Knock Knock. Who's there? Never Back Down canvasser...

Dear Reader, 

It will come as no surprise that I really, really, really, really, really don't want to see Ron DeSantis elected president. 

I go back and forth between whether he'd be worse than Trump or not, and the answer to this question is usually: it's pretty much a tie. They're both existential threats to democracy, and I keep asking myself whether DeSantis is more dangerous because he's a bit smarter than Trump, or whether Trump is more dangerous because he's so profoundly damaged, or, in non-professional terms: he's completely unhinged, as in batshit crazy.

In any case, given how I feel about DeSantis, I was absolutely amused by the news that one of his canvassers got caught representing he campaign in a not-so-favorable light. 

DeSantis has a major door-knocking, bell-ringing effort going on in early primary states. He has a super PAC named Never Back Down that's putting hundreds paid canvassers out on the streets. (As an aside, I found the name Never Back Down pretty interesting. I'm guessing that DeSantis really, really, really, really, really wanted to call his super PAC Won't Back Down, and use Tom Petty's song as his walk on number. But he's smart enough to know that the ghost of Tom Petty - or the living, breathing individuals who govern Petty's estate - would come raring out of nowhere to run down that dream.)

About those canvassers:

Trained in Iowa during an eight-day class, some come out of the system with polished pitches, as true believers. Others are just there for a job. (Source: Washington Post)

I'm guessing the canvasser in Charleston, SC, was among the ranks of the latter. In it for the money. 

With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.

Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him. “And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.

Thanks to a handy-dandy Ring doorbell video, which caught this act, this stoner is now out of a job - a job that paid $20-$22 an hour.

LEWD REMARK WARNING: If you're wondering about those lewd remarks, the canvasser was not making them directly to a home owner. He was on the phone, venting to a buddy, saying that if the homeowner said to him "'fuck you, get off my property,' then I'd be like 'fuck you, eat my balls' honestly 'Eat my big, hairy sack.'"

I thought that young folks didn't ever speak on the phone, other than when they were imploring their parents for more money, and the parents made a convo the price they needed to pay. If this jamoke had just used text like all his age peers, he'd probably still have a job. Oh, wait, the person getting the text would probably have posted it somewhere in the social universe. So never mind.

“After learning of the incident, we investigated and terminated the individual,” said Kate Roberts, the national field director of Never Back Down, in a statement. “Our field program is having thousands and thousands of incredible conversations around the country every day. This individual’s behavior is counter to the standards taught in our training and is not tolerated.”

The not-to-be-tolerated behavior on the part of the stoned canvasser occurred against the background of the DeSantis' campaign imploding. 

DeSantis had such high hopes for himself. He was re-elected governor of Florida by an impressive margin. He's gotten a ton of coverage, and he was positioning himself (and the media was abetting him) as an intelligent, knowledgeable, and policy-wonky version of Trump. And he was positioning his wife (and the media was abetting him) as something of a latter-day Jackie Kennedy, right down to the empire-waist ballgowns and opera gloves she sometimes appears in. (Oddly, when it came to what she was wearing, Jackie never wrong-footed it. On the other hand, Casey DeSantis sometimes appears in a low-budget version of the Jackie Look when everyone else is in business casual.)

But Casey DeSantis isn't running for office. Her husband is. And Ron DeSantis is considered an ill-tempered, stiff, nasty and boring candidate. The polls show him with half the support of Trump. And while Trump is also an ill-tempered and nasty candidate, he's anything but stiff - I'm sure his lawyers wish he were a little more button-downed - and the supporters who continue attending his moronic lie-spewing rallies apparently don't find him boring. 

DeSantis has laid off staff, and early backers are said to be snapping their purses shut since they're not getting the poll results they hoped they were paying for. 

Lewd stoner caught on Ring aside, paid canvassing turns a lot of people off. They don't want to be bothered in their homes. They may not like the fact that the person canvassing isn't even from their state. And they really may not like it if they find out that the canvasser is being paid.

While I don't have much sympathy for anyone who supports DeSantis - and even less sympathy for someone who's faking support - I do understand that the canvasser was probably just bored, and showing off to a buddy pretending that he was mouthing off to a voter. 

I'm not big on canvassing, but I've done it a couple of times. 

My first canvassing was in 1968, when I rang doorbells in Jamaica Plain for Gene McCarthy. (At least he won the Massachusetts Democratic primary...)

I hated it.

I found it sufficiently awful that I didn't do it again until November 2004, when I knocked on doors in NH for John Kerry. (At least he won New Hampshire...)

I hated it.

I've also done phone-banking a few times. Which I also hated.

I hate people ringing my bell or my phone. So why would I think anyone else would welcome me ringing theirs? Anyway, I moved on to writing get-out-the-vote postcards. I don't know if these are effective at all, but it makes me feel better than doing nothing. 

But when I canvassed, I supported my candidate. I believed in them.

“They’re just hiring people who don’t even support the candidate. They don’t believe in the candidate,” said Barbara Comstock, a former Virginia Republican congresswoman, who has hired local paid field workers in her races. “Particularly when you’re in a competitive primary, you want someone who is local and knows the state and knows the politics of the state, knows the people, knows who is who. You want people who can speak credibly about a candidate.”

Never Back Down, however, is staying true to its name, and so far remains committed to canvassing, paid or otherwise.  They believe it will pay big dividends for them. 

“By the end of the month [of July] our canvassers will have knocked on more than 1 million doors,” Davison said in a statement. “Every day these canvassers have thousands of conversations, identifying supporters who we’ll later mobilize, as well as identifying undecided voters who get specific follow up based on the conversation at the door.”

And then there's the "frustrated door knocker" in Charleston who lost his cool and lost his job. Maybe he'll find a position that's more suited to his skillset, whatever that skillset may be. And maybe he'll have an awakening and realize that Ron DeSantis should never be president. 

One can only dream...