March 29, 2019
The personal touch.
It's nice for actual political candidates (or their surrogates) to come right up to your house and ring the doorbell. But just because they want to get personal doesn't mean I can't be aloof. It's my house! I don't answer the doorbell.
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I don't answer my phone unless I know who's calling. If the caller doesn't leave a message, I block their number.
Being rude to strangers is a tactic. Good move.
It's my house! I don't answer the doorbell.
That's what my wife says. Even though she knows that I've been knocking on doors as a candidate every four years since 2010.
I understand why. Strangers who knock on your door want something from you. Always. But if you could possibly not make it so obvious that you're home, it wouldn't sting so much. Is it too much to ask that you turn off the TV and crouch behind the sofa until I leave?
Me too. Ringing my doorbell is even more rude than ringing my phone.
During the last round of elections, Democratic poll workers came to my house, in Oregon, to knock on my door and tell me that their records showed I had not voted yet (I am registered as a Democrat). I did not appreciate their taking an interest in my voting behavior. I was reminded of the block-watchers in Cuba.
They have answer bots to defeat robo calls (they purposely waste the robo callers time costing them money). Someone needs to develop an answer bot for front door intercoms. They'd respond with confusing non sequiturs.
When did not answering the door become common? Was it when not answering the phone did? Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, we always answered the door, and always answered the phone. We didn't have telemarketers back then, but we did have door-to-door salesmen.
I still like Clint Eastwood’s Grand Tourino approach of pointing a loaded M1. But Madison is not ready.
British MP candidates were expected to knock on doors in Trollope's political novels of the 1860's. Before that, beer was supplied centrally to the much smaller electorate.
Bah humbug!
I feel your pain.
Lolololol
He delivered a very personal touch.
I have always wanted to put an automated voice response to a door knock/bell ring. I think this one would be a lot of fun.
Been there, done that. Actually preferred it when they didn't answer the door, or pick up the phone for that matter. Just drop the leaflet or leave a quick message.
It all counts as a Knock or a Ring for the RNC's ridiculously inflated GOTV metrics.
I will say though that the candidate needs to be the one on the doors, if the district is small enough. Being a surrogate just feels flaky. No one wants to talk to a surrogate.
The biggest winners of state house seats used to go around three times. Or at least said they did. That's a lot of walking, sometimes culminating in late November knee or hip surgery.
Telemarketing backfired badly, making people touchy about intrusions on their privacy generally. It also changed middle-class manners. I haven’t the slightest compunction about hanging up on telemarketers the instant I realize what the call’s about. And I have a nice little brass No Soliciting plaque by the front door. Apparently high school kids don’t know what “soliciting” means as I’m always buying Booster Cards and raffle tickets.
In my neighborhood Garden Hills growing up we sold door to door various child marketed items. We did Claxton Fruitcake at Christmas for Junior Civitanand Boy Scout Expo Tickets in the spring. The girls did Girl Scout cookies. Thirty-five years ater when my kids were at Woodward the door bell rings includeded nice childre taking for orders for all kinds of stuff, like popcorn and cakes.
I recall the homes that refused to answer the door bell were the old ones who probably grew up in the depression era. But ALL with their own kids opened and always spent freely. In my
adult days I way over spent on them.probably as a favor to their parents in the neighborhood.
Was it Blaska?
I'm not answering the door if you have a gun or a clipboard. Both indicate the intention to assault or rob me, maybe both.
An attractive woman with either item is considered an exception worth the risk.
I'm not fond of the political goons who come when you have not voted. Fortunately that hasn't hit my neighborhood yet.
And while I'm not especially fond of the Jehovah's Witnesses who show up on my doorstep once or twice a year, I do enjoy chatting with them a bit. I start off the conversation by identifying myself as a lapsed Methodist. That shuts down their hard sell. But they are usually polite and they are devoted to their belief. Compare and contrast to that pencil necked geek Adam Schiff--who is certainly devoted to the chimeras that float through the vast spaces in his empty cranium.
When I live in St Paul I could expect a goon squad of moral bullies from the Teachers Unton to work me over on my front steps every election season.
We have a Dutch door, so we can open the top, address whoever it is that's out there, and then close it whenever we choose.
But that's only when there's more than one person at home. If I'm home alone, I ignore it. This door-to-door nonsense might have worked back in 1950, but in the age of social media, you reach a lot more people with a Facebook page.
Or direct mailer propaganda.
I dunno. Most people ( the vast vast majority ) who have the gumption to ring a doorbell blind are nice enough. It's probably cool to reward that kind of behavior, which is by definition civil. I can't recall ever being skunked by it.
Although, I did let my (late teens) son answer the door when the LDS guys came around. But, that was so that he could learn the lesson of how to deal with "a pitch".
Respectfully Althouse, you might want to rethink this.
When did not answering the door become common?
Decades ago, there was a possibility that door-to-door salesmen might have something you want. Now you can order whatever you want online, 24-hours a day. If it's not a friend at the door, what are the chances that it's not someone who will just waste my time?
I don't know if it was more annoying, but I felt more justified in my annoyance over interruptions when I worked from home.
That's a fine rule as long as the candidate is a white man or possibly an older white woman.
If they're anything else, though, I'm afraid you've committed a low grade hate crime and/or a high grade microaggression. Refusing to greet a woman or POC at your door is tantamount to hiding away when one of "them" invades your white space and is just a step away from being a BBQ Betty/calling the cops! Not answering the door and listening to the "dialog" such a person wants to deliver is an offense against their non-white body.
I'd just hate to see a nice centrist person like you engage in ugly behavior of that sort, Professor.
Come on Emerita Professora
Hang a quiz of questions you want answered to be filled out and dropped through letter slot.
also let them know when their grades will be posted on a public list of all who took the quiz and their grades
Only a swabby would admit to being intimidated by school marms ;^)
If you're not a neighbor, and you don't know the person well enough to have his number, do you know him well enough to show up at his door?
We have two loud dogs who are not fond of strangers. Opening the door without them getting out is a chore, yet many times I have had to shoo folk off the step with hand gestures and head shaking. Take a hint! If you aren't delivering a package, from the utility company, a known neighbor or holding girl scout cookie boxes, you are not wanted.
What I think people hear at my house if they come to the door, and I don't know them:
Footsteps to the entry to see who it is. Pause. Adult speaking to children, "I don't know that person." Footsteps walking away from the door.
It's good if they can hear you. It leaves no doubt.
No one going door to door in my neighborhood is well received and is never invited in. Jehovah's Witnesses have pretty much given up.
We placed a small sign under the doorbell advising that the premises were under video surveillance and those who had not called ahead were trespassing. Cut down the door knockers to those on a mission from God, who can't be stopped by mere signage.
Now we live in horse country where all properties on our road are under video surveillance, fences electrified and gated with call boxes. One doesn't enter horse breeding properties without permission for a number of reasons.
It could have been Donald Trump asking for your endorsement.
As Althouse goes, so goes Wisconsin.
Not a fan. I don't like it when anyone rings my doorbell uninvited. Political candidates, Cable Sales guy, Witnesses, and Environmental Advocates.
I usually answer the door (mostly to shut the dogs up) but generally just say "No thanks" and close it again, unless it turns out to be someone I know. I used to wonder how that would look if it was some presidential candidate trailed by a bunch of reporters and cameras. Since I no longer live in Iowa the odds of it happening are pretty slim. Also even a presidential candidate did decide to go door to door in my neighborhood they would probably send ahead a staffer to make sure the interaction would be positive. Still it's fun to think about how my closing the door in some candidate's face would play out on TV and Twitter.
If it’s a Democrat I invite them in, offer refreshment, listen to their pitch, and try to ask questions that indicate I accept their perspective on the issues.
Every half hour they spend with me is a half hour they’re not talking to someone gullible enough to fall for their bullshit.
Just got a call from a "patient advocate" about getting high quality "braces", "this is your last chance before medicare disqualifies me as eligible for them". About the tenth call in this regard. I live in a condo setting in an area that gladly enforces our no canvassing statute. Cops gladly take their info and move em' along. Just because they knock they are not entitled to a piece of my time. I do like wasting telemarketer's time, as it seems to be the only way off their to do list. My neighbor's German Shepherd deterred the Jehova's Witnesses!
In the old days when the other party came round you told them what you thought of their policies or candidates. Facebook and so on mean that they never really hear what the other side is saying, only what their own side is saying about the other side. And they shrink away and run from face to face opposition, instead of learning to present their own side politely and effectively to angry opponents. It's a loss. But I'm doubtful about door-to-door people also, mostly cable providers - they want to come in, they want your info. No, no. And Girl Scout cookies are VERY EXPENSIVE, have changed their recipe, have nattering boxes and support abortion promotion. But I will let the sunshine in when spring comes to my door.
I am with Ann. Because I practice my profession out of my home, the door must be answered. However, Messrs. Sturm and Ruger always answer with me. When the person(s) is/are deemed safe, Sturm & Ruger discreetly disappear, it's an art perfected some twenty-five years ago.
However, when the door-caller is a religious or political "solicitor" (solicitoress?), I always say "I have an hour". That almost always ends the session, if not, I am game for the discussion.
I can see who's at my front door without being seen or heard myself. I always answer the door if it's a neighbor - they might need something or need help. I always buy whatever the neighborhood kids are selling. It's a high social capital neighborhood. (I wouldn't blow off people who do things like anonymously shovel your driveway, walkways, and sidewalks while you're still sleeping. Even after a huge snow dump. *Especially* after a huge snow dump.)
But I never answer the door if I don't recognize the caller. Don't answer the phone if I don't recognize the number, either.
Why does your house have a door or walls? To keep the poor brown people out? They just want a better life (and access to your tax dollars and to expose you exotic diseases). They likely don't speak English and are also illiterate in what ever their own language is, so you will need a mandated interpreter. Spread the love!
When there is no difference between the candidates - especially local races - the one who actually came to my door gets my vote.
Doorbelling isn't easy, nor is it fun. It's work. And if they're willing to burn out several pairs of shoes over the course of a campaign working for that vote? I'll give it to him/her.
I absolutely hate when any solicitation happens at my door - even scouts. I'll pretty much always buy from the scouts who set up outside my grocery or hardware store, but when anyone comes to my door to sell me (or sell me on) something, it only makes me want to say no in the most brusque possible way. I far prefer commercial and political contact to take place in public places.
It might be related to the time my husband (then my boyfriend) and I were sitting in our apartment and someone knocked "shave and a haircut," which is how our friends upstairs always announced themselves. So we shouted, "Come in!" without getting up, and in walked a very tall, well-built panhandler, who basically stood between us and our only door, being perfectly nice (spinning a tale about his wife, newly delivered of a child, whom he was trying to reach and so needed gas money) but not moving, until we handed him all the cash we had.
When he finally left, we, shaken up and feeling like idiots, decided to get out of the place and get some dinner. So we hopped in the car and drove the three sides of our one-way-street-bordered block in order to get going in the right direction, and came to a stop at a red light. Well, who should be crossing but the same dude! He stops at the open car window (we didn't have a/c) and starts in on his story again. My husband says, "Come on, man, you just hit us in our apartment," and luckily the light turns green and we drive off. Not a good night for convincing me to donate on a retail basis OR to answer my door without knowing who's there.
Last year a campaign worker for Beto O'Rourke knocked on my door. I told her that only over my dead body would I vote for a Republican. In retrospect, I should have wasted her time by talking with her. Such as pointing out that like a Kennedy, Beto got off scot-free from drunk driving charges. Like Elizabeth Warren, Beto appropriates other cultures. Like John Kerry, Beto married into wealth. Sounds to me like the perfect Democrat Presidential candidate.
That was the only time a campaign worker has ever knocked on my door. However, I have gotten plenty of politics-related robocalls.
Church ladies knock on my door once or twice a year. They politely leave when I politely express my lack of interest in being converted. Most church ladies are looking for Spanish speakers. I decline to inform them I speak Spanish.
When I a kid - 1950s - the Boy Scouts would come around once ever couple of months selling a box of a dozen glazed donuts...we always answer the door...and, begged our parents to buy a box. I would answer the door today, cash in hand.
My dad was a Fuller Brush salesman for a short while - we had lots of their products in our home - we had them even before he went to work for the company. My mom bought a Kirby vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman - we had that vacuum for over 50 years. My mom also bought Avon cosmetics from the Avon lady. She was older with a large bosom, and kept her wallet in her bra...that was a very fascinating thing to an 8 year old.
I once knocked on a woman's door and heard, "Come in!", which I did, only to find it was a parrot.
All your hatred is duly noted, and was suspected from the git-go. No surprises there.
But activists in both parties still believe in this door-knocking and phone-calling stuff. We heard for years that it swung Ohio for Bush in 2004. Legendary! And we hear the Democrats do this all the time with college students paid by George Soros.
So what to do. People tune out TV ads, and many old voters are not on Facebook. Those of us who are maybe don't want to share partisan posts to any and all. Who needs the grief? We take out a big ad in the paper before the election, but circulation is way down.
My proposal for 2020 is that we do fuck-all, but it seems like a dereliction of some sort.
They often depict "kitchen table" discussions in campaign commercials.
Hey..let 'em pull up a chair.
I should have wasted her time by talking with her
That's a common tactic in the UK. The little old ladies of the opposition party invite the candidate in for tea and cake.
We had a lull in credit card robocalls last week. Unfortunately, my dad donated $100 over the phone last month, so the begging letters are now rolling in again.
***We placed a small sign under the doorbell advising that the premises were under video surveillance and those who had not called ahead were trespassing***
Reminds me of dumptrucks signage to stay back 200 feet that can only be seen if at all only from 20 feet
Ding dong
Homer: "You know, you could have just called me."
Mr. Burns: "Yes, but the telephone is so impersonal. I prefer the 'hands on' touch you only get with hired goons."
Scott Adams said he puts unsolicited calls on hold.
I have a question.
Who is more likely to do it?
"Detesting Bell ringers"
Red States Deplorables or
Blue States Wokesters
,,,Doorbelling isn't easy, nor is it fun. It's work. And if they're willing to burn out several pairs of shoes over the course of a campaign working for that vote? I'll give it to him/her.,,,
It can now be done on scooters.
Now There is an idea!
The other day there was a story on the local news about a passerby noticing a fire in the chimney of a home. He knocked on the door but the two adults inside wouldn't answer. So he called 9-1-1 and reported his observation, possibly saving a house from burning down.
Sometimes a knock on the door is worth acknowledging.
I have done canvassing and calling since 2008. It doesn't work but it keeps your volunteers busy and feeling purposeful. And, as someone said above, the GOP loves them their metrics.
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