What if a politician were to see his job as that of an organizer?
- Barack Obama,
quoted in the Chicago Reader 12/8/95
As many of you know, Barack Obama started his political journey far away from the confines of the Beltway. As a community organizer on the streets of Chicago's South Side, he mobilized people who had been hit hard by the closing of steel plants, fighting for new jobs and housing rights. Working on a grassroots level -- not above, but side by side with ordinary people -- Barack's political identity was forged on those streets.
It's critical to understand that community organizers don't tell people what to do, or even offer to directly help them. Community organizers empower people to help themselves. They inspire people to come together, build power in numbers, and fight for an improved set of conditions, a shift in the status quo, a new, better society.
That's what Barack Obama has done throughout his life, and that's what this whole campaign has been about. Barack has always been an organizer, and he still is an organizer -- that's how he's inspired millions of people, from myriad social positions, to come together and fight for change.
As you can see in this video, Barack Obama has inspired Americans to come together as one voice:
Real change doesn't happen because politicians promise it -- it doesn't happen when it comes from the top. Real change happens when it comes from us -- and Barack understands this better than any other candidate.
It isn't just evident in his message, or in his biography -- it's clear from the way he runs his campaign. Without doubt, this campaign has done more to empower ordinary citizens to take change into their own hands than any other campaign in this cycle.
Using My.BarackObama.com, tens of thousands of people in every state created their own grassroots organizations and were mobilized into action from the earliest days in the campaign. 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 [video 1, 2, 3] 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. And remember-- this was one of thousands of similar events in all fifty states across this country.
A couple months later, our movement evolved from candid house party discussions to an unprecedented grassroots mobilization that brought more than 10,000 people out to the streets. People in all 50 states as well as Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, Walked for Change in their neighborhoods and participated in the largest grassroots canvassing operation of any campaign ever at such an early point in the campaign season.
From the diary I wrote in June:
Throughout the day, it became clear that there was something else happening-- something much bigger than merely checking off names and drumming up support for Barack. People were talking about the collective challenges facing their communities. People were sharing common hopes for change in 2008. People were connecting. And in Reverend Scipio's case, reconnecting.
The very last door Reverend Scipio knocked on brought a surprise-- the man who answered was a classmate from North Charleston High School, Class of 1969. The two hadn't seen each other in nearly four decades. After catching up, the gentleman introduced Reverend Scipio to his son-- and the Reverend, ever the canvasser, made sure to sign up the young man to register to vote. Both father and son enthusiastically agreed to support Barack and spread the word in their community.
In places like South Central, Los Angeles, where an extraordinary 220 people from all different backgrounds showed up to Walk for Change, it was clear that something special was happening.
It was an extraordinary thing to witness and be a part of:
Barack often says, "If you decide that you're going to get involved, we're not only going to win an election, we're going to change the country." This is exactly what he's talking about-- reversing the dark cloud of cynicism that has loomed over our politics for too long and getting ordinary people to believe that they can make a difference, to understand that the process can work for them if they participate.
That's what happened this weekend, and that's what's happening every day in this campaign. Someone who didn't care yesterday, cares today. Someone who didn't believe in the possibility of change yesterday, believes today. Someone who never thought they'd ever get active in the political process yesterday, got active today.
In order to keep our movement actively engaged, we held Camp Obama trainings in various locations across the country. These trainings -- which were taught by lifelong community organizers, including one of Barack's organizing mentors from the South Side of Chicago -- weren't the usual "here's a call sheet, now go make calls" trainings.
These trainings equipped our supporters with serious grassroots organizing skills -- skills that and enable supporters to organize for change in their communities far after the campaign cycle ends. In California, for example Marshall Ganz -- a renowned organizer who worked alongside Cesar Chavez -- led trainings with hundreds of people, who have now created a completely organic precinct-level grassroots field operation in the Golden State.
Andrew Golis of TPM Cafe described our field program as "citizen-based organizing":
The new approach, based on old American traditions of political organizing, emphasizes the importance of engaging voters and bringing them into the campaign. You recruit activists to join your work not based on some narrow unpersonalized targeting but face-to-face meetings that bring a sense of common purpose. When they join your work you ask them to organize their own communities by finding common purpose with others. 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.
Take a look at this video featuring South Carolina Field Director Jeremy Bird, who explains how our program works and how we're empowering the grassroots by treating voters like citizens, not consumers:
Through the program, scores of new community leaders are being trained. Ms. Grace Cusack, who threw a meeting at her home in Florence, South Carolina shared her thoughts (trust me, you'll want to watch Ms. Cusack):
This is the kind of organizing that's happening not only in the early states, but around the country. It's no coincidence that we have more February 5th state offices (including offices in places like Utah and Alabama and even Alaska, that have been all but ignored in past presidential primaries) than any other campaign.
We have so many offices in so many places because we knew that they would be filled with active grassroots volunteers who could make a critical difference on the ground. We are training people in all of these states not only to make a difference in this election, but to make a difference in their communities, in a sustained way.
Regardless of what happens today and in the days ahead, one thing is clear: Barack Obama hasn't just run a presidential campaign, he's built a genuine grassroots movement. In a single year, Barack Obama -- who started his journey organizing on the South Side -- has organized a broad swath of America.
Thousands upon thousands of newly engaged activists have been trained and mobilized to organize for progressive change in their own communities.
It's simple to dismiss the people in these massive crowds as nothing more than spectators. But we've seen what they've accomplished and they are far from spectators. They are empowered, active participants in the struggle for change and they are not tired. The organizing has just begun.
I am a campaign blogger for BarackObama.com.
P.S. It's been amazing to see how much organizing the Kossacks for Obama have done. To all of you who have shown your support for Barack by posting diaries, reaching out to others in the progressive community and volunteering for the campaign, thanks for everything you've done so far. Check out some of the diary endorsements here.