Monday, October 20, 2008

The reality of ACORN: Progressives who treat workers like sh*t

I'm so, so glad that the reality of what ACORN is all about is finally getting exposed to the public: ["ACORN INSTILLED FEAR: WORKERS"].
As someone who has worked for similar companies, I can tell you that this is fact.
The job is also made all the more difficult because you are often conned into the job thinking one thing and then it actually is another thing. These orgs often suck you in telling you that you are going to do all these great things for social justice and the economy to help people and then you go out begging for money or in this case, registering voters, a nearly impossible job even though most folks are already registered via some sort of government component. I lasted three weeks at one of these jobs in 1987. It was insane with all the folks at the top running the org. acting like dictators to get the quota. And it had nothing ... NOTHING ... to do with social justice or anything else.
Just to change the subject slightly, my wife often wonders why I will drop everything to spend 15 or 20 minutes talking to a survey researcher when they call. I always say the same thing: Because I used to do this. Not unlike a lot of folks, I've had more than one job during most of my adult life. Frankly, I've always liked working and often needed the money to subsidize what I wanted to do in my life. For about a year, I worked part-time at Bain and Company's survey research wing, asking people about everything from what kinds of pork products they would eat and what brands they knew to whether or not people would use their debit cards to purchase different things at stores [I did the survey research for what would later become the BayBank card, the first true debit card]. It was an insane job but since I had experience as a phone banker and had worked at telephone answering services, they loved me. So, I know what it is like. I've done the job. And I know what these ACORN folks have gone through. I've done similar jobs. It's hard. While some people will say, Well, they can get another job, that isn't always the case, especially for moms and people with odd hours.
So do pass judgment on some of the clowns who are running these corrupt organizers and some of the Democratic front people paying them. But have a little heart when it comes to the person doing the job. They are often doing the best they can.

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