Is Obama Awakening His Base?
So far, Obama has not called on his millions of supporters for help. That might be changing.
Weeks ago, I obsessed on a political point: would President Barack Obama mobilize his millions of voters to apply political pressure on Washington to pass his policy initiatives. At that time, the stimulus package was the top item on his agenda, and the White House was not doing much to activate the Obama millions to boost support for the legislation in Congress. As the stimulus fight proceeded, Organizing for America, the spin-off of the Obama presidential campaign, did zap out an email to its list of 13 million and asked those supporters to hold house parties to discuss the recovery package. But discussing something is not quite the same as fighting for it.
As it turned out, Obama was able to win approval of his stimulus package without the help of his grassroots base--though he did so largely on a party-line vote. But as Obama confronts additional challenges in Congress on numerous fronts--his budget, the bank bailout, his mortgage crisis initiative, health care reform--his political machine is taking steps to prepare his foot soldiers for duty. But the steps are hardly bold.
On Monday, Organizing for America emailed its list and asked each to watch a video of Mitch Stewart, the group's director. Those who clicked on the link could see the thirty-ish Stewart sitting in an office of seeming modest nature, in front of a map of the United States. "The movement that you built is just getting started," he says. He notes that "special interests" aim to block Obama on his key priorities: health care, energy, and education. "It's up to you to make sure they don't stand in our way," he adds.
On the video, Stewart announces the "Pledge Project." He describes it as an "ambitious effort to map out and identify support for President Obama's economic blueprint." He asks viewers to declare their support for Obama's economic plan. "Once you do," he says, "we will ask you to build support in your own communities by forwarding this pledge by email, by knocking on doors, and by making phone calls." He adds, "By pledging and building support, you will be taking the first steps toward establishing a nationwide grassroots network, neighborhood by neighborhood."
It's a rather low-key pitch, delivered in a flat, no-drama manner. It's not pegged to any specific fight under way or to come. Stewart makes no reference to recalcitrant Republicans. And on the web page next to the video is "The Pledge" he wants supporters to sign. It is simple and two sentences long:
I will support President Obama's bold approach for renewing America's economy.
I will ask friends, family, and neighbors to pledge their support for this plan.
That's it. Nothing about bothering your House member. Nothing about lobbying your senator. Nothing about giving money.
It appears that the Obama political machine is rebuilding its activist base--rather than presuming it is there--and renewing their list of millions. They are prospecting and looking to see who among Obama's campaign supporters are still out there and ready to do political battle on his behalf. And they are easing Obama's base into the conflict. After all, it doesn't take much to sign an on-line pledge and promise to jawbone friends and relatives. But Stewart adds, "We'll be asking a lot of you in the weeks to come." He's foreshadowing something.
After Obama won the presidency, pundits and political observers wondered how he would leverage the millions of people who had signed up with his campaign as volunteers or contributors. That was natural, given that Obama had triumphed in November partly because he had been able to sell his campaign as a movement. Yet in the first weeks of his presidency, Obama relied on conventional, inside-Washington tactics, depending on congressional leaders, cutting deals on Capitol Hill, and doing virtually nothing to involve his followers in the process.
Now, Organizing for America, which is part of the Democratic National Committee, appears to be proceeding with plans to arouse the base and put it into play. It's not doing so with great flash. And there are no indications how Obama and his political strategists intend to use the reactivated millions. But there surely are fights ahead. And it certainly won't hurt Obama if several million troops are ready when he decides it's time to call them up.
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Mobilizing supporters
The Pledge Project is now up on Facebook.
I complain again--the power transitions of our republic are not well structured. It is
impossible to "hit the ground" running with the 12 Noon move out/move in of the Oval Office and White House. No other major organization would transfer executive power in such an antiquated manner. Just to change the technology---phones, computers, blackberrys, etc---is a major issue, not to mention the offices, etc. We need a better transition plan---or we can expect any transition to take a few months, just like it takes the rest of us a few months to settle into a new job or a new home.
Not the 1st...
This is NOT THE 1st email I have gotten from them... You are beating a dead horse David... I am not sure why you keep going over and over this.. I have written you before this is NOT the 1st email I have gotten from them.
And for those of who are
And for those of who are activists, we always get a little flumoxed when we are not asked to bother our elected reps. That is the core of our activism for some of us. Talk? Wtf? We talk to others to get their vote or get THEM to bother members of congress.
Am I going to pledge to support Obama? Not always. Not when he fucks up big time like putting Larry Summers in charge. Larry Summers is a cancer on the economy and I am not going to help Obama when he is following suggestions by Mr. Summers.
And while the pink slips are being handed out...
This tax-filing season, my husband and I are paying the combined $60,000 we owe in federal taxes to our home state of Wisconsin. We refuse to pay another dime in federal taxes because the money would be put to better use here at home.
We will no longer pay for the War in Iraq, bailing out banks that continue to lose money (we do business with a credit union) or for pork projects that are tacked on to spending bills only to get congressmen to vote for them. Wisconsin can take the money or leave it. If the IRS doesn't like the idea, which we're sure they won't, then we'll pack up the kids and move to Canada, where my husband is originally from.
We'd love to stay here in a country that has been through so much and remained the #1 country to live in. It's not just the crooked CEOs and politicians that made us consider leaving, it is also the lack of resolve on the part of my fellow Americans. We were ecstatic at the election of a new president, especially after eight years of watching our respect throughout the world dwindle and our jobs disappear. We got a raw deal and we accepted it. We watched as our kids were sent off to war by a president whose only motive was personal gain. Now we have a president who has failed to live up to his promises, who is giving away our federal tax dollars to failing banks, a congress that is slow to act and an economy that is on the brink of collapse. So where do we go from here?
If we decide to leave for Canada, it will be a one way trip. We'd like to be more optimistic, but pride is now a foreign concept to us. Our kids are still growing up, so they won't notice much of a difference. I can only hope that you, the American people, will one day throw off the blinds and finally see the truth, and act. You live in a democracy and in a democracy, it's the people who call the shots. You can launch a federal tax revolt like we're doing or you can wait and hope for a recovery that may not come any time soon. It will take more than a protest or a flurry of letters to your congressman. It will take a revolution. Good luck.
Sincerely,
Heather Czerniak
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Where have I heard this before?
"Now we have a president who has failed to live up to his promises, who is giving away our federal tax dollars to failing banks, a congress that is slow to act and an economy that is on the brink of collapse. So where do we go from here?"
What promises Heather? I noticed you posted this comment to Samuelson's most recent bit of idiocy at the Washington Post. It has a bit of a backward B feel to it, I hope I'm wrong.
"... doing virtually nothing
"... doing virtually nothing to involve his followers in the process."
What are you talking about, silly? Obama's followers are always there for him and he is there for them. In case you haven't noticed, one of the few things Americans trust these days IS their President (for a change). While he's out there using "inside-Washington tactics, depending on congressional leaders, cutting deals on Capitol Hill" we know he's acting on our behalf and that's exactly why we sent him there. What he's doing IS the process. What did you expect? that the supporters would walk around with him like he's the guy in the Verizon commercial? Funny.
David Didn't Click the Pledge
If he had, he'd have discovered that OFA is asking volunteers to do MUCH more than he reported
Have you recently worked or volunteered in any of the following fields?
Energy, environment, or transportation
Health care
Education
How are you willing to build support for the President's economic blueprint?
Calling potential supporters from your own home
Attending and making calls at a phonebank
Hosting a phonebank
Going door-to-door in your neighborhood
Organizing a door-to-door canvass in your neighborhood
Hosting a house meeting
Attending an Organizing for America training
Writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
Wha...?
Not called on his millions of supporters for help?
Are you nuts? Every other day I get an email soliciting my help in organizing support for one initiative or another.
It wasn't that long ago that we had house parties to show support for the stim.
Did you think those were spontaneous?
And while the pink slips are being handed out....
Heather, Heather, Heather, you expected the world to entirely change in six weeks?
In six weeks you have lost your ecstatic faith in our new President?You are paying $60,000.00 in taxes????? Are you a Republican?
Do you not realize the depth of the hole the Republicans have put the whole world in? If you had been expecting one moment on January 20,2009, to change the whole world instantly, one wonders about your comprehension of history and how history counts. It is entirely TOO early to give up on this President, for Heaven's sakes.
I still can't get over it, six weeks and people are deserting the man they were ecstatic about? That just doesn't make sense. Really.
here ya go...
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tagged as:
- solution
abracadabra!!! blink!!! ok...it'all done now!!! you can now go complain about the speed of something else...for the next 30 secs!! or as long as your focus thinks it's acceptable!!! str8 trippin'!!!
Got the Call! ... but has not yet understood the message
Obama has gotten the wake up call—this call has been put on hold for the last decade and while Obama has actually picked up the telephone his answer strikes me as one of gibberish. The US cannot recover economically while it fights a war in Iraq and expands the already idiotic war in Afghanistan into Pakistan (the opium wars). If the US fails to eliminate its military costs the US and Obama recovery plan will FAIL. It is rather simple math.
The US at present is experiencing a false sense of security in regards to the US dollar (it has gone up because the world is panicking—it desires a form of equity that it can trust and has temporrily chosen the US dollar—but this has been done on an irrational basis). Soon and this will happen sooner rather than later, the lights will on in the rest the of the world that the US expenditure on War is not going down—meaning that the deficit is simply expanding. People who transferred their money into dollars will dump them and as this occurs the dollar will plummet and the size of US debt will expand accordingly. Only by cutting war funds will the deficit go down. Getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW, would mean that by the next election the US economy would most likely have improved. The only solutions the US has at its disposal are diplomatic abroad and social welfare at home. By cutting defense expenditure, the onslaught of depression can be diminished by literally handing out money, stopping the foreclosure by guarantee—meaning the banking system must be nationalized and those financial institutions that are too far gone—like AIG must simply die. By maintaining the level of consumption (at least buffering its decline) the restructuring of the economy will see many “financial wizards” wiped off the face of the earth (thank god), but others, perhaps more reliable will arise, as will ingenuity in systems that will lower the use of energy (if energy consumption is radically decreased the US deficit will shrink dramatically).
Thus while many of Obama's ideas are indeed good and sound, it is his Bushian foreign policy that will lead him into the valley death and he will fear the evil (as will we all) of the economic abyss.
Bush Sr.: Forever in infamy
Speaking of Barack Obama: LONG LIVE EMPEROR OBAMA!
Obama is a racial-minority individual and does not like racism:
There is bad news about George Herbert Walker Bush.
What if basically all racial-minority people would subscribe to the interpretations that George Herbert Walker Bush committed monstrous, racist, hate crimes while he was the President of the United States?
It will eventually come out: it is only a matter of time.
Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, J.D. Candidate
B.S., With the Highest Level of Academic Honors at Graduation, '96
Messiah College, PA
Lower Merion High School, PA, '93
(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post. And there are at least hundreds of copies in very many countries around the world.)
_________________
“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
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