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GREAT BLOG = "Obama's Post-Election Plans (Long)" = http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/wadehudson/CpYp

By Danielle Clarke USA Vietnam Vet - Mar 11th, 2008 at 10:25 pm EDT

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Obama's Post-Election Plans (Long) http://www.democrats.org/page/community/post/wadehudson/CpYp

By Wade Hudson - Mar 9th, 2008 at 10:32 pm EDT

Also listed in: Barack Obama 2008: An Honest Government, A Hopeful Future | Barack Obama

The movement sparked by Barack Obama will continue after November. "We're not only going to win an election," Obama has declared. "We're going to change the country." Obama's commitment to community organizing guarantees the movement will persist.

Careful planning is needed to maximize this potential. By proceeding wisely, we can establish effective structures and avoid both fragmentation and excessive centralization. I invite you to help develop ideas to recommend to Obama, his staff, and his supporters.

When Obama first ran for office in 1995, he asked, "What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer, as part teacher and part advocate, one who does not sell voters short but who educates them about the real choices before them?" Reflecting the influence of one of his mentors, Saul Alinsky, he told the Chicago Reporter, "It's time for politicians and other leaders to take the next step and to see voters, residents or citizens as producers of this change."

In 1988, in a long article titled "Why Organize? Problems and Promise in the Inner City," Obama discussed his own approach, which differed from Alinsky's. In that piece, he argued, "[Community organizing] enables people to break their crippling isolation from each other, to reshape their mutual values and expectations and rediscover the possibilities of acting collaboratively."

As he recently told the New Republic, "Alinsky understated the degree to which people's hopes and dreams and their ideals and their values were just as important in organizing as people's self-interest." This insight has grounded him in a moral framework that is fostering a moral renewal that could become profound and widespread.

He concluded his "Why Organize?" article with this answer:

In return, organizing teaches as nothing else does the beauty and strength of everyday people. Through the songs of the church and the talk on the stoops, through the hundreds of individual stories of coming up from the South and finding any job that would pay, of raising families on threadbare budgets, of losing some children to drugs and watching others earn degrees and land jobs their parents could never aspire to - it is through these stories and songs of dashed hopes and powers of endurance, of ugliness and strife, subtlety and laughter, that organizers can shape a sense of community not only for others, but for themselves.

Obama's seriousness is demonstrated by his hiring Marshall Ganz to direct the training of his organizers. Ganz, who hasn't worked on a political campaign since Bobby Kennedy's, is legendary. As an undergraduate, he dropped out of Harvard to become immersed in the civil rights movement, worked for many years with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, and then returned to Harvard to complete his studies and teach community organizing at his alma mater. In "Battle Plan: An Exclusive Look Inside Barack Obama's Push to Win California," Mayhill Fowler described Ganz as the "veritable architect" of Obama's organizing plan.

Based not on impersonal relationships but face-to-face meetings rooted in a common purpose, the campaign equips volunteers with skills to organize for change in their communities after the election. In contrast to traditional canvassing which merely involves occasional brief visits to the front door, Ganz's approach is based on ongoing relationships. According to Laura Flanders, he says, "Canvassers assess voter preferences. Organizers inspire commitment."

As Obama's campaign has stated:

You help them to build neighborhood committees, host house meetings to recruit new activists, plan outreach that makes sense within their neighborhoods. You give up some control of the message and allow people to speak from the heart instead of from the handed-down Message of the Day.

Most of Ganz's training sessions have been based on Congressional districts. Participants meet and work with other volunteers who live in the same Congressional district. According to Zack Exley, in his "Obama Field Organizers Plot A Miracle" piece on Huffington Post:

Trainees leave the events organized into teams by Congressional district, charged with building an organization that reaches all the way down to the precinct level.... While the curriculum has varied with the different teams behind each training, the end goals have remained consistent: send tight-knit, well-trained and highly motivated teams of volunteer organizers back to their home Congressional districts with a plan.

Prior to the California primary, Fowler reported, "Every California congressional district will have a seven-member team running its own mini-campaign. Each of the seven will find and teach another seven, according to the campaign blueprint. Then each of those groups doubles again."

This approach based on Congressional districts is very encouraging, for it will facilitate people working together to pressure Congresspersons after the campaign. The House of Representatives is key to reforming national policy, because Congresspersons are more responsive than are Senators and Presidents. Local, regional, and statewide efforts are also needed, for social transformation will require addressing all of our institutions, our communities, our culture, and our selves. But focusing on the House of Representatives is essential.

Despite our success so far, potentially serious pitfalls lie on the road ahead and many questions remain concerning how the movement will be structured, including the following.

The Democratic Party

Will the Obama campaign transform the Democratic Party into a force that presses year-round to implement its platform?

Until Howard Dean became head of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party had been a shell of an organization, held in reserve to assist candidates in the general election. In only a few years, Dean has greatly strengthened the Party's electoral infrastructure. If Obama gets the nomination, he might well merge his campaign with the Democratic Party, at least to some degree. But it's unclear whether he or Dean will recommend that the Party dedicate itself to constantly organizing, recruiting, educating, and mobilizing its members to advance the Party platform - which is shaped by its members, at least to some degree, and could be crafted through an even more participatory process.

Will the Democratic Party hold elected officials accountable to supporting its platform?

Without discipline, a political party is weak. Long ago, radical-right Republicans realized this reality and began running loyalists in primary elections against incumbents who were too inconsistent in their adherence to hard-right principles. It didn't take many victories and near-victories to convince wavering Republicans to be more steadfast. Progressives within the Democratic Party are beginning to exercise similar leverage. The Democratic National Committee and the national campaign committees should also, when feasible, support opponents to incumbents who repeatedly violate the Democratic Party platform. At the least, these national bodies should remain neutral by not automatically supporting incumbents, as has been the case.

How is the Democratic Party structured and how do we need to reform it?

If the Democratic Party in other states is similar to the California Democratic Party, its basic structure is conducive to democratic control. But the grassroots has not been unified and motivated with a clear vision to reform that structure to make it even more democratic. The well-publicized power of the super-delegates at the national convention, for example, illustrates a pattern that is repeated throughout the country - and in the selection of the members of the Democratic National Committee. The President need not totally dominate the national party. In fact, the President could benefit from having a strong, independent force able to pressure Congress more effectively than a puppet can.

Social Transformation

Will the Obama Movement dedicate itself to truly serving their communities?

As David Sirota reported in "The New Permanent Campaign," many grassroots Democratic Party forces, like Democrats Work and Blue Tiger Democrats, are already taking this approach by engaging regularly in community service to assist disadvantaged individuals. As Erin Egan, who runs the 500-member Colorado branch of Democrats Work, told Sirota, "Lots of folks want to do community service but are not political. But when they volunteer with us they see the Democratic Party's values and often become committed political volunteers." Blue Tiger "sponsors food drives, roadside cleanups and computer training seminars - all under the banner of the Democratic Party." This approach needs to be adopted throughout the country, district by district.

Will Obama elaborate on his affirmation of personal responsibility by encouraging his supporters to commit to constant self-improvement, environmental responsibility, and community service as well as political action - and to support one another in these efforts?

This additional step would flow logically from Obama's worldview, which declares that we should ask not only what the government can do for us, but also what we can do for each other.

As some colleagues and I are proposing, many members of the Obama Movement could - within a manageable time frame (only eight hours a month for many) - participate in a "network of home-based communities" committed to these goals. This comprehensive, or holistic, approach is not for everyone. But for many it could deepen their sense of community and help them become more effective. We don't need another political machine that treats people like instruments. We need rich communities whose members take seriously our responsibilities as human beings, treat each other with respect and compassion, and believe that we can change the character of our communities and our country.

Internal Structure

How will the Obama Movement balance local empowerment and strong national leadership?

As of August 2007, Exley reported:

There is still no online system available for the teams graduating from Camp Obama (or the teams they establish below them) to report in their progress back to headquarters. This is a huge missed opportunity to give field directors perfect visibility into the work of every team, anywhere in the country - visibility that could be used to identify the best field volunteers in the organization for promotion, and to identify problem areas that need special attention from staff organizers.

So far as I know, this situation still prevails and needs to be corrected. It is essential that local organizers have efficient ways to communicate upward and horizontally - partly for problem solving, peer support, and community building. By using the Internet effectively to facilitate this communication, we can avoid the kind of top-down power that has often been reflected in organizations based on Alinsky's methods.

One approach might be to form small home-based teams that meet at least monthly and provide feedback to the national office regularly. These teams could select representatives to local teams who would digest this feedback, form their own recommendations, and select representatives to Congressional District-wide teams. These teams in turn could develop their own input to the national office, organize regular Congressional District-wide public events, and select representatives to a statewide team. And the state team could select representatives to a national Advisory Committee. This bottom-up process could help empower the membership.

A precedent exists for such home-based teams. As the campaign reported in "Obama: The Organizer and the Moment":

In March, people all across the country hosted Hope Action Change house parties, opening their doors to neighbors and strangers who were hungry for change. People like Janet Sutherland of Council Bluffs discussed their deeply personal stories about how our government had failed them, and talked about how, together, they could change things.

This is what grassroots democracy is all about - small groups of friends and neighbors coming together to address common challenges and come up with collective solutions.... People were talking about the collective challenges facing their communities. People were sharing common hopes for change in 2008. People were connecting.

These home-based teams could meet prior to the election to talk about post-election activities, for they would inspire more people to participate. And the movement needs to be ready to act immediately after the election. To do so, the national office needs as many good ideas as possible from the grassroots, and the grassroots needs to be prepared.

What lessons can we learn from other national organizations?

As I recall, a key turning point in the weakening of the Rainbow Coalition was a dispute about the national representative from Louisiana. The local members wanted one individual, but Jesse Jackson insisted on someone else and the conflict was never resolved. We need to avoid that kind of scenario. A number of national organizations - including labor unions, NOW, and the Sierra Club - currently operate with a considerable degree of democratic control by their membership. We need to look at how those organizations are structured and learn from them.

Community Empowerment

Will the Obama Movement promote new structures in the community that empower people?

The Obama Movement, for example, could persuade all of our elected officials to convene monthly Community Dialogues to enable their constituents to ask questions and make statements. These public forums would be carefully structured to make sure that they were fair and orderly. If more people wanted to speak than time allowed, speakers would be selected randomly (random selection is an important principle that reflects faith in people). With no pre-arranged agenda, each individual would be free to speak their mind. Community organizations could use these events as organizing tools by mobilizing their members and distributing literature at pre-reserved tables. Participants could stay afterwards to network and initiate new friendships. In these ways, Community Dialogues would help hold elected officials accountable, better inform those officials about their constituents' thoughts and feelings, and help foster community.

The fact that Obama has pledged as President to conduct national town hall meetings suggests that he would be open to this idea and would consider randomly selecting participants in his forums. We need new official structures like these to help make our society more democratic.

Will the Obama Movement join in broad coalitions to advance its mission?

Some Alinsky-style organizations have refused to join in coalitions, preferring instead to focus exclusively on building their own organization. Hopefully, the Obama Movement will not repeat these mistakes. Regardless of how strong it becomes, it will always be stronger by occasionally uniting with others.

For example, the movement could join with other organizations in a Million Member Monthly Mobilization to present the same urgent demand to every Congressperson in the country at the same time. If more than 2,000 voters per district were to devote two hours a month to back the same demand simultaneously, the impact would be enormous. Who knows? It could grow into a Five Million Member Monthly Mobilization.

The staff and members of each organization that belonged to this coalition could then return to their normal activities. But if they were to come together monthly to briefly support one another, they could accomplish more together than they can alone.

Will the Obama Movement join in global coalitions to advance its mission?

Shortly after he took office, John Kennedy inspired the nation by taking on the steel industry for unjustified price increases. This example is instructive. Our political leaders can support efforts to hold private corporations accountable to the public interest, including the need to protect workers' rights and the environment. Consumer boycotts are often an effective way to achieve these goals. But there are many simultaneous boycotts, which dilutes their effectiveness.

If global advocacy organizations, including the Obama Movement, were to establish a process to identify - deliberately, openly, and democratically - a priority for a unified Annual Global Boycott, we could win victories with those campaigns and persuade other corporations to respond favorably to their stakeholders.

**********

Structure is essential. We can't rely solely on spontaneity. We need structural reform throughout society, including our grassroots organizations. In this piece, I've presented some preliminary ideas concerning how the Obama Movement and our society might be structured.

I encourage you, by using this form or by directly editing my Obama's Movement web pages, to present your own proposals and report on Obama Movement activities - especially Congressional District-wide activities - that address post-election possibilities. I'll summarize your input in future articles. Together, we can move forward.

MY RESPONSE:

DITTO WHEN BARACK GOES TO WASHINGTON WE ALL GO TO WASHINGTON

By DANIELLE CLARKE USA VIETNAM VET - http://www.actblue.com/page/homelessvietnamvetsforBarackObama

No longer do we vote for someone and then cross our fingers hoping we get a good one. Barack has set up the web so we the people can take control of our government. http://www.USAspending.gov and the sunshine bill at sunlight foundation and the transparency bill gives us all we need to take back control all we need is barack to set the precedent for future presidents.

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