We don't get postcards much anymore.
We don't get cards from vacationing friends writing, "Wish you were here." We have Facebook for that now.
My sister is writing postcards to Democrats in Pennsylvania, saying "Wish you would vote."
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| Penny Flenniken |
My sister, Penny, lives in Portland, Oregon among like-minded people. These would be liberals; people who recycle; owners of electric cars; listeners to NPR; watchers of MSNBC and CNN and Bill Maher and John Oliver; retired school teachers; and people who support a woman's right to choose. We were brought up in the Methodist Church, but she no longer attends any church. She is in book groups. Penny is a Portland, Oregon Democrat.
Of course, she is disgusted by Trump. Back in the hopeless days when it looked like Biden would be the only alternative to Trump, she asked around to see if she could "do anything." A friend of a friend connected her with an organized effort to increase the Democratic vote in Pennsylvania. I asked Penny if this was something organized by the Biden -- now Harris -- campaign. She didn't know. She knew what was important to know, that someone thought that hand-writing postcards to strangers in Pennsylvania might spare us another Trump presidency.
The task assigned to willing volunteers in presumably safely-blue states was to let inactive Democrats in battleground states know somebody was thinking about them. Somebody human, Somebody who hand-wrote a "thinking of you" postcard.
The printing, honestly, could be improved, I realize as I look at these postcards, but the irregular lettering makes it clear this message was not done by a computer. Do the people I am mailing them to care? Well, how many personal letters do I receive in a given week? Not many.
So the postcard receiver may be impacted by the fact that someone took some effort. I can barely do five postcards in one sitting. It's slow, since I must print and not write in cursive because the reader may not know cursive
Penny had a long career as a public school teacher. She learned to write cursive in public schools in the 1950s, but cursive isn't being taught anymore. Now students are taught to read and write printed letters and to use a keyboard.
I am writing to Democrats in Pennsylvania who didn't vote in the last election. If their job or family circumstances make that difficult, they can write to VOTE.PA and receive a mail-in ballot. That's good information for them to know, right? That is what I tell people in the postcards. Mostly, I think, the value of these is that people know that someone out there took a moment to tell them they hoped they would vote.
Does any of this effort matter? On election night you can be sure I will be checking the results from Allentown, Bethlehem, and Jim Thorpe, all cities in Pennsylvania. If Harris wins by two or three votes, maybe this would have been the margin.
This is a tiny drop in the bucket of campaign news, but it is how close elections are decided.
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9 comments:
That the election is even close continues to dismay me.
On the one hand we have a team that are honorable, experienced public servants and decent human beings.
On the other, we have a narcissist indicted for stealing government documents and trying to overthrow the government, found guilty of sexual molestation, multiple counts of fraud and falsification of business records in the first degree. He’s also a pathological liar who foments fear, anger hatred and violence.
There’s something seriously sick and wrong with people who want such a traitorous criminal to be our president.
Kamala Harris' surprising failure to elevate as her running mate a popular, progressive swing state governor with 18 electoral college votes at stake may prove the difference in Pennsylvania as well. But there was just something unpalatable about Josh Shapiro's background and perceived loyalties.
[An "e" should be on the end of "Thorp", by the way]
My initial choice would haveen Mark Kelly, but despite his support for Netanyahus genocidal attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, I could grudgingly supported Josh Shapiro. He's apparently a fine Governor.
And VP Harris surprised us all by going with Tim Walz, retired Army CSM, a teacher and Coach, and not afraid to call out drplorables like Vance and Drumpf for what they are. For what it's worth, I wish he , or his clone were Governor in Oregon.
My initial choice would haveen Mark Kelly, but despite his support for Netanyahus genocidal attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, I could grudgingly supported Josh Shapiro. He's apparently a fine Governor.
And VP Harris surprised us all by going with Tim Walz, retired Army CSM, a teacher and Coach, and not afraid to call out drplorables like Vance and Drumpf for what they are. For what it's worth, I wish he , or his clone were Governor in Oregon.
Who knows? Maybe the postcards will help the D’s win.
But I think the main effect of these postcards will be to help the emotional self-regulation of the liberals in places like Portland who write them.
That’s hilarious! The guy who thinks people are voting for Trump because of the Democrats’ "wokeness" (as if that explained anything) now claims that getting out the vote is “to help the emotional self-regulation of the liberals” (whatever that means).
In fact, we all know people are voting for Trump because they like that he’s been indicted and convicted of so many felonies, plus they just can’t get over how he built the Great Wall of Trump and made Mexico pay for it.
A refusal to understand precludes the possibility of understanding. It’s so much easier to snark and caricature and spew insults from the psychological safety of a firmly closed mind.
Thanks for illustrating the need for emotional self-regulation. Maybe writing get-out-the-vote postcards would help.
His comments made little sense to me as well - as usual.
I'm speaking of MT and TFG.
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