American's for Prosperity were just on my front porch

[underpants]

young-ish guy (mid 20's) - baseball cap - "golf shirt" that has seen its better days - bearded but no mustache. Basically a gnomish sort of fellow.

"Hi I am from Americans for Prosperity. Would you like to answer a few questions for our poll?". He has a electronic tablet thing with the questions on it.

Me: "Americans for Prosperity? Is that a Rove operation?"
"rouge?"
Me: "Karl Rove"
"No"
Me: "Koch Brothers?"
"there are just a few questions"
Me: "How many?"
"10"
Me: "Okay sure" (I step out onto the porch)
"What do you think of Obamacare?"
Me: "It's great. best thing that ever happened to this country. We have been working on it for over 100 years"
"..um okay"
Me: "What we really need is a single payer system"
"Okay that was one of the questions...(give me the palm of his hand) ..thanks"

I have done a lot of canvassing and I understand that he knew he was wasting his time. Still it was fun.

[pscot]

1. If you made him think for 2 minutes

you did him a hell of a favor

[Half-Century Man]

5. To an American's for Prosperity" pollster having to think for two minutes

is the equivalent of random traumatic organ relocation.

[Heather MC]

19. good one

[Curmudgeoness]

2. So, he had 10 questions

but he only got to one question with you? Nothing like being transparent. If you are going to pretend that you are doing a random "poll", you should at least try to pretend.

Remember this next time you hear right wing poll say that 99% of people believe in unicorns.

[jtuck004]

3. They weren't polling. They were recruiting. Right answers gets you on their mailing list, and

right or wrong answers, either one, gets you in a database which can judge what they need to do to sway opinion.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. Yes, I get that.

I just have to laugh that they said they were taking a "poll".

Well, I suppose that they were polling, weren't they?

[jtuck004]

7. And so transparently deceptive, eh? But it works. And they are taking over neighborhood

by neighborhood where they can, especially at the local level.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Why can't we bring ourselves to be so deceptive

and underhanded? If it works.

But I would feel so dirty.

[jtuck004]

12. It's not the only way. We could be more human, and be more effective. But

that's work, requires introspection, and it's a long road, but that is what it would take to be different from them and yet effective. But we seem to prefer to make excuses and ignore the people who really pay the price, point fingers and beat up on each other.

Don't understand it.

La Boetie, back in the 1500's or so wrote that the tyrant only has what you give him, and that to take away his power you don't have to rise up, all you have to do is quit doing things for him, (cooperate and do things that help each other instead), and the tyrant will fall of his own weight.

Absolutely true. But instead the people mobbed up, cut the tyrants head off, and went back to arguing with each other while the rich replaced the tyrant.

The more things change, the more they stay...well, It's an old, old story, eh?

[Curmudgeoness]

15. That is more enlightening the more I read it.

I will have to work toward that goal more than I do now....help others, cooperate, work against all ugliness. That will take a lot of introspection.

But I am tired of fighting.

[jtuck004]

21. Just remember - "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

I have no idea whom (who?) to attribute that to, but it has served me well. It doesn't stop me from trying to do good, or at least better, or at least be more effective, but I know I might get my hand bit for trying



Keeps me attuned to reality...

[Erose999]

6. I'd have turned the hose on them.

[durablend]

8. Should've released the dogs

The ones with bees in their mouths!

[jtuck004]

9. I think teabagger meat is probably poison. I would rather feed them week old roadkill. n/t

[Snake Plissken]

11. I miss out on all of the fun, all I get are Mormons and JWs on my front porch

Telling them I'm not interested in becoming the property of a their cult, gets old after a while.

[1ProudAtheist]

13. I Just Tell Them

To hurry the eff up, that I need to get back to the backyard to finish sacrificing the goat.

After one of those interactions, I never have to worry about any of those looney-tunes coming back to my house. I suppose that it somehow gets "marked". But, it definitely works...............

[Snake Plissken]

14. Back in college we used to take turns answering the door and giving them a puppet show,

but nowadays if you do that you'll get arrested for indecent exposure and end up on the internet at as sexual offender.

[HughBeaumont]

16. That's got to be one of the dumbest named groups walking.

"Americans for the Prosperity of Wealthier Americans" is what it should be called. Who are they trying to bullshit? Obviously that useful idiot fell for the scam.

[kairos12]

17. I am surprised he didn't wisp up and disappear like one those characters from "Beetlejuice."

[KG]

18. ever notice it's poor dudes doing the legwork for groups like AfP?

almost a joke how they just don't get it.

[eridani]

20. Did you ask him whether he was being paid, and if so how much? n/t

[Hekate]

22. I love in-depth push-polls over the phone

I'm willing to keep them talking as long as it takes -- on the whole I'm sympathetic to the poor souls doing this for a living, and my answers and comments not only skew their results but have made several of them laugh out loud. I ended up with such a good rapport with one lady that I got a call later from her manager asking if she had been professional in her conduct, and I assured him that indeed she had.

The latest one had to do with oil development off the Santa Barbara County coast, some hare-brained scheme to slant-drill from Vandenburg Air Force Base into the ocean. Other coastal development questions were asked as well, impacting our remaining and very precious undeveloped open space. My opinion of slant-drilling here: "When you get off work tonight you might look up the great oil spill of 1969." "Oh, I know about it," she said in her nice Southern accent, and I knew we had common ground. She asked my opinion of BP and I said "the Gulf Coast." My opinion of Exxon: "Exxon Valdez." I told her that in my opinion the oil companies treat us like rubes and consider any fines as just the cost of doing business. At the end she gave me a sincere "God bless you." See? you can make friends!

The only ones I refuse to talk to are trying to sell me something. I hang up with varying degrees of politeness.

I think the RW pollsters on foot are scared away by all the Obama stickers on my car.