On November 5, newly elected Barack Obama sent email to his list thanking everyone for making victory possible. In that message, he said "We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I'll be in touch soon about what comes next."
Three weeks later, President-Elect Obama has gotten in touch. Aside from naming several appointments, holding weekly addresses, and having press conferences every day this week to give assurances to the markets, he has announced the next grassroots mobilization effort of his campaign.
Change is Coming: December 13 & 14. Below the fold, a discussion of the new effort and what it indicates for the new administration.
David Plouffe, the campaign manager who has denied interest in the DNC chair's position and also appears to have no interest in joining the administration in a formal position, is continuing his work as campaign manager even though the election is over. Yesterday, he sent out an e-mail that resembled a lot of his messages over the past couple of years. There was no video explanation of tactics this time, but like several messages in months past, David Plouffe has asked us to get involved across the nation to enact change:
This week, President-elect Barack Obama is announcing the key members of his White House economic team who will help him tackle serious challenges and bring the change we need to Washington.
But there's still a lot of work to be done in communities all across the country -- including yours.
On December 13th and 14th, supporters are coming together to reflect on what we've accomplished and help plan the future of this movement.
Many of you have already submitted your feedback through our online survey. [Diarist's Note: The change.gov site now has feedback surveys for each of the agenda themes -- here is a link to the energy & environment survey.] Our team in Chicago is reviewing an impressive number of detailed responses, and your input will help guide the future of this grassroots movement.
Sign up to host a Change is Coming house meeting and invite your friends, family, and neighbors to attend.
You'll receive everything you need to make your meeting a success, including a special DVD our team put together just for these events.
Discuss the issues that are most important to you, what you can do to support Barack's agenda, and how you can continue to make an impact in your community.
Now is the time to put aside partisanship and politics, find common ground, and work together. Please invite those who might not have been involved in the campaign, even those who might have supported our opponent.
The challenges we face demand we be as inclusive as possible. It'll take the whole country working together to get our country back on track.
Host a party to celebrate our historic achievement and take the next steps to bring the change our country needs.
Your continued involvement is crucial to the future of this movement.
As Barack said on Election Night, "This victory alone is not the change we seek -- it is only the chance for us to make that change."
The grassroots organization you built to win the election will continue to set our country on a new path.
Thank you for everything you're doing,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
The content and form of this message is no doubt familiar to all of you who have followed this campaign; it is similar to the message that led me to host a house meeting back in the spring of 2007. How many thousands such meetings were held across the country over the past two years? How much were these meetings responsible for building the networks that helped win first caucuses and primaries and then Democratic victories in states like Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana that had eluded our candidates for decades?
That Obama for America continues to coordinate these grassroots gatherings indicates the Obama team intends to govern with the kinds of relationships to self-organizing groups that marked the campaign. This intent is in keeping with long-held values Barack Obama has spoken of for years. Thirteen years ago, as he was running for the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama sat down with the Chicago Reader and discussed why this community organizer who had gone to Harvard Law School and was now a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, would want to enter the state legislature. (Several of his colleagues at the law school wondered why he would want to do such a thing when he had such potential as an academic.) His response in part telegraphed what he is doing today, and what he hopes the meetings on December 13 & 14 might generate:
"What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer," he wondered, "as part teacher and part advocate, one who does not sell voters short but who educates them about the real choices before them? As an elected public official, for instance, I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer. We would come together to form concrete economic development strategies, take advantage of existing laws and structures, and create bridges and bonds within all sectors of the community. We must form grass-root structures that would hold me and other elected officials more accountable for their actions.
"The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia. And they also have hijacked the higher moral ground with this language of family values and moral responsibility.
"Now we have to take this same language--these same values that are encouraged within our families--of looking out for one another, of sharing, of sacrificing for each other--and apply them to a larger society. Let's talk about creating a society, not just individual families, based on these values. Right now we have a society that talks about the irresponsibility of teens getting pregnant, not the irresponsibility of a society that fails to educate them to aspire for more."
We must form grass-root structures that would hold me and other elected officials more accountable for their actions. Now that Barack Obama is President, these words remind us of sentiments one of his predecessors uttered:
"I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."
That was Franklin D. Roosevelt, recognizing that a political leader does not rule by fiat, but with the will of the people. An engaged progressive movement was necessary to win progressive victories in the 1930s, even after Roosevelt claimed an electoral mandate.
Times have changed. At a time when trade unions were much larger than they are today, labor organizations helped provide that movement. While unions remain important to the coalition that brought Obama to victory, union membership today makes it necessary to develop and engage non-union citizens in an activist movement. Issues such as climate change and energy policy have different meanings and understandings to the American people than they did 70 years ago, and the bonds to producing an effective coalition on these policies may not be as obvious as identifying membership in a particular group.
Obama has an advantage over Roosevelt. Over the past couple of years, his campaign has assembled a network of millions of people who have not only donated money, but established volunteer efforts over the internet. These efforts have led to networks that transcend region, class, and demographics. How strong the bonds of these networks are will be tested as the Obama administration begins to govern, but these upcoming Change is Coming meetings offer opportunities to strengthen the online ties through a new series of face-to-face meetings to assess priorities, coordinate activities, and make certain that when the new Congress and new Administration take office in January that the coalition that put them in office is energized and ready to contribute to the work of governing.
These meetings may produce issues and areas where the grassroots will want to challenge President-Elect Obama on particular issues. No doubt he anticipates that as well; if the arguments are made persuasively, they may change his mind. But if President-Elect Obama still believes the words of State Senate Candidate Obama (and I believe sincerely that he does), he values this moment as an opportunity to develop a more engaged citizenry in the affairs of government.
Those of us reading this site reflect a pretty engaged citizenry already, and this opportunity offers us the change to maintain ties we have already established and forge new ones as we press for change on the many issues we value. Whether it is climate change, the war in Iraq, health care, urban policy, education, or any other issue that is dear, the Change is Coming house meetings represent the first step of the next phase of citizen activism -- pressing for a change in policy from the government we have changed with our activism over the past several months.
That's an opportunity I can give thanks for this weekend, as I wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving.