Guidelines for Door-to-Door Political Campaign Representatives

With the completion on Monday of the Iowa caucuses - a massive snow job in every sense of the word - the 2024 presidential campaign season is upon us. And you thought the plagues visited upon Egypt were bad ... 

One of the things that a presidential campaign brings with it is hordes of campaign representatives who go door-to-door to flack for their candidate of choice. Some are better than others, being well-informed about their candidate's policies and positions and eager to engage in productive discussion aimed at changing your mind. Most, however, are simply armed with talking points and scripts they are able quickly to regurgitate, but not so quickly to explain or defend. These people get upset when you ask them questions that they interpret as your failure to understand the incalculable excellence of their candidate and the despicable shortcomings of his/her opponent. During the first Obama campaign, a Republican door-knocker actually told me to my face that I was stupid if I voted for that person ... hardly a move likely to convince me I was backing the wrong horse.

I don't mind if people come to my door during election season, but if they do, I expect them to be ready to engage in reasoned debate on the basis of facts and logic. As you might expect, I am frequently disappointed. As a result, I have decided to save time and aggravation by developing a set of guidelines which I provide to candidate representatives before engaging in any discussion ...

Guidelines

for

Door-to-Door Political Candidate Representatives

1. I get one vote. Your job is to convince me to give it to your candidate or party. It is not your job to convince me to vote against anyone else. See #3 below.

2. All I want to hear from you is specific information on your candidate's or party’s policy proposals and stands on issues. If you can't answer detailed questions about them, go away and send back someone who can. Don't waste my time.

3. Don't say anything about any other candidate or party ... I do not care in the least about your opinion. The other candidate's or party’s representative can tell me about him or her ... all I want to hear from you is what I specified in #2 above. I am perfectly capable of comparing information I get from the two of you and making decisions on my own.

4. Don't get mad at me when I ask you detailed questions and try to pin down evasive answers. My experience shows that you will probably interpret probing questions as attacks on your candidate, rather than as attempts to gain information you should have at your fingertips and be prepared to defend. If that's your attitude, go away and waste someone else's time.

5. With respect to #4 above: detailed questions about your candidate or party do not equate to support for any other candidate or party. You should be prepared to answer such questions and engage in debate based on facts and logic. If you accuse me of being stupid or supporting another candidate or party just because I want better information about yours, be sure your nose is far enough away from the door to avoid being hurt when I slam it shut.

Feel free to use this handout, and to modify it according to your own style and preferences. It's fun watching some of these campaign reps struggle to actually present cogent arguments rather than parrot bumper-sticker slogans.

Have a good day. Remember that you get one vote - make it count, especially in a year like this.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo