The Obama campaign has shrewdly preferred canvassing over visibility, focusing its efforts on finding and turning out voters rather than vague opinion-shaping. But after doing two canvasses yesterday I was ready for a change of pace, and waving signs around at honking cars is a good way to recharge my “Fired up!” batteries.
So we planted ourselves at Western and Mem Drive and caught quite a bit of Pike-bound traffic. While most of the cars were generally friendly, I did count four thumbs-downs and five middle fingers.
The thumbs-down I don’t mind, but the middle fingers is just a tad much. Now, I know that some people don’t like that we live in a democracy, but isn’t there a less bitter way to express yourself? Just to keep my faith in the Democratic party, I’m assuming that the fingers were from Republicans, and that the thumbs-down were either Clinton supporters or motorists who hate pedestrians (or our outfits).
Possibly the angriest of the fingers came from a young white woman in the passenger seat of an SUV. Still, demographics do not a supporter make; one of the thumbs-down came from a 30-something black man driving a pickup truck.
Anyway, my companion’s strategy for dealing with rude drivers is quite similar to my father-in-law’s: smile and wave. Which is infuriating enough when you’re on the highway, but even more so when the other drivers end up assuming that the jerk is actually a supporter of your cause.
