The Real Grassroots

The Buck’s County Courier-Times endorsed Barack Obama because of his ability to inspire voters. Hillary Clinton’s ability to attract a diverse coalition of volunteers remains unrecognized. I can report here that there was a coalition of gay men, lesbians, middle-aged heterosexual women, men and women of color, and middle and working-class white men volunteering for Hillary in Bucks County. The group working from the Bristol, PA office was incredibly diverse. I canvassed neighborhoods in Bucks County everyday for four days with a different partner each day. I canvassed in Newtown with Marguerite, a lesbian physician from Maysville, Kentucky, who drove to Bristol to volunteer. Marguerite, a daughter of immigrants from working-class background, has a B.A. from Cornell, a Ph.D. from Duke, and a M.D. from SUNY-Stony-Brook. Ellen Friedman, another “carpetbagger,” came in from Cambridge, MA to volunteer. Ellen, a retired professor and European historian, and I had a lot in common. On the other hand, I also volunteered with Bobbie and her husband Randy, Bucks County residents living on disability, who offered to drive canvassers to neighboring towns. I went to Bensalem with Bobbie one afternoon. Bobbie and Randy are very proud of the fact that both of their children are attending college in Pennsylvania; their daughter is attending Temple, and their son is at Drexel. I spent another afternoon canvassing in Bristol with Christine, an accountant from Brooklyn with two grown sons.

I met Ishmael, a gay man from Bensalem, in the Bristol office a couple of days before the primary. This soft-spoken guy never canvassed before but went out to talk to voters with Mickey. I met Chang, another fellow from the area, while doing visibility the day of the primary. Christine Samuelson, another volunteer from Newton, MA who has also campaigned in several states, and I were holding up a huge Hillary sign in front to a polling station on Mill Creek Rd. in Bristol. Chang came by to help and told us that he lived in a nearby town. When a man drove by and yelled, “gold-digging, carpet bagging bitch,” Chang looked at me and said, “I guess they are referring to me.”

I met Christine White in the Bristol office and went to the Clinton rally at the University of Pennsylvania with her the day before the primary. Christine spent quite a bit of time with our group from Newton. John and Jenny Doggett, veteran campaigners throughout New England, and I went out with Christine a couple of times at the end of long days of campaigning. Christine stopped by the volunteer for Hillary and quickly became an honorary Newtonian! Christine and I became fast friends, although our lives could not be more different. She had to drop out of high school when she became pregnant with her first child at 15 and is a 45 year old grandmother. Evangeline, an African-American mother of three, canvassed with Christine the day of the primary, and both Evangeline and Christine joined our Newton group at the Clinton victory party in Philadelphia.

Our Bristol group admitted to the Clinton victory party included Chang, a massage therapist from Bucks County; John and Jenny Doggett, a venture capitalist and pediatrician respectively; Evangeline and Christine, local volunteers; Anne, a lesbian venture capitalist from Jamaica Plain, MA; Christine, a former Newton alderman, and Emelia a retired attorney and former staff of the Department Labor Department. Christine and Emelia were able to volunteer in Bristol for three weeks because Laurie, another member of our group, and her partner were willing to share their home with out-of-state volunteers. Got grassroots?