Folks, thanks to those reading my first post last night. It felt great.
Today, we were out for three hours in the morning at one of the busiest suburban intersections in the county. Plenty more car honkers, thumbs uppers, some early morning dirty looks from Obamatons and informing one gentleman heckler that he’ll need a bottle of whiskey on November 5th. (He started it by calling us losers and that the old man was “going down and we don’t have a prayer”). One of his female Comrades said that we “were wasting our time.” These were the only two knuckleheads of the day. Sure, we had some thumb-downs, but they mostly drove Volvos and Saabs. What do I know?
Seriously, I have learned a lot over the past week or so being out there with McCain signs. First, there are a lot more of us out there then WE even know. If McCain wins, you will here the incantation of the Silent Majority going forward as much as you hear Bradley Effect.
Secondly, our side in this election is a quite varied group. Not just traditional or shall I say, “stereotypical” Republican or even Republican. We have seen all economic levels, (judged by vehicle driven, dress of the driver), demographics (young, old, male, female, majority/minority), and level of passion (quiet support -“the nod”, enthusiastic, but not showy (the wave or thumbs-up), the hot dang, am I glad to see you! (the car honk/thumbs up/fist pump) and the I’ll be at the polls at 6 AM type (screaming pleasantries and references to our opponents relationship to the Anti-Christ, though with a smile).
Thirdly, there are some very worried folks out there. When I can and the traffic lights work out, we try to hand out McCain-Palin bumper stickers to folks. Some of them, I gotta say, are sadly fearful of what will happen if Obama wins. More than a few say they “hope and pray.” I try to urge them on with “we’re gonna win” or “all we have to do is fight” and tell them of all the other people we have seen. WE NEED TO BUCK OUR FELLOW REP’S AND OTHER SUPPORTERS UP for the rest of the run. We really do.
Finally, and this is where the epiphany comes about. About two hours in this morning, I had in a five minute span a Hispanic man say he supports McCain and told me he just “respects him more” and had four cars in near succession with Hispanic/Latinos in them showing support. News junkie that I am, I can’t remember the *Latino vote *being discussed more than 30 seconds since the Democratic Primaries.
Are we missing something here? We are we at with the Latino vote? Could we be doing better than expected, better than the media wants to report?
Additionally, we have gotten a lot of “on the road” support from I would say, Indian (South Asian) folks. Not that I was taken by surprise, as here in NJ we have a great number of immigrants from India, etc. But, they are a “un-discussed” group by the media in this election. Could it be that We/McCain *may do a lot better in this election because of *Hispanic/Latino/Indian/South Asian support and these groups might help negate the vastly increased number of African American votes coming in this election?
Sorry if this is an overly long post. Also, I believe “South Asian” is a new vernacular, so I don’t wish to offend anyone.
