Eureka/OS!M

Today I had a breakthrough.

I've been loving my internship. I'm working with a bunch of young, energized people who believe in what they are doing (worlds away from interning with the State of Minnesota in the Executive branch a couple years ago, and from waitressing 40 hours a week). My work is usually challenging/interesting and I feel like I'm actually accomplishing something day in and out. But I still felt some of the latent frustration that I've become very familiar with. It's a frustration that denotes some level of apathy, boredom, or discomfort/disagreement with what I'm doing or being required to do. Like upselling. I hate upselling. Why should I waste my time convincing someone to buy a drink made with a more expensive brand of vodka or buy a full sized salad when they really don't care about the brand of alcohol or only want to eat a half salad? So each time I do it... I feel slightly disgusted with myself, even though my managers praise me at the end of the night when I have a slightly higher guest check average.

Anyway, I was feeling a bit like that, despite being generally very satisfied with my Democratic internship. It was definitely not overwhelming, nor something I thought about or noticed everyday. It just kind of nagged me from time to time. A little reminder that, while I may enjoy myself this summer, campaigning may not be the career for me. I couldn't put my finger on or define the issue, but it existed. Today while talking with D. about upcoming events, I finally figured out what it was - my unending idealism is poking its head into my life once again.

I have this belief that if people are empowered and educated on politicians, parties and policies, they will be willing and able to vote, and the sum of that vote would be a pretty fair indicator of what is best for the nation as a whole. I guess I just believe democracy should work, or something. That it could and should actually function as we teach our children it does. Because when you talk about it like that, it makes sense and seems fair and... something... Anyway, campaigning deludes this, destroys it. We spend so much time trying to figure out how to con and convince or otherwise talk or bribe or trick people into voting for our candidate or party. We're basically upselling (or selling in general) our party's product. And that sales mindset just doesn't ever sit well with me. I know I'm an everyday product and victim and active participant of/in the advertising industry and market economy. I realize that. I'm just not ready to like it.

That's what's happened to me in college. In high school people could tell me I was idealistic until they were blue in the face, and I wouldn't believe them. College has taught me that I am idealistic, but while I have come to realize and accept this, I'm just not willing to give it up yet. And people think that's strange, but without idealism and striving for something better - actually better, not merely tricking everyone into thinking it's better - where will we be? Our culture and society will stagnate. Innovation, working towards a goal (an ideal), striving to become more is a cornerstone of being human and is key to human progress. So, I'm not willing to give up my idealism. I just can't. It's a pretty integral part of me. Deal with it, all you cynics.

I'm also not willing to resign myself to daily cheerfulness and not hating my job. Moving forward, I'm going to look for careers and jobs where I don't have an underlying nagging coming from my idealistic side. I'm going to look for something that satisfies that part of my personality too.

Catch-Up

I started a second, paying, job at Applebee's which has greatly reduced the amount of time I spend at the Democratic office each week. I am still doing things around here though.

Some recent developments include taking over more of the office operations - like making sure it stays clean and that we have all the supplies we need - tending Pottsie's candidate while she does call time (calling people to ask them for money). I've also started on more community outreach projects - like the college research, but this time focusing on senior populations. Pretty exciting.

What's actually exciting is that there's been some major reorganizing of staff and a dramatic increase in the number of political staffers in our office. The drama was that the Obama for America campaign took over the Coordinated Campaign of the Democratic Party. Those of us who used to work for the Coordinated are now Obama staffers (or out of a job, cause that happened too, just not in our office). This demonstrates a shift in focus for the party. Instead of having a campaign dedicated to mobilizing voters for all candidates, we now are focused on growing and riding the wave of increased political interest Obama has been able to stir in voters since the primaries. The hope is if people are mobilized because they want to vote for Obama, there will be a trickle-down effect of mobilization for the local races as well. The office is a mix of various levels of pessimism, indifference, and optimism for this new plan of action. Now we have 12 staffers plus canvassers and two part-time junior interns. A complete list of characters follows:

Nymphadora, Campaign Manager for state house

Bro', (formerly J.), Campaign Manager for 2 state senate candidates

Pottsie, Campaign Manager for state house (easiest candidate to manage)

P-Fen, Pottsie's intern

D., formerly the IDP Coordinated Campaign Regional Field Director, now the Obama RFD and my boss

Obamapapa, Canvasser and now a regional Obama staffer (and kindof an Obama fanatic)

Newbie, Campaign Manager for a very young, boyish-looking state house candidate

C., canvass team leader

Semi-Colin, formerly a Coordinated Campaign Field Organizer, now an Obama FO

JKR, formerly a Coordinated Campaign Field Organizer, now an Obama FO

Escritora, I think she's a third Obama FO, but I'm not sure; we just met today.

Buttercup and Grey are the two high school interns. Buttercup does my job in the evenings when I can't be here and does data entry for the FOs. Grey is supposed to do things for the FOs, but has sort of been monopolized by Pottsie. One of the unfortunate consequences of the loosey-goosey thing our office has going on (which we usually enjoy) is that those sorts of misunderstandings sometimes happen. Grey's been able to do some things for other campaigns recently though.

I gotsta go to the 'Bees now though... more updates later.

Here's the story of a lovely campaign...And that's how we all became the Linn Dems Bunch.

Yeah.  We're that cool.  Nymphadora is taking all the day staffs' pictures and making a Brady Bunch themed, meet-the-office display.  It's gonna be fantastic.  

Our canvassers started yesterday.  I realized (to my dismay) that one of the canvassers who I go to school with still won't talk to me due to campus drama.  That's fun.  An exercise in professionalism I guess. I really hope we can at least move towards a working relationship again. D was joking about holding a reconciliation event for the two of us at the same time we hold one for all the Clinton and Obama people. 

Yesterday I organized the list of people who came to the Obama meeting on Monday and filled out the contact list so it was actually useful for our field team.  I'm impressed at my online resourcefulness.  I'm getting way good at finding all sorts of information and exploring websites. 

Yesterday I also had two more interviews for paid employment.  The first went horribly, but the manager I interviewed with also said that they were more looking for people who could be around over the winter holidays, rather than summer workers.  So I'm okay that didn't go well, even if I'm annoyed that I wasted my time interviewing and applying.  The second interview, the manager seemed checked out of, but she hired me with the warning of "you're a lot more mature than most of the other people who work here."  Didn't really know what to do with that, but I've got a job starting next week, I've just got to find some black tops and buy another pair of jeans. 

I put my online researching skills to the test again today and finished the College Report.  I'm actually really impressed that I found course listings for all the schools.  I mean, Coe hides those inside the student only section of our website, but I found ways to get at it on the other sites.  

Now I'm not sure what to do with myself.  D's training the canvassers and thus can't give me a new job, but I finished my to-do list.  I still need to rearrange the conference room, but the canvassers are in there.  I could work on more updates to the "God List," but technology thwarts me there too - D put the spreadsheet on Google Docs, but I can't access it yet, because he forgot to share it with me.  So I'm a little bored.  Hence the post.  

Hmm... How're those goals coming?  

I think I'm learning a lot about party structure and function and how campaigns work at a basic level.  I know I have a better understanding of how the party is organized, at least here in this county.  Something that baffles me is the lack of overall organization.  See, each county in this state has it's own Democratic party.  Then, the state party has also divided the state into regions for the field campaign - D is the regional field director for region 4; I'm the region 4 intern.  Thing is, not all the precinct that R4 covers are completely contained within R4 - one of the state senators J is overseeing has a precinct that extends into the county and region to the south of us.  So we're overlapping staff there. Also, the national party and the Obama campaign has divided up the territory differently too.  So today we had an Obama volunteer here at our office, looking for the Obama staffer, but he's in Iowa City.  It seems like it would be beneficial to somehow divide the territory in a uniform way - at least so the Coordinated Campaign is working with all the same people and has everyone in a common office with satellites if need be.  

I haven't done any data entry recently, so I'm not sure if I'm getting faster all that quickly.  I am getting better at researching and creating those spreadsheets that are so all-important.

The cool thing about our office is that D, M (aka JKR), JR (aka Semi-Colin) and I are all working on the same projects a lot of the time, but we prioritize them differently.  For me, the needs list is a pretty important thing, while the Master List is more important to JKR and Semi-Colin.  So, if I'm needing a new task and updating the needs list and checking on the Master List are both important, I know JKR and Semi-Colin are on the Master List, so I should update and republish the needs list.  It breaks down the tasks one more time; keeps our eyes on the prize...

Other exciting developments this week:

- Obama has basically clinched the nomination, so we've gotten back to decorating the office with Obama paraphernalia, now that we are free to do so.  D spent a good twenty minutes making sure a huge wooden Obama logo was centered and stable in the window this morning, running in and out the door, slightly repositioning the circle, checking it, re-repositioning it, until it was just perfect. 

- Federal House Democrats started the LGBT Equality caucus as a part of the party in that body.  

- We're ten days away from state convention!

- All of the incumbents won their primary races, so we in the office can officially endorse them too. 

I am Networking Queen

It's only Monday, and already I have accomplished a great deal this week.  Foremost among these achievements, I got one of my friends an internship, and hopefully a place to stay this summer. Because I rock like that.  Pottsie wanted an intern, so I hooked him up with PFenner, and she'll start tomorrow.  Now S (henceforth known as Nyphadora), is jealous and wants her own intern.  So I'm trying to get M to come intern too.  We're flooding the office with Kohawks!  Woot!

Today D was in Des Moines (again) with our field organizers for their training.  He might still be there tomorrow too.  (Hmmm...) I coped with this complete lack of direction as best as I could (which was fine) and worked on finishing a couple of reports he wanted me to do.  The one I spent the most time on was the "College Report" which entailed gathering info about the four local colleges - things like Poli Sci professors, campus maps, student contacts, enrollment... you know, good, useful volunteer-finding information.  I also kind of attempted filling in more contact info in the R4 List of All-Important Knowledge (that's my cool, excessive name for it today), but I was having a hard time concentrating on scouring the internet for labor unions in the CR area.  

This afternoon I had my first interview for a real job (one that pays me money, not just experience).  It was at Applebee's by my house.  I filled out a REDICULOUS "personality" survey.  Definately meant to weed out depressed and aggressive types.  A little discriminating against those with mental health problems I think.  Tomorrow I get to interview there again and at Express.  Not sure which I want more right now.  Probably will come down to flexible hours (to work around the campaign) and which pays more. 

Tonight, I stayed late at the office to be around while the Obama campaign met in our conference room.  This is definitely inspiring some rearranging of furniture.  And the updating of the needs list to emphasize "Folding Chairs!!!!" because we need those that bad.  It's totes true.