Postcard from Southwestern Ohio

30.10.2008

Postcard from Southwestern Ohio

This missive came from a very good friend. The first paragraph explains the circumstances, not at all uninteresting in themselves. The *Special breaking news update* is a dispatch from her daughters.

This one I had to share. It's from my daughters, both of whom have been working in Southwestern Ohio for Obama. (They were sent to a wealthy suburb of Columbus to work with the Jews, but the Jews were almost all for Obama and basically holding fund-raising parties, so the girls took themselves off to wilder parts.)

*Special breaking news update*

Today we took our friend Marsha to the polls to vote. We found Marsha last week, sitting outside the Scioto Motel, the most depressing place on earth, a place we're pretty sure doesn't have indoor plumbing because the stench of rotting human waste is overpowering. We found Marsha sitting outside her apartment with bags of cans (she makes money by collecting cans from dumpsters). She wasn't on our list, but we struck up conversation with her anyway, and before long she was ranting about how much she hated McCain, loved Obama, etc. Turns out, though, she has no car to get to the polls, and wasn't actually planning to vote despite her strong feelings. So we made a date to come pick her up and take her to the Board of Elections. Each time we've come to get her she's had an excuse of why she couldn't come right then, the last one being this morning when she told us to come back in half an hour because she had to fix her hair. This woman's four front teeth are brown and rotted, so we were dubious that we'd find her dolled up and ready to go when we came back, but come back we did, and dolled up and ready to go she was. We took her to the polls, she voted, she was euphoric. On the way back, she started telling us that her ex-husband, who beat her for 19 years, was very active in the Piketon KKK, and that she still has lots of friends in the KKK and. . . MOST OF THEM ARE VOTING FOR OBAMA. Including the local Grand Wizard. We have now officially named her Head of KKK Outreach. She's coming into the office tomorrow at 11 to start volunteering for us. I'm not joking.

Posted: Thursday, October 30, 2008 12:05 AM with 3 comment(s)

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fougasseu said:

A lot of very poor people hate very rich people in a very deep way. Even poor white trash can see what the Bush Crime Family has been up to. This is a great post. I don't know what Cindy McCain has been thinking with the extravagant clothes, and then the fancy purchases for Palin, but no one who shops for their clothes, and their kids' clothes, at Target can stomach the country club vibe that comes from the McCains.

The differences between the campaigns, strictly in terms of wardrobe, is stark.

The GOP must truly believe that dressing in a showy, costly way is appealing to mainstream America. What a bunch of snobby bozos.

October 30, 2008 1:37 AM

icarusr said:

This detail stuck in my mind: "she has no car to get to the polls".

Why is it so hard to vote in the US of A? In Canada, at least in the cities, polling stations are set up within walking distance. (Mine was five minutes away on foot.) Admittedly, we don't have fancy machines and stuff - a cardboard divider behind which you go with a pencil and out you come with your marked ballot - but still.

October 30, 2008 12:03 PM

dsabath said:

I was struck by the line about needing a car to get to the polls as well (and I don't live in Canada). Everywhere I've lived in Seattle, and in Philadelphia, Boston, and Rochester before that, I have always lived walking distance from my polling place. I suppose if you live in a more suburban/rural area, it would be impossible to have a polling place within walking distance, and of course not everyone can walk easily.

It seems to me that, along with other measures those of us interested in democracy have advocated to make polling more transparent, e.g., open source software for electronic voting machines, paper trails, etc., we should be looking for ways to bring polling closer to the homes of those who are less mobile.

October 30, 2008 2:30 PM