Obamanaut

Friends who know me well will likely fall of their chair upon reading this post.

I'm active in politics this year.

Normally, I don't even vote. Hell, I usually don't even know if I'm registered to vote. My level of cynicism towards, disillusionment about and disregard for our political process is legendary. And yet, here I am in 2008, donating money (money!) to a campaign, and volunteering my precious "free" time to help get a candidate elected. I've even got a sign in my window, and a bumper sticker on my car!!

Yep, I'm an Obamanaut.

I spent my last weekend in a room full of like-minded individuals -- and a strikingly diverse crowd at that, of all ages, genders, races and cultures -- calling strangers in Texas to encourage them to vote for Barack Obama. I made nearly 250 calls over course of the weekend on my own cell phone.

Now, the trick here was that the list was not pre-screened and filtered for important things like ... political party affiliation. Keep in mind that Texas is predominantly Republican (go figure), and you start to see where this is headed.

Each call was like Russian Roulette. You didn't know what you were going to get on the other end of the line when you spun the cylinder. Your odds of even finding a Democrat were slim. More likely than not, you'd get a Republican, the style of which would vary along a spectrum.

Occasionally, it would be the polite Texan housewife ruthlessly exercising her well-bred Southern hospitality, listening to the whole spiel before sing-songing: "Well yes, darlin', I sure will give that some thought ... thank you for callin' now," which is Texan for "I'm not listening to a fucking thing you're saying." Sometimes it would be a pick-up interrupting my leaving an answering machine message: "Boah, you can go an' till Barack Obama he can jis go ta Hill! I think he's an injit!" ... okaaaay. More often than not, the answering machine message itself would be disheartening, with a Boss Hogg-style voice finishing up with "God bless, now". You wondered if leaving a perky message for Obama was just doing more damage than good. But, you just have to cringe, ignore the odds, and try. Ironically, the hang-ups were the least tormenting of all the pulls of the trigger.

The one silver lining, out of all 250 calls I made that weekend ... the single call that made it all worth while, was the guy who supported Obama, and wasn't aware of the "Texas 2-step". This is the set-up allowing Texans to vote in the primary election in the morning, then a second time in the evening caucus, and their vote counts twice (apparently, squirrelly politics is not unique to Louisiana). He was surprised to learn that was the case, and enthusiastically promised to vote and caucus for Obama. Score one.

All this is to say, when you decide who to support this election, consider this. Our country, more than ever, needs its people to get off their asses and to think differently about politics ... to act locally in their communities ... to stand up for what they believe, rather than letting politicians make decisions against our will, and we all need to work together to move this country forward in a positive direction. Obama inspired me to get involved. And believe me: if he can inspire me, he can inspire anybody. And this country will be the better for it, I guarantee you.