I'm going to camp next weekend!

[wildeyed]

Camp Wellstone that is :)

I will post later about what I learned.

[NMDemDist2]

1. woohoo!!!

we want a full(ish) report :bounce:

[wildeyed]

2. Will do.

I am trying to get back on my organizing horse. Seems like I am hanging out with the kids, taking them to the pool and not focusing AT ALL on saving democracy. But soon it will be September, another election rolls around and I will have no planning done (but a very good tan). I hope Camp gets me focused again.

[wildeyed]

3. Camp was great!

We got a shorter version than what is regularly presented due to the facilitators scheduling conflicts, but still tons of good information.

The best info parts were the teambuilding style exercises we did early in the training about motivation, both our own and the voters. Our facilitator walked us through our own motivations for political organizing- Did we understand power? Were we comfortable using it? And why did we organize in the first place? What were our formative experience that motivated us toward this type of work?

Then we talked about what motivated voters- the heart or values first, the gut or self interest second, and both last and least, the head or the intellect. It gave me insight into way I don't seem to convince anyone to my political point of view by spouting facts at them anywhere but on the DU (and rarely here either).

We did some campaign planning, but that section was not as in depth plus I had done a similar type of training with DFA not too long ago, so most of that was repetitive for me.

It was really great to spend so much time with great professional organizers form different parts of the country and other amateurs like myself from my community. I see most of the other participants on a regular basis, but I had the opportunity to really get to know some people and do some ferocious networking, so that was great too.

All in all a great way to spend part of a weekend :)

[NMDemDist2]

4. "Then we talked about what motivated voters"

can you expand on this a bit for me??

:hi:

[wildeyed]

5. He drew a stick figure for us, then diagrammed it:

heart/values, gut/self interest and brain/intellect. What he said was that people are motivated pretty much in that order when it comes to politics. Their values/heart are first, gut self/interest second and brain/intellect/facts last.

So when we spout facts at people and tell them why they are wrong, we are not going to make a lot of progress.

When we stand around talking about how stoopid repub voters are (not that you do, this is just an example, and we have all heard these conversations) because they don't understand their own self interest, we are actually the stoopid ones. They do understand their self interest. They just think that Bush represents their values better and values are more important.

The values/gut argument makes sense to me. My parents make +200k per year, yet they are not anti-tax and would rather die than vote for a repub. Because their *values* are democratic, even if there self interest would be better served by the repubs.

Our challenge now is to find the values we share with these swing type voters and communicate them. The facilitator described how he approached NRA voters. He would ask them WHY they valued their guns. They would say something like "security" and he would say, Well my candidate cares about security, too, yadda yadda. He didn't get all the NRA'ers, but he got a few and sometimes a few is all you need to win.

Once you have established shared values and self interest, then you can finally address the facts. Not easy for hyper-cerebral types like ourselves, but certainly possible. :)

I will try to make a polished post about this and start posting it around the site before the 08 election when people start to get interested in volunteering again. It was an interesting seminar and really got me thinking about persuasion again.

[NMDemDist2]

6. so abortion is a biggy then huh?

I was practically assaulted in 04 at a movie theater handing out Kerry info by a woman who called Democrats 'baby killers'

any suggestions on that one?

[wildeyed]

7. ouch!

You would have to ask him, but my guess is that he would say that there are some we won't convince no matter what. I would put Ms. Babykiller in that category. There are others we can convince. I know a few evangelical christians who are vehemently opposed to abortion but also consider poverty and the environment to be important moral issues, too.

I got yelled at in 04 doing non-partisan voter registration in a low income areas. Nasty old (white) man started ranting how we were only asking blacks to register and we were out supporting that damn Kerry! lol. We asked everyone to register. Of course I did know it was a strongly dem leaning neighborhood when I organized the event. ;)

[walk softly]

8. Kill them with kindness

Had a woman come into our Democratic Party Fair Booth about a month ago asking how we can continue to support candidates that approve of abortion.

Started out very Fiery, but I kept my cool and tried to deescalate since folks were gathering. My main response is always supported by democratic values - we believe that all life is precious, Iraqi citizens, People in Dar fur, etc

Bottom line - Challenge them to work with us - can you imagine how much good we can do if we joined forces and provided hope and help to all people?

We ended with a hug, but that's not always the case, sometimes you just have to walk away. The secret is - don't let them make you feel like you are a bad person - none of us stand out on the corner and preach for abortion - we support a woman's right to choose and offer hope and support, education, jobs, etc. That's why we support Democratic candidates.

[Kixel]

9. Which group were you in?

I thought it had a lot of great information....glad to hear it went well for you! I went last January.