Thin-Skinned at McCain HQ
So culminating the day of scorn and mockery at John McCain and Sarah Palin’s decision to slag patriotic community organizers, I decided to call the campaign ((703) 418-2008 if you’re interested). To my surprise (ok not really) I learned they are just as thin-skinned and prone to explosive outbursts of rage as Johnny POW Mac himself.
My first call was to a campaign spokesperson.
Riiiing. Riiiing!
“Hello, McCain 2008, may I help you?”
“Hi, my name’s Brendan Skwire. I’m an independent voter calling from Philadelphia. I watched Sarah Palin’s speech last night, and I have to say as a community organizer myself, and as someone whose neighbiors are community organizers, I was pretty offended by her comment that people like us ‘have no real responsibilities’.”
“That’s not what she said, actually,” the woman began.
“Oh really? I have the text here. She said, and I quote ‘I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.’” That’s not very flattering.
“So I want to mention the names of some community organizers I think are important and then I have a question.” And I went down the list I posted here and here going through the achievements of giants like Franklin and Paine and the medals doled out by pipsqueaks like George H.W. and George W.
“I think it’s pretty clear that our country was founded by community organizers,” I said, “and Mrs. Palin denigrates their memory and their patriotism by saying things like ‘community organizers have no real responsibilities.’ That’s bad enough, but even worse she’s disrespecting both a sitting president and his father. So why should I vote for someone like that, who looks down on the things my neighbors and I do for out community?”
“Um? Because she’s great?” the woman mumbled.
“‘She’s great’?” I replied. “I don’t think that’s great. I work with people who volunteer their time on a domestic violence hotline. they don’t get paid, they do it to help their community. Do you think that means they have no “real responsibilities”? Or the people who organize our homeless shelter/ No responsibilities?”
“Sarah Palin believes in volunteering…”
“No, she said she doesn’t,” I shot back. “In fact, she cut funding for a transitional housing program for–”
“OK, NOW YOU;RE BEING RIDIC–”
“–homeless pregnant teenage–”
“AND GOVERNOR PALIN BELIEVES IN–” She was really screaming.
“–just like her own daugh–”
“YOU ARE OUT OF CONTROL!YOU ARE CRAZY!” Literally, yelling at the top of her lungs. I did my best to keep my cool.
“Yeah, well you’re un-American! You’re unpatriotic!” I taunted “Why does Sarah Palin hate the founding fath–”
CLICK. The receiver slammed down.
Now to be honest, I kind of goaded that women into screaming at me. The next shouting match was entirely spontaneous, and had nothing to do with me. I called back much later in the day, and when no one up front answered, I listened to the list of options, of which number 3 was the opportunity to learn about volunteering.
Volunteering? For a politician? Isn’t that kind of like…COMMUNITY ORGANIZING? BLEEP. I pressed option 3. After a few rings, a young woman answered the phone.
“Hi, volunteer committee..”
I introduced myself again as an independent voter and expressed my qualms about Palin’s speech. Instead of the monologue about our Founding Fathers, I explained that as an independent, I’d done a lot of volunteering.
“I think I’ve knocked on doors for just about every party,” I said. “I campaigned for Senator Specter in 2004 [a lie], and Senator Casey in 2006. I volunteered for Jim Gerlach west of Philly. I’ve even done stuff for the Greens. And you know, all of that was community organizing, that’s what they told me. And I DID have real responsibilities, like making sure people came out to vote. So I don’t know if I want to campaign for Senator McCain if that’s how the campaign feels about community organizing.”
The young woman laughed. She seemed friendly. “Sir… first of all, I’m not here to defend Sarah Palin, even if I DO think she’s brilliant.”
“You do?” I asked. “Honestly, I’m not sure how brilliant that was to say that kind of stuff about community organizing. That kind of alienates independents like me, that’s for sure. I mean, what has Sarah Palin done in her spare time on a volunteer basis?”
All of a sudden her voice got very whiney. “Well sir, I hope you’ll consider that you’re talking about having a family of five, and a 17 year old daughter with a special challenge–” It was unbelievable. instead of cutting me off with something like “I’ll pass your message along”, she was trying to play the pity card.
Totally thrown for a loop, I began to say “Huh? What about her 17 year old daugh–?” when the woman completely lost her shit. She began yelling at the top of her lungs at me.
“OK NOW YOU’RE GETTING CRAZY OK WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU OK YOU’RE JUST GETTING NOBODY’S BUSINESS–”
“What? What? Well, OK–”
“AND SHE’S BRILLIANT AND–
“If that’s how it’s gonna be then what about how she cut funding–
“GABBLE GABBLE RAGE ANGER–”
“…for that clinic for unwed teenage moms…”
“!!RAGE YELL SHOUT!!” CLICK
I sat there looking at the phone for a minute, kind of stunned at how quickly and completely this young woman had melted down. And then I chuckled: if the campaign workers are that thin-skinned, what does that say about their boss?
Sooner or later, John’s going to go ballistic. Let’s hope for sooner.
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