Tuesday night I made calls from the comfort of my own laptop at home to South Dakota through MoveOn’s hub dialer for Democrat Rick Weiland. In this three-way race the difference could come down to just hundreds of votes. Before I tell you the nuts and bolts of the hub dialer (which, despite the inevitable glitches, was far and away the best phone banking experience I’ve ever had) I want to tell you what I kept in mind every time I spoke with a fellow Democrat.

As I made these calls to progressive Democrats
I imagined I was talking to YOU, my fellow kossacks.

I thought about all of you, and how you represent a great swath of like-minded people I was pining for when we moved to a somewhat remote and red part of California. Every single one of you I’ve met in person has been easy to talk to because of our shared values. Whoever I spoke to on the phone was just like a fellow kossack I hadn’t yet met, and I already knew we were going to have something in common to talk about. And this made the time go quickly and pleasantly.

I got so into it I screwed up once and introduced myself as smileycreek instead of my actual first name. Oooops!

Most of the people I spoke with sounded older, so after several of calls I started to specifically imagine I was talking to one of these two people, both of whom I loved before I ever met them:

How could you not smile when imagining it’s side pocket or maggiejean on the line?

More beneath the twisted orange phone cord about how phone-banking technology has improved and made calling so much easier.

Check out upcoming Call From Home shifts right here.