Guest Post from Kristin Teigen of Poligots: North Carolina Road Trip

The MOMocrats are proud to welcome Oregon-based political blogger and honorary MOMocrat Kristin Teigen who just got back from volunteering for Obama in North Carolina. She files this report.

I spent the last week and a half traveling around rural North Carolina, gaining, in part, a very different perspective on this election. In my neighborhood of Southeast Portland, I’ve seen a grand total of one McCain/Palin sign (they are everywhere in North Carolina), I have a plethora of media outlets from which to choose, and I’ve never have to stand in line to vote.

First, the racism. Three days after we got there, a bunch of local idiots went into the woods, shot a black bear in the head, wrapped it in Obama signs and dumped it on the grounds of a nearby campus. A local realtor used his message board to broadcast not a great deal on a house, but a racial epithet about Obama. He took it down only after members of the local Unitarian church protested and picketed him. Where we were, there were a lot of lawn jockeys and even more Confederate flags – on cars, used as curtains in houses, and one, the largest I’ve ever seen, illuminated with spotlights outside a business.

I saw African American teenagers, who grow up with these realities as part of the fabric of their childhood, look at my Obama t-shirts and smile, sometimes slyly, not wanting to show it. They need to know, despite these images, that this country elected a man who looks like them, who can let them know how much power they can have.

Second, the lack of information. I have long been curious about those who say that they don’t have enough information to make a choice about a candidate. Then, I spent a week in a rural cabin without cable, much less WiFi, down a country road where the newspaper delivery guy would not travel. We had local and national network news, the quality of which was dismal. That’s it. The NPR station was just a tease – I could hear just enough through the static to realize that I was missing out. If I were a stay-at-home mother in that environment, I, too, would have very little to go on as to the positions of the major candidates.

Despite these first two realities, there is, third, the hope. The small village community center in Flat Rock had, nearly every day we passed it, lines out the door of early voters. A survey of the bumper stickers in the parking lot indicates many were Obama supporters. I chatted with the Obama volunteer passing out leaflets on the sidewalk, who planned on being there every day until the election. There was no McCain volunteer.

There’s more hope. Obama has 15 more offices in the state than McCain, and when he spoke in nearby Asheville, he drew 28,000 people to the city’s largest venue. In comparison, Sarah Palin held a rally last Sunday at the Asheville Civic Center, with a capacity of 1,800, and faced a tremendous number of protesters.  And the Democrats are working so hard -- my husband and I spent some time in the Hendersonville Obama office with several staffers who stayed until 7:30 on a Friday night. While they were discouraged that an internal poll had Obama down in the state, they were still working hard, day after day, night after night.

Obama might just win North Carolina and increasingly, it looks like he will have a friend in the Senate in Kay Hagen. The fact that it’s even close is a watershed – one of the most viscious racists in the Senate, Jesse Helms, was reelected five times in the state. In 2004, Bush won by 56% even though North Carolinian John Edwards was on the Democratic ticket. The last time it went Democratic was when neighbor Jimmy Carter was running in 1976. Now, Barack Obama could do it again. If he does so, perhaps we will all see the rise of a new South and a new wave of power for those, like the African American teenagers smiling at my shirt, who have long been kept silent.

Photo credit: Obama in North Carolina, NY Times.

Comments

[Kristin]

I forgot to mention the fact that Obama's plan for small business includes support for increased rural access to the Internet, which would help those with such limited access to information.

[Tina]

I wish NC hadn't been made to sound so backwards. Really, we have paved roads and cars and everything! ;)

[Kristin]

Tina,

Sorry it came across that way...I was writing about the part that I was in -- where we were staying didn't actually have a paved road...similar to many parts of my home state of Oregon and many other rural areas.

[Scheherazade Khan]

Many years ago, whilst assisting my mom in a renovation project, we visited NC to look at some of the gorgeous furniture that is produced there. It was one of the friendliest, most beautiful parts of the country I have ever seen. People were curious about us (we have funny names...) and politely asked where we were from. Personally, if I could convince my husband, we'd be living there...

[Lawyer Mama]

I was going to say what Tina said. Two of my uncles live near Asheville and they have running water and cable and everything! LOL! (My husband is from SW Nebraska - a town of *maybe* 200 - personally, I think they've just never updated their sign - While there are no paved roads, every farmer has internet access, even if it's satellite, so they can keep up with the prices of commodities and the weather. I can't say that it's easy to come by though. And they pay dearly for it.)

Yes, there is still racism in the South. (I live in Virginia.) But there's also still hospitality and "yes, sir" and "no, ma'am" and a smile when you walk into a store.

I'm glad you saw so much hope too. It's a wonderful thing.

[Kristin]

I think it's a bit unfortunate that the realities of rural environments are called "backwards." I would have never make that judgement. What I wrote of was what I experienced -- the same experience I had when we moved to rural Montana and we didn't have TV for awhile -- we weren't backwards -- we were rural. Two different things.

Barack Obama, through his small business plan, has supported increased Internet access to rural communities so that those folks who can't afford the satellite dish can get information. It's quite unfortunate that information has become a commodity that you have to pay, sometimes dearly, to get.

[ilinap]

I live in North Carolina and have been working tirelessly on the Obama campaign. This is my second presidential election here. It is a vast departure from the ways of Madison, WI, Chicago, IL, and Minneapolis, MN that I lived in and campaigned in the rest of my adult life. I live in Raleigh, which is not a good representation of the rest of the state. Those of us in our state's urban pockets forget what it's like in the mountains and on the coast where transplants don't settle, where wifi is spotty, where cable is tuned to Fox News, where NPR is nothing but static, where teachers and schools are struggling, where jobs are lost. This state has a deep history of racism that is not limited to its rural parts. I wrote a post (http://www.dirtandnoise.com/2008/10/racism-is-race-that-must-end.html) about a friend's comments about Obama. Racism is embedded on people's psyches in ways I cannot comprehend. I am hopeful, so hopeful, that my state will pull through and surprise the world. And indeed ourselves.

[People Power Granny]

Check out my thoughts on what's happening in Asheville regarding the presidential race....it's magic!
peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com

[Arwen]

I live in Asheville too. I have spent a lot of time out in Hayesville and parts of Madison County. I am a little annoyed that you make WNC sound like a backwoods, illiterate place. As much as I would like to think that you made that all up or projected pre-existing notions, there are some pretty ignorant people in WNC. I flew on a plane next to a guy this morning who was completely misinformed and he has internet.