WORD ON THE DOORS: POLITICS SUCK

​Deep canvass conversations, storytelling, acknowledges people’s experiences while suggesting a different way to understand and respond. Race-class narrative highlights the stake that white people have in fighting racism and ways to take action.
Marcy Rein

The worries and problems canvassers heard on the phones and at the doors were no surprise: COVID. Losing, or being afraid of losing, work and housing. Needing unemployment benefits, COVID relief and health care. High utility bills, hospitals closing in rural areas. Scratch the surface, dig under the Fox News talking points, and most people felt the government had abandoned them.

“People feel lonely and isolated especially during COVID,” Jules Berkman-Hill said. “They feel their government abandoned them with not providing enough relief. Small business owners, people experiencing housing insecurity, getting laid off. People were really angry, really upset, and really scared.” People don’t identify as left, right or center, according to Berkman-Hill. “The most common political position was alienation,” she said. At the December 2020 Rootscamp panel on building multi-racial organizing, organizers from different regions confirmed this assessment.

Corruption emerged as the top issue for 10,000 voters surveyed by West Virginia Can’t Wait in summer 2019. “That didn’t imply any allegiance to the Democratic Party,” said panelist Cathy Kunkel, who ran for Congress as part of the group’s effort to bring in a “people’s government.” West Virginia voters feel “disenfranchised” by both parties, she said. Eighty-seven percent of rural voters “believe government reflects the will of the rich and influential,” according to a March 2020 survey by RuralOrganizing.
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“A lot of people don’t vote,” Beth Howard said. “But for so many working people where I grew up, things didn’t really change for them no matter who they voted for. In the 80s and 90s when I grew up, when they voted for Democrats NAFTA happened, their jobs were gone, unions were broken up. They’ve been lied to by both parties. The party that is supposed to be taking up for poor people isn’t. They’re also run by billionaires.”


Can We Crack the Right’s White Block
https://organizingupgrade.com/can-we-crack-the-rights-white-bloc-these-organizers-say-yes/


Can We Crack the Right’s White Bloc? These Organizers Say Yes
Marcy Rein  ORGANIZING UPGRADE
Deep canvass conversations, storytelling, acknowledges people’s experiences while suggesting a different way to understand and respond. Race-class narrative highlights the stake that white people have in fighting racism and ways to take action.


https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/word-on-the-doors-politics-suck

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