By Faith Chatham - Nov. 7, 2016
Donald Trump is obnoxious, but I didn't go vote against him. I went and voted for the person who is the most qualified, most ethical, most compassionate, who will do the best job. I voted for Hillary because I know her. I know what she cares about. I know what she fight for. I know what she gets done. I know what we need and I voted for her because I know she knows what we need.
I get it that many in the media aren't that cozy with her. I suspect because she has learned to keep many of them at arm’s length, many of them mistakenly assume that everyone else in America is cool to her. They assume that those who support her are choosing the lesser of two evils. I think they are wrong. I don't see evidence to substantiate that.
The pundits talk about how divided the nation is. Hillary's race for President has drawn us together. We’ve come together in GOTV efforts and in Social Media Collaboration. My Facebook network alone has grown to 4,315 “friends”. However, every day for months I've seen 30 to 100 "friend requests" and most of them come from people having from 100+ to 300+ mutual friends. That says there is a lot of agreement among lots of folks about what kind of world we want, who we respect, and what values matter.
I don’t think my social network has grown from a couple of thousand to over four thousand in a year because of my good looks or winning personality. It has grown because folks know that I am a staunch Hillary Clinton for President Supporter. It has grown because folks know that I work to get decent, smart deserving Democrats elected to Congressional seats in Texas. It has grown because other folks share some of my dreams, frustrations, and determination to make this a better place without destroying what we hold dear. It has grown because we have much more work to do. It has grown because we are not nearly as divided or apathetic as we made out to be.
I suspect that everyone reading this has also gained “new contacts” on social media because of your support of Hillary Clinton. I have heard several say they support her as the lesser of two evils. However, most of the folks I know support her because of who she is, the work she’s done, the preparation she always brings to the table when something important is being considered. We may not be the “rah, rah, jump up and down and scream crowd” that photographs great at rallies.” Frequently one of more of us has to have a chair to sit part of the time when we participate In “Visibility events”, but that doesn’t diminish how enthusiastic we are about her. Yes, we are TIRED of this election. Many of us are worn out, but that is not the same thing as being unenthusiastic about Hillary.
I've always known a few folks who volunteered or were on staff with national campaigns. This year I KNOW A LOT OF FOLKS who have left their homes and jobs and gone “on their own dime” to volunteer for Hillary. These are not affluent folks. One is a retired school teacher. She's been to Iowa, NY, and CA and now she is in Ohio. I'm still paying off my credit card bill from National Convention in Philadelphia. That was no "cheap trip" and she was there too. She's dipped into her retirement and savings to get Hillary elected because she BELIEVES IN HER THAT MUCH. I have another friend who is a self-employed single woman whose business makes no income when she is out of town. She's been on the campaign trail as much as she's been in her office this year. That is because she knows Hillary and believes in her. I know several women who have maxed out as donors for Hillary whose major income is our Social Security checks. Pundits say Baby Boomers are cool toward Hillary. Not all of us, not by a “long shot.”
HILLARY DRAWS FOLKS TOGETHER FROM DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS
I've seen a JP friend and an attorney friend travel to Swing States to volunteer. On my Social Security income, I've done what I can here in Texas. We are not alone. There are lots of others with us. We may not be the "rah rah crowd" but we are persistent. We are determined. We didn't wait for a national campaign staffer to come organize us. We organized each other. We didn't wait for the campaign to ship yard signs, stickers and posters for us to use for GOTV efforts. We scrounged around and got what we could, ordered what we needed, pooled resources and saw that other folks had what they needed for rallies, house meetings, visibility events, etc. We went to Club Meetings, Democratic Party Meetings, Volunteer Fire Department Meetings, Rallies, House Party’s, Back yard Meet and Greets, Convention, parades. No one was paid to organize us. We cared enough to see the bases were covered no matter what!
A lot of us work for her differently than we did for other candidates when we were younger. I hope we are working smarter. We do what we can, when we can, however we can. Understanding how critical it is this year, propels us to push persistently and to cover bases without waiting for official staff to be deployed to our state or neighborhood by “the campaign”. We haven’t waited for the campaign to buy us signs or stickers or banners. If they are available, we use and share them. If not, we create and find money somehow to pay for them. We’ve done this before. We know what it is like to come up short on Election Day and we are determined not to experience that again this year. We didn’t wait around for the campaign to release advertising with our Vote For Hillary Democratic Message. We wrote our own and distributed it on social media, in posters, postcards and flyers. We incorporated what they supplied when we got it if we liked it. We talked. We phoned. Those who could walk, walked. Others of us rode shopping carts through big box stores giving out campaign buttons which were icebreakers allowing us to get in a 30 second or one minute elevator speech.
I think the media has missed the real story this year. The real story is about the school teachers I had lunch with Saturday. They taught all week and showed up at the polls to volunteer for Hillary Saturday and Sunday at early voting sites.
It’s about those Texans who live far away from the nearest Clinton Field Office, and who didn’t have a staffer around to organize rallies or phone banks in their neighborhoods. They didn’t let that stop them. They did it themselves. In Marshall, Texas there is no Clinton HQ but they have met every Monday night all year and held phone banks. They organized rallies on the Court House Square and they made sure that notices got into the paper. In Longview, the women came together and opened a Headquarters. They invited Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez to come speak and held a rally. Another group organized a rally at the Gregg County Court House which inspired groups in neighboring counties to organize their own rallies. In Smith County, and in other communities, the churches chose a Sunday and arranged buses and car pools to transport their members to Early Voting after Church. They called it “Souls to the Polls.” Throughout East Texas, men in pickup trucks circled early voting places with big signs in the back of their pickup trucks. On one side was “Vote for Hillary Clinton /Tim Kaine”. On the other was “Vote for Shirley McKellar for Congress”. This is the real story. These folks weren’t paid. They were determined and enthusiastic for Hillary. They are doing what they can to get a better person elected to Congress!
I’ve seen and heard of neighbors walking other neighbors through the process of registering to vote and helping first-time voters get familiar with the process before they vote for the first time. Instead of going to vote alone, lots of folks made an event of it and invited friends to go vote and have lunch together afterward. Voter Registration Teams have registered High School and College Students, shoppers at box stores, and newcomers in the neighborhood to vote. We’ve seen a record turn out for Early Voting nation-wide this year, and I don’t think the surge is the same ole same ole Republican voter.
Tuesday night, the TV pundits will continue saying that ’Hillary was elected by people who really didn't want to vote for her.” They'll be wrong. She is being elected by people who know that she is the best person for the job. Every person who pulls the lever for her is voting for her. Don't be misled by pundits who are still miffed because she didn't entrust her message to them so that they could filter what she said. Instead this time she went direct to the people using social media more than large media events controlled by TV and Newspaper chains. She is a smart woman. She has learned more than a thing or two in the years she's been in the public's eye.
I have too. I don't swallow everything others tell me. I look around. If what I see doesn't mesh with what I hear, I question what I hear. I'm seeing people who are thrilled that Hillary Clinton decided to run for President. I am seeing people who are thrilled that they got to vote for her for President. I'm seeing people who care enough not to stop working, who care enough to give sacrificially, who don't stop even when tired, and who check out the facts and share them.
This is truly a different kind of election cycle. Yes it has contained the Trump side show. But I think the real story is with the Clinton folks. It's about folks who truly care and who don't wait for others to do what is necessary to get her into the Oval Office. For everything done by her campaign, there will be thousands of other things done by volunteers all over this nation. They aren't expecting anything in return. They aren't in line for staff positions or contracts. We are working our hearts out because we have seen her work her heart out.
Yes, she learned that money is necessary in politics. When she left the State Department she went on the speaking circuit and earned as much as they'd pay. She had millions of dollars of campaign debt in '08 when she suspended her first presidential campaign. She was smart to create a cushion this time. She was smart to find something which was LEGAL which could generate substantial income during the short time between when she left the State Department and when she’d have to file for a place on the ballot to run for President. Why is it that the same folks who think Trump is OK because he appears to be a tycoon criticize her for earning speakers fees when she was no longer in public office! The warped standard applied to her inspires us to work harder, to stand stronger, to be relieved each time we see the projections of the number of electoral votes she'll probably get tomorrow.
FLASH: If you don't like her, speak for yourself. If you aren't enthusiastic, own your own feelings. Don't project them onto the rest of the world. Most of us are too busy working to have room to carry around your emotional baggage. We have our own and ours probably doesn't match yours. However, we aren't alone. This year my social media network has grown by over 3000 new friends and they came because of Hillary. We are a bigger, more connected network. We are drawn together by shared values. We are not nearly as divided a nation as FOX NEWS, CBS and CNN keeps saying that we are.
I'm looking forward to what we continue doing together after Tuesday. Tuesday night's election returns is only a starting point.
Yes, I know a some people are motivated to vote because they despise Donald Trump. I know many more who are voting for Hillary Clinton because we really want her in the Oval Office. Some are glad that a women will finally win. More of us are excited that HILLARY CLINTON will finally be the woman who will win!
I know there is a lot of discontent in our nation. There are things I don’t like which are going on in this nation. There always has been and always will be. But that is not why I am enthusiastically, without reservation, supporting Hillary Clinton for President. I support her because there are things I love and cherish here in American and I respect her to pull us together to improve what needs improving without destroying what is precious and necessary. The growth in most of our friends list alone is evidence that she inspires people to come together. I suspect when you look at the growth in your “friends list”, many of your new additions are folks who are there because you both support Hillary for President. When that many people come together because of one woman, there has to be a lot more consensus than most of the media acknowledges. We aren’t nearly as divided here in American as the pundits make us out to be!
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