My dispiriting, infuriating – and illuminating – time as a political telemarketer

What I learned about politics while phone-banking for the Democrats. By Matt Hanson

I got into political fundraising in the autumn of 2007 because I had become sick of yelling at the TV, and I didn’t want to be one of those people who failed to put their money where their mouth was, ideologically speaking. I started with plenty of door-to-door canvassing; the transition to working the phones meant I was at least glad to be indoors during my workday. And for a brief, shining moment back when Barack Obama was still just a candidate, mass telemarketing was not only a way of raising money – it also doubled as the most compelling means of showing an enlightened reformist spirit in the money-drenched agoras of public life. Caller and donor alike were united in the vision of a better life. We were becoming the change we believed in.

Of course, we were kidding ourselves – especially those of us on the auto-dial end of the conversation. Whatever else it may achieve, political telemarketing has little to do with political reform. The media will obsessively report how much loot a particular candidate stashes in their campaign war chest, but whoever’s in command of spending that lucre will face an electorate that most likely has already made up its mind about what it wants, what it doesn’t want and what it thinks it deserves. Fundraising helps to win campaigns, sure, but it works best only when there are people around who still need to be persuaded.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2WzG74o