Now that the election is over, a thought occurred to me:
What happens to that incredible machine of GOTV and organizing that we created?
Here was a group that not only held, but EXPANDED the voter base.
No small feat after 2010.
The quotes from the Romney campaign and Republican pundits said it all:
"They smoked us"
"We didn't think that they would vote"
But then I compare this year to 2010 and I begin to wonder.
Why was OFA so successful this year and not in 2010?
Which leads me to the question that is the title for the diary:
Now that the Presidential campaign is over, what happens to the machine?
I am concerned that now that the election is over and the President will no longer campaign, OFA will slowly dissolve back into the mists. That CANNOT happen. The GOTV machine alone was one of the main reasons we won in the convincing fashion we did.
I argue that NOW is the time for OFA to get to real work. Republicans are going for broke in 2014. They want to keep their House majority, especially if there's a revolt and Cantor becomes Speaker. They want to humiliate us in the Senate. They want to again try to break the President. In short, they still want America to fail.
And that doesn't include everything that's happening in the states. Scott Walker and the Koch Brothers are going to turn Wisconsin into Mississippi. Same with Mike Pence in Indiana. And don't get me started about Kansas.
In these places, fixing all that has gone bad will take decades. And the demographics are trending in our favor, especially if Republicans go more exclusionary.
NOW is the time when OFA should be in the states organizing for state elections in 2013 and 2014. NOW is the time when WE and DFA should be getting our candidates ready. Forget the DCCC and the DSCC. WE have to begin at ALL levels.
So, if anyone here is connected to upper levels at OFA, let's get this word out.
Let's get to work.