Dear “Generation Obama” DC’ers,
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for being part of this community that has survived for over three years due to the enthusiasm of so many of you for supporting President Obama and connecting with and helping like-minded folks who are interested in delivering HOPE, CHANGE and PROGRESS in our neighborhoods and across our nation and throughout the world.
Let me share with you a little bit about where I think we stand.
RECENT SUCCESSES
Over the last two years we witnessed what is already one of the most prolific first-term Administrations in history as in just December we can take credit for playing a small part in many great achievements:
- making sure that middle class families keep an average of $1,000 of their income or get the unemployment benefits they deserve during these tough economic times
- providing thousands of our service members with the recognized right to love whoever they choose
- eliminating 30% of nuclear weapons between two Cold War adversaries
- ensuring our food supply is safe and kids get proper nutrition at school
- giving our 9/11 first responders the care they earned after being neglected despite their sacrifices in unsafe working conditions
- and even protecting our ears from extra noisy TV advertisements!
(my Mom likes this one the best…make sure to tell your Republican uncle about it at holiday dinner)
Although the Republicans tried to run out the clock on the session these things passed with decent bipartisan support as a post-election truce seemed to win the day at least with some more moderate Senators. I’m not sure if it can continue but unfortunately it will be necessary for more progress to happen in the 112th Congress.
UPCOMING CHALLENGES
That’s because the larger issue is this….despite the infighting over policy items like the public option and cap-and-trade lots of good was done in the last two years YET America didn’t demand that Obama’s allies return to Washington.
Of course the economy’s comeback has been slowed due to the overly-restrained stimulus efforts AND midterm elections usually trend toward voters showing some buyer’s remorse but we’re competing with Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck wannabes here!
We can’t blame Citizens United either as Democratic fundraising technically led Republicans so they were in the game and big money didn’t help Meg Whitman or Linda McMahon in their Senate races.
But nonetheless we lost several Governor and Senate races and over 60 seats in the House….including “DADT Repeal” Sponsor & Gen44 co-chair Representative Patrick Murphy as well as many others like him such as Tom Perriello and Steve Driehaus.
Why is that?
My contention is we didn’t focus on the basics of why people will support a cause. That means developing a coalition-based “Yes We Can” Movement-building strategy that could have maintained our 2008 momentum at little financial cost.
This includes investing in a community that spawned Shepard Fairry’s Barack Obama “Hope” painting, the OFA “rainbow” logo, “Change We Can Believe In” and numerous other slogans, poignant TV ads and even an infomercial starring the candidate, big rallies with inspiring speeches, monthly meetups, “Sing For Obama” low-dollar fundraisers, MyBo discussion groups, “One Million Strong” facebook groups, Retweeted @BarackObama quotes and even YouTube music videos from the likes of Will.i.Am and Obama Girl. Those are the ingredients of an historic movement and were at the core of the Obama For America campaign.
Meanwhile the Republicans did…and the Tea Party and Fox News have teamed up to dominate the public discourse with similar methods.
And so did Jon Stewart….so he was able to assemble over 200,000 people on the National Mall and then shine a light on the neglected 9/11 First Responder Bill that finally passed this week.
The game has changed and these examples show how in a world where the founder of Facebook is Time’s Person of the Year (plus a few years back it was “YOU”) our politics must take the lessons of the 2008 campaign and run with them NOT let others use them to pass us by.
But like President Obama once said….”I can’t do it alone.” He’s only one person and most of the top players are still playing the Old School Politics game or don’t have a full understanding of what Obama’s leadership approach is all about.
HOW WE CAN HELP….and become our own “Obama”
What we really need is a coordinated “customer”-focused communications, outreach and mentoring program built on the use of Social, Media AND Social Media tactics with a concisely-framed messaging and organizing structure to create the relationships and viral buzz required to educate, influence and inspire the Mainsteam Majority of “sane” people who voted for Obama (from Democratic progressives to Independent moderates to Republican libertarians) to be engaged and involved in political and civic life.
These “networking” efforts create a standing army ready to help with numerous campaign needs ranging from fundraising to volunteering to spreading our message to our friends and family online and offline….and of course voting on Election Day.
This isnt just a wild hypothesis though. In the marketing spectrum this more interactive “Word-Of-Mouth” Marketing of peer-to-peer contact and earned media is considered much more effective than neighbor-to-neighbor contact and paid media techniques often focused on by traditional campaigns.
Think about why you vote the way you do….probably because someone in your life or the “news” influenced you most.
Ironically for these “old school” folks politics is already a social game but they haven’t quite adapted to the fact that the public can and is easily part of it now.
You might see examples of this fact used by our allies here and there but the kind of broad effort that we truly need no longer exists in the Democratic Party or any progressive group I know.
Organizing For America was well-positioned to serve this role but has unfortunately not focused on the priorities I am discussing and despite some good advocacy efforts widely consists of mass emails with boilerplate messaging and fundraising purposes coupled with mostly “cold” field organizing of random door knocks and phone calls that are necessary but not ideal for gaining a loyal and active following
We need something more to win and grow our Movement. There are lots of good causes out there that are competing with us and the only way to cut through the clutter and control the narrative and policy-making agenda is to use these methods to build a Movement that gets in America’s face and demands it.
In 2011 I will be more proactive to ask that you join me to make that dream into a reality as we need everyone to pitch in as a leader or volunteer or occasional helper with whatever interests or skills you can offer so we can make it happen.
As part of this effort we will advocate for the revival of communities like Obama Pride (whose logo I’m using for my Facebook pic this week) and Generation Obama (continued by us but now officially known as the DNC’s Generation Forty-Four fundraising program) that were officially discontinued by Organizing For America while creating a new one that makes the grassroots a permanent priority via a Network For Progress.
We will then practice what we preach by working to spread political and civic awareness as well as build an activist team in preparation for 2012 and beyond.
I will share more about this direction soon but wanted to explain where I stand as we start the next chapter because I look forward to your help no matter how great or small.
In the meantime….Happy Holidays to Generation Obama and good luck in the New Year!
Regards,
Jim McBride
GO-DC President
P.S. Stay Fired Up…because it’s damn cold outside!
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