General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How do you react when I knock your door after dark with election materials in hand? [View all]Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)how candidates - especially those without big budget have always campaigned. It's how people like George McGovern back in the 50's built the Democratic Party of South Dakota out of nothing when there were only two elected Democrats in the entire state legislature and then used the same retail door to door politics to get himself elected to the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate. If you were running for city council or state legislature or whatever - that is how you get word around - along with other means of personal contact.
Perhaps people have gotten more paranoid in recent years and part of it might be for good reason. But going door to door has always been the way those who have something to sell, a message to spread or a campaign to promote have always done it since time immemorial. Maybe there are reason why this tradition is less common than it used to be - but this decline is a decline of an ancient tradition and way of life.