bottom up change

Tonight I was on a conference call that Organizing for America held with its neighborhood team leaders and staff from Obama’s general election campaign.  The purpose of the call was to check in with the most committed volunteers from the campaign and give them details about the upcoming Pledge Project Canvass that was just announced today.  This nation-wide canvass will be held on Saturday, March 21, and the goal will be to start a discussion about President Obama’s budget and collect pledges in support of its three major themes.  These themes are: 1) achieving energy-independence by investing in green technology and green jobs; 2) reforming our health care system to reduce costs and extend coverage to all Americans; and 3) improving our education system so that we can stay competitive with nations that are currently outperforming us in education.

The conference call was the first I’ve been able to catch, having missed the first one that was held about a month ago.  There were three parts to the call.  First, Mitch Stewart discussed why OFA existed and why it was so important that people get engaged over the next three weeks to demonstrate support for Obama’s budget.  OFA existed, he explained, because after the campaign supporters of Barack Obama overwhelmingly expressed a desire to keep the grassroots movement begun during the campaign alive in order to help Obama achieve his legislative goals.  The budget is going to be a tough fight, but the long term goals it outlines are critical if Obama is going to achieve the vision he articulated during the campaign.  That is why OFA is activating Obama’s base right now.

The Deputy Director of OFA, Jeremy Bird, then joined the call and introduced four of the campaign’s star team leaders and organizers from the general election campaign to discuss what they had been doing since the general election ended.  A team leader from Colorado told us that she has been holding monthly meetings with her fellow volunteers from the election, and she has subsequently been elected chair of her county’s Democratic party.  A team leader from Grand Rapids, Michigan, talked about how the volunteers in her state were “chomping at the bit” to help Barack Obama achieve his legislative agenda.  The field director for California during the general election spoke about her state’s plans for the Pledge Project Canvass.  Already, she has received 65 commitments for events around California, and she hopes to see at least one canvass event in every congressional district in the state.  All around California, people are planning events that will involve going door to door as well as gathering pledges at high-volume areas such as malls, grocery stores, farmers markets, and festivals.

The call ended with Jeremy Bird taking questions.  The most interesting question came from someone who asked how this first canvass event will be linked to putting pressure on Congress to support the budget.  The answer was that legislators will be hearing about the results of the pledge project and the level of support in the country for the president’s economic agenda.  Also, the canvass will let people know how to contact their representatives and voice their support for the budget.

This call reinforced my view that OFA is one of the big changes that President Obama is bringing to the country.  In a way, it feels strange that canvassing in support of Barack Obama is about to begin again.  Didn’t we just do this?  Why can’t we just be left alone and forget about politics for a while.  The election is over!  I’m sure some people are going to have this reaction to OFA.  But the strangeness of this kind of activism is itself why Obama has the potential to be a transformational president and it is evidence that our politics is changing right now.  No other president would have been so committed to keeping people involved at the grassroots level throughout his or her presidency.  The idea seems to be that the American people, not the lobbyists, can have more weight in influencing legislation and bringing about change, but only if they organize and act.  Now we’re going to test this idea, which in itself is a major change.

Just a few quick observations about the pledge project that Organizing for America unveiled today. This may sound like a lame project at first glance. Really, collecting pledges of support? However, I think it’s a very good way to start. First, it has a clear focus: the budget. This budget is a bold move by the president, and it is going to be a tough fight with special interests who want to portray it as extreme.  It is therefore a good rallying point. Second, the pledge project is productive: it gathers the contact info of all the people in the country who support the budget. Effective organizing requires very solid data, and OFA will be able to create a database with the responses to this pledge that will allow it to take the next steps. Along these lines, the pledge project will set the stage for action. It specifically asks what people are willing to do, whether it is hosting a house party, participating in a phone bank or canvass, etc. Finally, if it is able to gain a lot of pledges, this will instantly gain the president and his allies something that powerfully demonstrates the level of popular support for the budget.

Anyway, if you support President Obama’s budget, please pledge your support and pass the pledge along to other supporters of the president.