San Mateo is right smack in the middle of the bluest of the blue zones of the country. It's a suburb about 15 miles south of San Francisco. Quite a wealthy area, so plenty of Volvo's and Mercedes with Kerry stickers on them. Also, many Kerry/Edwards yard signs, with no Bush signs in sight. Now, there's a good reason why you don't see a lot of Bush signs and bumper stickers around. Namely, the threat of vandalism. The lady I mentioned in the last post, the one who'd changed from Democrat to Republican and was volunteering at the table, had just had her car spray painted with white spray paint because it had a Bush sticker (she was able to wash it off).
Here is a must read post which talks about this by a guy who lives in Cupertino, which is also near here in the Sea of Blue:
Link...
A lot of the folks who stopped by said they were really happy to see us here, and lots of people gave us the thumbs up and a smile as they walked by, even if they didn't stop to converse. There were plenty who expressed the sentiment "I didn't know there were any Republicans in San Mateo County! It's great to see you guys out here!" One of the guys who registered had a Harley Davidson tee shirt on and looked like a salt-of-the-earth biker type. He said the last time he voted was 1968, and after that he didn't vote because the whole system seemed rigged and corrupt to him. But he thinks it's important enough for him to register and vote this time because Kerry is the last person he wants as Commander in Chief when we need to be beating the terrorists.
The most lively, interesting, and funny people we talked to were transplanted New Yorkers. We talked to quite a few of those. One of the New Yorkers was a former cop and Air Force MP, and he stuck around for awhile. He noted that people were often surprising in how their political affiliation did not match their looks. On a couple of occasions, folks you would have pegged as Nader voters stopped by the table and turned out to be enthusiastic Republicans. The New Yorker said "I would have bet my last dollar that those guys would be flaming liberals!"
There have also been a couple of folks who seemed fairly non-political, but had been excited by seeing the Republican Convention and wanted to vote for "those guys". Last week at another location there was an older Chinese lady who had never voted before, had no idea how the process worked, but said "I watched the convention, I want to vote for Bush!", as she waved her little fist in the air. It was cute.
And a lot of people said they were just plain disgusted by all of the bitterness and acrimony coming from the left, and they felt that that was something that just needed to be defeated.
A few people were refreshingly non-political, and said, "you know, I don't even know what party I am!" Although I think it's important to be well-informed, there is something kind of heartwarming about folks who just live their lives and don't take too much notice of the battles being waged. I don't know why, but they're just failing to notice the outrageous fact that Bush = Hitler.
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