The owner did not want me asking people about politics. He was fine with me drawing. I asked him "what if someone approaches me?" That seemed to be fine. I promised not to get in anybody's hair, or start a riot.
I am not the only person who wants to talk about what people want from their politicians. There are a couple of notable groups that I hope to talk to soon. The first is the Blue Collar Caucus, started by Representative Marc Veasey of Texas and Representative Brennan Boyle of Philadelphia. In a 2/16/17 article in Politico, Representative Boyle said that Trump got that people were upset when a manufacturing plant shut down. He mentioned an Oreo plant that had closed. The Democrats did not seem concerned; Trump did (or at least he communicated that.)
There is another group, called Knock Every Door (Knockeverydoor.org), that is aiming to canvas voters across the country to find out what voters want. You can contact them and volunteer to be a canvasser.
As it turns out, I did get to speak to someone with strong opinions in the hardware store. She came over to see what I was doing, and I explained what I was trying to find out.
The woman I spoke to is a conservative. She made two really good points. The first was that she did not feel that the Democrats listened to people like her. The second was that she felt many conservatives were afraid to open their mouths for fear of being ridiculed by liberals. I could empathize.
She then started down the rabbit hole of Democrats planting fake news, rich liberals paying people to cause trouble at Republican town halls, and Obama's interference with Trump's presidency. This conversation was going nowhere, and I was able to end it on a cordial note.
I am going to continue to talk to people - next week - a donut shop in a neighboring town. I hope that someone is willing to talk to me.
Good job.
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