Obama's Movement
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Obama's Movement
Proposals for Post-election Activities
Recommendations to the National Office
The Future of the Obama Movement
by Wade Hudson
Barack, you said that change would just begin with winning the election. But how do we maintain unity? We need efficient ways to communicate within our movement so we can act in unison nationwide to implement the goals of your campaign.
With your leadership, one or both of the following projects could contribute to this effort: 1) Develop my.barackobama.com (MyBO) as an ongoing activist tool, perhaps under a new Political Action Committee. 2) Transform the Democratic Party and its social networking site, PartyBuilder, into an activist organization.
MyBO was central to the campaign. Its balance between centralized leadership and decentralized autonomy was brilliant. The national office issued occasional calls for house meetings and provided Host Guides. MyBO members then created events consistent with that call. This guidance and coordination fostered a sense of unity and community among your supporters nationwide, which generated enormous enthusiasm.
We can and should continue to use MyBO and/or Party Builder in the same way. The national office could:
1) Encourage 8-15 Obama supporters who live in the same Congressional District (CD) to gather at least once a month to share a meal, develop supportive friendships, engage in community service, and undertake joint political action on national policy issues.
2) Provide event hosts with relevant resources and guidance.
3) Use these meetings to recruit new numbers.
4) Use MyBO and/or PartyBuilder to integrate a layered network, with one or two representatives from lower-level teams sending representatives to the next higher-level team to develop recommendations to the national office -- with each team consisting of a manageable number of members.
5) Support paid organizers to assist and train activists.
6) Issue occasional calls for all supporters and other concerned Americans to communicate the same message at the same time on an important, timely issue to all Congresspersons and Senators, as well as to the President.
The Democratic Party is already a multi-issue, inclusive national coalition that is relatively open to bottom-up input and could be made more so by using these methods. Rather than focused only on elections, it could become a powerful grassroots force. The more Democrats see that the Party means business, the more they'll get involved in shaping its direction.
One option would be for you to lead MyBO in the same direction and these two projects -- building MyBO and transforming the Democratic Party -- could complement one another.
Time is of the essence as there are already signs of dispersal among your supporters. We need to stay together in these critical times to transform the nation block-by-block by growing a truly grassroots, unified movement rooted in transparent, horizontal communication. Even with everything else requiring your attention, I urge you to do what you can to continue and deepen the movement you inspired.
Stephen C. Rose [http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com] contributed to this essay.
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