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Obama's Movement

Proposals for Post-election Activities

Recommendations to the National Office

As we await a full report on what Barack and his team will do with the campaign organization post-election, my primary concerns can be summarized in three questions:

1. Empowered Teams -- Will they emphasize, encourage, and support the development of relatively small teams that stay together over time, foster supportive friendships, and decide together on what actions to take as a unit, or will they unfortunately continue the past pattern of calling for gatherings from time to time?
2. Authoritative Input -- Will they create a structure that enables these teams to select representatives to next-higher level groups who can deliberate together to develop recommendations for the national office, resulting in a relatively small national group of representatives that can offer authoritative input to the national office, or will theyunfortunately continue the past pattern of asking for input from tens of thousands of loosely, haphazardly connected individuals and groups?
3. United National Action -- Will the national office recommend regularly (perhaps monthly) that all members of the new organization communicate the same message at roughly the same time to all members of Congress, or will they, as has been speculated in the press,unfortunately focus from time to time on only certain members of Congress?

The recommendations implied by these questions apply to both the Democratic Party and a new post-campaign organization, if it emerges. I see no good reason not to implement these methods. It seems to me that this approach is needed to build a strong, united, grassroots activist force that can sustain itself for the long haul independent of Barack's leadership, which is essential at the moment. If the more fragmented, unfortunate options included in these questions are adopted, I will continue to support efforts to implement the goals of the Obama campaign. But I will likely do so with less enthusiasm and look for other ways to devote my energy that hold more potential for the future.

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