In Case You’ve Been Wondering Where I’ve Been…

Jump to Comments

Nevada E-Day Boiler Room

For the last three or so months, I’ve been the Border State Coordinator for Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change in Nevada. I built a program from scratch that facilitated and organized the movement of a fuck ton of out of state volunteers into Nevada. Just how many is a fuck ton? It’s so engrained in my brain not to divulge numbers that I can’t bring myself to put my estimate out into the world but, you know, a lot. Let’s leave it at that.

It was the proudest accomplishment of my life thus far and may very well remain so until the day I up and join the feathered choir.

I often got emails and phone calls from friends, asking if I was having fun. While there were numerous moments of laughter and happytimes that I’ll forever remember fondly, the majority of my time in Nevada was harrowing. The very opposite of fun. I have never in my life experienced such stress and pressure. Working 14+ hours a day, 7 days a week is not natural. Doing so when the fate of the free world hangs in the balance is a recipe for a nervous breakdown. That I managed to muddle through with only a weekend’s worth of wallowing in malaise has proved to me that I can endure absolutely anything and come out the other side stronger.

I’ve never doubted for a moment that we would win this battle. Not once. I never doubted it because from the moment I walked through the door of a coffee shop in Santa Monica for a precinct captain training 11 months ago, I have been surrounded by smart, committed, passionate, kind and determined people who were unwilling to accept a country that didn’t listen and respond to our better angels. People who had never before been involved in politics, thousands upon thousands of them, made huge sacrifices, quit jobs, left school because we all knew, this just had to be.

And so it goes…

Those of you who got off the couch, picked up the phone, knocked on doors, entered data, begged and pleaded and finagled and opened phone banks and offices in towns small and large, country wide, lost sleep, forwent food, cut turf, made walk packets and call after call, after call, cajoling, imploring, begging supporters to take the next step and volunteer no matter how many times you heard “I’m just too busy” or “click”… We did it. As I always knew we would. We are all better people for having done this together. We are all forever changed. Never forget what we have done here. We made an indelible mark on history. We changed the country and the world for the better. We proved we as a nation have the capacity to live up to the promise of the America we read about in history books. We took a step towards that more perfect union. And done once, we can certainly do it again.

Together…

So for those of you who sat back, either out of fear or apathy, I hope you now see what’s possible. This election was not won by ads or pundits or platitudes, it wasn’t won by a narrative shoved down our collective throats. It was won by people, just like you, taking the extra step and engaging in the political process. To quote a dear friend, “Never again will I write a check and think my work is done.”

In Nevada, we hoped to win by 5 or 6 points. Public polls had the race any where from tied to Obama +7 with a couple outliers in double digits (Zogby, pshaw). Our internals were much the same.

We won by 12 points.

How?

We registered over 100,000 new voters. We built an organization that could identify their leanings and attempt to persuade them, along with their 1.4 million fellow citizens. By election day, we had compiled a list of every single registered voter in Nevada who we knew to be a supporter but hadn’t voted early. We knocked on every single one of their doors. Twice. In some cases three times. Four if you count the door hangers we placed on knobs and windshields before the sun came up, telling them where their polling location was. Volunteers from non-battleground states called them. All day.

In short, we turned those mother fuckers out.

That’s how we won Nevada. And Colorado. And Indiana. And Virginia. And mother fucking North Carolina. Not to mention coming oh so close in Georgia (Kerry lost by 17, we lost by 5). And Montana (Kerry lost by 20. We were down 3). And mother fucking North Dakota (Kerry lost by 26, Barack by 8). And how long did it take them to call Arizona?

This is a movement. And unlike the movements of revolutions past, it is universal. It’s comprised not just of students or black folks or workers or women. It is all of us. All ages. All faiths. All back grounds. I had network presidents knocking on doors in Nevada for fuck’s sake. Those of you who were there know the faces of the volunteers in offices the country over can not be painted with one brush. Those of you who sat back, missed out. And may I say, from all of us who kept our shoulders to the wheel, you don’t have to thank us, just pitch in next time.

Because the work has just begun. You can stand up any time. You can take charge any time. You can plug in, get involved, take ownership of your neighborhood, your city, your state, your country anytime. Never doubt that a group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. How do I know? Because we just did.

Seven years after national landmarks were razed by a group of Muslim fanatics in hijacked planes, we elected a first term senator, a black man, a man named Barack Hussein Obama to the White House. Besting the Clintons and the Republican machine in the process. Barack didn’t do it, we the people did it. We are unstoppable when we decide to get the fuck up off the couch.

The pundits are already yapping about the impossibility that President-Elect Obama will live up to his promise. Do not listen to them. It is not his promise to live up to. It is ours.

7 Comments

Filed under Politics