I've been getting at least three phone calls a day from them, begging me to vote for Texan democrats. My answer is always the same: "I will not vote for a party that is responsible for genocide against Palestine. I will not vote for a party that fully endorses Israeli crimes."

In previous years they would try arguing me if I said something like I don't vote for imperialists, or that democrats have horrible records on issues like homelessness or healthcare. They would talk with me and try to get at the crux of the issue, usually just resorting to telling me that Republicans are even worse, which is usually fair I guess, but at least they'd argue a little, you know?

This year it's nothing. I say that I'm with the people of Palestine and it's like I said the secret word. Immediately it's "Ok, thank you." and they hang up. What is up with this? Did they do some kind of internal polling to decide it's not even worth arguing about? If you're gonna call me at 10:14 am on a Saturday to be a lib at least let me dunk on you a little

phoenix-evidence

  • BashfulBob [none/use name]
    ·
    18 days ago

    This year it's nothing. I say that I'm with the people of Palestine and it's like I said the secret word. Immediately it's "Ok, thank you." and they hang up. What is up with this?

    They're trying to hit a call-quota. The people on the other end of the line don't actually care if you vote or who you vote for. They just want to make their 1000th call and go home. You'll notice you still keep getting called so its not like anyone is registering what you're saying.

    When I dabbled in electoralism I used to see this on the other end. There would just be a line of phone numbers getting dialed. 90% of them wouldn't pick up. Anyone who answered the phone promoted you with a "R / D / Undecided / Other" option menu. If someone on the other end of the line is saying "I won't vote for genocide!" what do I select? Undecided/Other. But that doesn't take you off the phone list, it just spits you into the "Try again later" queue.

    The best way to get these calls to stop is to identify who is making them and say you're staunchly supporting the other one. That still doesn't work too well, because you're getting called independently from Presidential, Senatorial, and House phone bankers who don't bother to coordinate because that would mean functioning as a party rather than a random assortment of self-centered egomaniacs. But it does at least get the network you said "I'm voting for the other guy" on to flag you as "Opposition, do not call again".