take: Postcards to Voters
There are so many great opportunities to write postcards to voters – but this recent one hit my inbox over the weekend from Tony the Democrat.
As of his email, Postcards to Voters had active campaigns for:
Sherrod Brown in Ohio for U.S. Senate
Curtis Hertel in Michigan for Congress
John Mannion in New York for Congress
Beth Helfrich in North Carolina for State House
If you’re a postcard writer, it’s an excellent time to commit to writing 10 or 20 cards. New addresses and campaigns will be coming fast and furious in the coming weeks!
Go to https://postcardstovoters.org/addresses/ and follow the directions if you’re already an approved writer. If you’ve never written postcards with Tony The Democrat before, you just have to go through a simple approval process. Start the ball rolling by emailing Join@TonytheDemocrat.org. (Full instructions available here: https://postcardstovoters.org/volunteer/).
Small Event to Attend TONIGHT: DCCC Ballot Cure Hotline Training and TOMORROW: Republicans for Harris/Walz Phone Bank
TONIGHT: So, are you ready to join the fight to win back the House? Join the DCCC’s Ballot Cure Hotline Training to learn how you can protect the vote this historic election season! Help us protect voters across the nation as we work to take back the House.
In this training, you’ll learn how to:
- Answer common voter questions on the Hotline
- Use Hotline technology to answer incoming calls
- Make outgoing ballot cure calls
- Sign up for Hotline volunteer shifts with the DCCC Voter Protection Ballot Cure team!
No prior voter protection experience needed, but all volunteers interested in running the Hotline must attend a full 1-hour training. Do that tonight at 7pm eastern! Register here: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/675121/
TOMORROW (and every Wednesday): Maybe you’d like to have the same kinds of conversations that this week’s essay talks about – but knocking doors isn’t in the cards for you right now. Why not try a phone bank? You can have the same kinds of conversations with people over the phone.
Republicans for Harris/Walz is hosting an official Harris/Walz phone bank each week on Wednesdays at 5pm eastern. Join the Republicans for Harris-Walz coalition to make calls to voters to elect Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot.
Register here: https://events.democrats.org/event/689266/
Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! If you love what I do and you want to support it, consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. It means a lot!
Small Deeds Done 