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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
James in Des Moines is just itching to vote for Bauer, he tells me. "Gary's the only one who can stop the homos," he tells me. "The Democrats are a bunch of goddam homo lovers, you know?" Yes, I know it well. "You know what we need to do?" James asks. Yes, I tell him, we need to go to the caucus on Monday night, bring all our friends and vote for Gary. Andy leaned into my cubicle and gave me a thumbs up. "We need to enforce God's law when it comes to homosexuals, that's what we need to do. God said that homosexuals have to die. We can shoot 'em, stone 'em, gas 'em or whatever. It's God's word."
I sent James to a Democratic caucus site.
Toward the end of my shift, with my head splitting, I blow up at a Forbes supporter. She tells me she was for Forbes because he was so strongly pro-life, an impression she may have gotten from Forbes' up-with-fetuses campaign commercials. Exasperated, I pull the pen out of my mouth. I inform her that four years ago Forbes was a moderate on abortion, practically pro-choice! "But he's had a change of heart," she says. "No," I say, "he changed his position. He flip-flopped. What if he gets into office and has another 'change of heart'? Have you thought of that? Gary's been pro-life all his public life. He's never changed his position, you can trust him. He won't have a change of heart on abortion. Gary's pro-life now, he was pro-life four years ago, he was pro-life 20 years ago! And he'll be pro-life twenty years from now. If you're a pro-life voter, ma'am, then Gary is your candidate."
There was a long pause.
"You're right, you're right," she said. "You can put me down for Gary."
Wow. This was the kind of retail politics I've read about in the New York Times. Volunteers and candidates reaching out to voters, making their case, arguing, persuading. Andy gives me another thumbs up. I'd done it! I'd convinced someone to vote for... Gary Bauer. How was I going to sleep at night?
On my way out the door, one of the staffers told me there was going to be a volunteer appreciation pizza party at a church basement at 1 p.m. the next day.
"You should come and meet Gary," she said.
"Love to," I said, chewing on my killer pen.
