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| Not Adolph Reed |
The suspension of Bernie Sanders' 2020 Presidential Campaign a couple of months ago in the face of the growing COVID-19 crisis left me a bit unmoored. In the early days of the campaign I was moved to sign up for a stint of calling maybe once every two months or so, when panic set in-- something I could do from home as I felt like it thanks to the service of an automatic dialing program provided by the campaign. But as Primary Season approached, although I am probably the opposite of a people person, I became a bit obsessive about it, calling 5 hours each weekend leading up to Super Tuesday. Between New Years and the end of February I made hundreds of calls to at least 12 early primary states. I started to see the phone script in my head when I closed my eyes at night. When one of my automatically dialed calls on a get-out-the-vote weekend during the Nevada caucus reached a bemused and slightly annoyed Bernie organizer from his polling place, I figured I might have maxed out my usefulness as a phone volunteer. In any case, I had in the meantime discovered the much less efficient but infinitely more satisfying activity of door-to-door canvassing.
While I was making calls, by far the most common outcome of a dial was no contact: reaching an answering machine; getting a wrong number; being hung up on. A couple of times I would be conversing with someone distracted by an activity going on at the same time-- guests arriving for a party, or the engagement of a car salesman-- but happy to continue talking, until some missed cue clued me in that I was speaking not to a human but to a simulation of one, referred to in the trade as a "bot", a program designed to prank the unsolicited phone caller into wasting a huge amount of time talking to no one. While I can see how something like that could traumatize an unsuspecting canvasser, I'd been warned so I mostly felt pleased with myself for catching on. The technology was impressive, but it deterred me not in the least from moving on to my next victim.
When I did make contact, I was happy to talk to anyone who would let me, on the theory that no one who had made up their mind indelibly would waste another second allowing me to try to change it. I think I was able to maybe 3 or 4 times a weekend, and to plant seeds of encouragement to dream far more frequently. Not always. There was a gentleman working the sandwich counter of a deli in New Hampshire on what must have been a slow afternoon who seemed civil enough and interested in conversation until it became clear that his libertarian leanings impelled him to disagree on principle with every point I made. I only wasted 20 minutes or so with him before I excused myself from bothering him any further-- even though he gave every indication that he could have kept gainsaying me indefinitely. Most of the people I reached did not have that kind of agenda.
Trump supporters flummoxed me at first until I realized that they too could possibly be persuaded. They were mostly polite when I identified myself as a Bernie volunteer (except when they weren't of course-- but that was true of Warren supporters too). I had good conversations with a couple of them including one in Minnesota who, based on the trajectory of the conversation into the camp of radical labor politics might have switched to Bernie by November had the primary gone differently. Biden voters who remained on the line with me were more interested in hearing my reasons for supporting Bernie and assuring me of their sympathy for his programs than in challenging me. Biden was probably the least common candidate mentioned by the people who spoke to me, bolstering my theory that his supporters at that stage of the primary season, presumably making up the bulk of the hangups, were not interested in challenging their support for their hoped for vanquisher of Trump.
Out of hundreds of calls, the candidates mentioned least by those I spoke to were Biden, Warren and Buttigieg. Most of those I reached who weren't undecided or leaning toward Bernie but willing to listen were for Klobuchar oddly enough. The campaign explicitly asked volunteers not to disaparage other candidates-- a request I honored for the most part. But I made an exception only for last minute democrat Michael Bloomberg whose ads were flooding the airwaves at the time and generating excitement among the toadies of the mainstream media discouraged by Joe Biden's uneven performance on the campaign trail and in the polls, especially against Bernie Sanders. One woman in Colorado who expressed an interest in Bloomberg on the theory that an actual billionaire could surely defeat Trump, listened long enough to my objections to the man that she was convinced. I felt bad when after 30 minutes of agreeable conversation in which we came to strong agreement on reasons not to vote for Bloomberg, she admitted with regret that she had already sent in her mail-in ballot for him.
Arnie, a 35 year old in Iowa who expressed strong support for Bernie at the mention of his name took me aback when he told me he wouldn't vote. When I asked why, he muttered a word I couldn't understand. I had to ask him 3 times before he said in a loud agitated voice, "FELON!" I hadn't filled myself in on voter eligibility requirements in Iowa before calling, but it didn't sound right. He had served his time, surely he could vote. He insisted in an agitated tone that he was sure he couldn't. I told him my opinion of that, asked him to tell his friends to vote on his behalf and told him that I would in any case. After hanging up I checked and Arnie was of course right. Iowa is one of three states (along with Kentucky and Virginia) that permanently disenfranchise anyone convicted of a felony. (Indeed I gave a thought to Arnie and my incarcerated brothers and sisters when I cast my own vote by mail last month.)
My most unforgettable encounter was probably with Melrita from Detroit, a 53 year old counselor of some kind (she was receptive most of all about the mental health clause of Bernie’s Medicare for all plan). At the time, Bernie was the front-runner in Michigan and many other states, and according to a host of concurrent polls, the presumed nominee if trends continued. He had won Michigan in the 2016 primary and I knew he was polling well with all groups under 45 but particularly with persons of color so I was expecting an easy time of it that day, but Melrita had other ideas. She told me she preferred Andrew Yang--who was performing poorly and was rumored to be close to dropping out of the race-- because Bernie was not promising reparations to American Descendents of Slavery; and while no one still campaigning at that point was, including Yang, at least Yang was promising to give Black people some money. She was pretty sour on Bernie, said she was going to vote for him if Yang dropped out but she wasn’t too crazy about the idea. We had a very long conversation that was very honest (on her part especially) and difficult but not unpleasant or unproductive. She was very sweet to me considering I was a know-it-all trying to tell her why this white man who was not promising reparations or universal income for her and her family was going to be a good thing for black people. Her children had been to college, so free college for all wasn't particularly moving her. She actually led with Student Loans, that was her biggest concern as a mother of college graduates. She didn’t realize Bernie proposed cancelling student debt for all -- no questions asked-- and she didn’t entirely believe me when I told her, but promised she’d go check it out. So it ended with her bitching at me about having to vote for Bernie—a totally unexpected (and revoltin’) development.
I sort of knew going into the conversation that Bernie was lukewarm on the concept of reparations, but I didn’t want to speak for him so I just went from the angle of let’s make life better for all. She kept coming back to that’s great but what is he going to do for black people specifically. I helpfully suggested that I'd heard that Bernie's views on the issue had been shaped by Cornel West and Adolph Green. She was familiar with Dr West's support of Bernie Sanders but not fully convinced by it. I tried prison, police and criminal justice reform as evidence of policies that would disproportionately help people of color but she was well-versed on the percentage of the black community that that specifically addressed and she resented the notion that helping convicts and those caught in the legal system automatically helped every black person. She was rather determined not to be excited about Bernie being the best she could hope for. Frustrating!
After the call I looked into the reparations issue, and realized I had Adolph Reed's name wrong again.* I had guessed correctly (but kept to myself) that Bernie did not want to support reparations without seeing a plan, did not want the government to write a $100,000 check to every black descendant of a slave and then declare itself to have repaired slavery (assuming it could ever agree to proceed, let alone to a plan or an amount). But he was of course interested in repair—that’s what his agenda was about. While it was not targeted expressly to black people, since black people and people of color are disproportionately for historic reasons that are maintained into the present day at the bottom of the economic rung and Bernie's proposed programs are not means tested, they would disproportionately and automatically benefit those who have been historically cut out of the economic pie. He is also one of several co-sponsors of the Senate version of the late Michigan congressman John Conyer’s HR 80 bill to study a path for reparations introduced by Cory Booker in May of 2019. I don’t think I’d have swung Melrita from frigid to avid support if I'd known this information going into it, but as hard as the conversation was, honestly this is why you do it.
Bernie lost Michigan and within a month, the powers that be had amassed behind the theretofore under-performing Joe Biden and forced Bernie out of the race. Also within the month, the novel coronavirus ravaged Detroit, the rest of Michigan and the US. As a result, tens of millions lost their jobs including their health benefits. In May, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police before our eyes for suspicion of having written a bad $20 check. In response, communities across the country began marching in the streets for change. While statues fell and Nancy Pelosi herself fell to her knee draped in kente cloth in the halls of congress, she made clear in short order that substantial police reform was off the table. Joe Biden hinted at the strong possibility that he would select a black woman as his vice president and then turned around and engaged Wall Street about filling positions in his cabinet and promised to veto medicare for all if it should come across his desk if he wins in November.
I could change my mind but at the moment, I've hung up my phone. People will have to be bothered by some other stranger between now and November.
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| Not Adolph Green |
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* I seem to have a block
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