2/7: Debate Visibility at Saint Anselm's

     Today we did some guerrilla warfare at Nashua Community College. Mitchell, David (another similarly young/hip field organizer) and I were charged with heading down to the local campus and spreading the word about Andrew Yang’s town hall tomorrow by handing out merch, putting up posters, and peer pressuring our fellow youth to come out to the event (this part was not terrifically difficult- convincing college students they need $1000 a month is not exactly persuasively rigorous). 

     It was clear to me, however, that whoever had decided we should wait to recruit students until the day before the event hadn’t been in college in quite some time- no one is on campus on Fridays. I stayed and manned the table to recruit any poor souls who had registered late and had Friday classes, while David and Mitchell decorated the walls with hundreds of copies of Andrew Yang’s face (much to the chagrin of the custodial staff). We were told to suspend our unsanctioned poster hanging at once and to take every poster off the wall, which we complied with to the letter after a call to our office and promoted our wall posters to table fliers. 

This technique is called malicious compliance and is an integral element of campaign work.

     After this, we made a brief stop to David’s very large and well-populated house so he could pick up some supplies for debate visibility at Saint Anselm’s later tonight. David, like many of the other Yang volunteers, lives in supporter housing with a number of other field organizers from our office and miscellaneous volunteers who, based on the stories he and the other inhabitants of this interesting living situation, are interesting roommates to have. Apparently supporter housing is quite common among campaigns, as the long hours and not particularly competitive pay offered to field organizers tends to attract a large student base.

     The ringleader/quasi-landlord of this operation is the legendary “Jack”, who I keep hearing about from many others on my campaign as a somewhat mythical figure within the New Hampshire Yang Gang community. Jack is a staunch Yang supporter who donates his home, time, and money, but is perhaps best known for appearing in the infamous “whipped cream video”, where he was the second of two infamous Yang fans to have whipped cream sprayed in their mouths by Andrew Yang (who, somewhat scandalously, proceeded to identify himself as the “full service candidate” if that wasn’t enough). I, unlike many of those who were offended by this video, have a sense of humor, so I was almost starstruck to be in such a unique and unconventional living situation. This house, to me, represented the pinnacle of grassroots organization- different people from different backgrounds and of different means coming together with their individual contributions to provide for the cause however they can.

A photo taken on the primary party on the 2/11/20 of me with Jack Chen and his wife.

     After our trip to Jack’s house, we headed with our layers intact to Saint Anselm’s for debate visibility. Debate visibility is somewhat of a cross between a sadistic hazing practice braved by only the most enthusiastic volunteers of a campaign, and a trauma bonding retreat on-par with a shamanic ayahuasca ceremony. Supporters stand cheering outside in the below-freezing temperatures, rain or shine (more specifically, rain-snow-freezing rain or shine, in our circumstances) and serve as a campaign’s front-line offense as a sort of “war paint” to intimidate opponents and demonstrate the candidate’s strength from the start. 

     We stood for hours on the street corner waving our signs, with the visibility leaders seeming to have some sort of 6th sense for when enthusiasm began to waver: when chants grew progressively quieter and sign waving noticeably less aggressive, they would introduce some new chant or pass around a fresh box of hand warmers to reignite the supporters’ passion.

Even more rarely, we were treated to a merry eardrum-bursting blow from the Truckers for Yang semi-truck that would drive by every so often. (Credit: truckersforyang.com)

     Despite the working conditions that would likely have been in defiance of OSHA guidelines had we been being paid for our labor, working outside that event in the bitter cold came with a certain sense of being “what it was all about” that staved off the frostbite just enough to keep my fingertips intact. Occasional passerby would every so often remark about how we were working for free; I joked with fellow supporters that if we campaigned hard enough, our $1,000 monthly backpay would be arriving in a few months. Despite the horrific weather, I had a fantastic time at debate visibility and only lost a few minor extremities so all in all am confident with how it all turned out.

David smiles at us while a particularly exuberant Yang supporter cheers on.

Me meeting Libertarian candidate Vermin Supreme for the first time and receiving an apple!