I Am Not a Member of Any Organized Political Party
I just got back from a training session for poll monitors. I'd like to tell you what I we learned, but then I'd have to kill you. All of you. And that would probably be a problem for our side if you haven't voted yet.
So, instead, let me just say that I never truly appreciated the miracle of Obama's ground game until now. That's saying a lot. I have praised it, discussed it, noted that it was crucial to his win in the primary, predicted it shall deliver us victory in states where we are narrowly behind, and, somewhere, may have even claimed it was the most impressive party-run political organization since the demise of the old state machines. Amidst my praise, however, I missed an important point about its true greatness.
These are Democrats he's managed to organize.
That was my thought as I uncomfortably shifted my forty something ass that I had crammed into a seat in a community college auditorium designed for underfed late teeners. It was a big room full of active, and some activist, Democrats doing what Democrats do. Taking up time that should be spent addressing concerns common to all of us with a series of questions that pertained only to the individual. Getting restless and muttery when the answer to questions turned out to be "we can't tell you until tomorrow." Chattering and backtalking, acting in a way that indicates the notions of hierarchy and prioritizing are alien to them and, indeed, probably profoundly offensive to them, everyone barely restraining their innate urge to go off on their own private obsessions. Each and every one of them profoundly disturbed that things had not been organized, and information had not been disseminated, in the way that each individual knew to an absolute certainty it should have been done.
I couldn't help thinking that things would have gone a touch more smoothly if this had been a room full of Republicans. I imagined a room full of quiet, stoic older people still in their church duds and a few earnest young Greg Marmalards and Babs Jansens mixed in, sitting quietly, listening attentively, occasionally nodding approvingly and then all departing united in a common purpose with a common understanding of the task and how it should be performed.
Organizing Republicans is easy. The hard part is getting them to show up in the first place and giving them sufficiently detailed orders to cover every eventuality.
Organizing Democrats? Herding cats. You might as well try to get bumblebees to fly in a straight line or pre-schoolers to stay in the zone assigned to their position in a soccer game. They're constantly emoting, each convinced of the perfect equality of all ideas and endlessly exasperating. For all the Republican sneering about our supposed collectivist tendencies, Democrats are individualists--some even rugged.
That's Obama's achievement and the true mark of his genius. He's somehow managed to organize Democrats, Democrats, for God's sake, and get results from them.
Two days, people. Jackson Browne's "For America" has been running through my head (and on my iPhone) all week. We've got to get it right, this time.
So, instead, let me just say that I never truly appreciated the miracle of Obama's ground game until now. That's saying a lot. I have praised it, discussed it, noted that it was crucial to his win in the primary, predicted it shall deliver us victory in states where we are narrowly behind, and, somewhere, may have even claimed it was the most impressive party-run political organization since the demise of the old state machines. Amidst my praise, however, I missed an important point about its true greatness.
These are Democrats he's managed to organize.
That was my thought as I uncomfortably shifted my forty something ass that I had crammed into a seat in a community college auditorium designed for underfed late teeners. It was a big room full of active, and some activist, Democrats doing what Democrats do. Taking up time that should be spent addressing concerns common to all of us with a series of questions that pertained only to the individual. Getting restless and muttery when the answer to questions turned out to be "we can't tell you until tomorrow." Chattering and backtalking, acting in a way that indicates the notions of hierarchy and prioritizing are alien to them and, indeed, probably profoundly offensive to them, everyone barely restraining their innate urge to go off on their own private obsessions. Each and every one of them profoundly disturbed that things had not been organized, and information had not been disseminated, in the way that each individual knew to an absolute certainty it should have been done.
I couldn't help thinking that things would have gone a touch more smoothly if this had been a room full of Republicans. I imagined a room full of quiet, stoic older people still in their church duds and a few earnest young Greg Marmalards and Babs Jansens mixed in, sitting quietly, listening attentively, occasionally nodding approvingly and then all departing united in a common purpose with a common understanding of the task and how it should be performed.
Organizing Republicans is easy. The hard part is getting them to show up in the first place and giving them sufficiently detailed orders to cover every eventuality.
Organizing Democrats? Herding cats. You might as well try to get bumblebees to fly in a straight line or pre-schoolers to stay in the zone assigned to their position in a soccer game. They're constantly emoting, each convinced of the perfect equality of all ideas and endlessly exasperating. For all the Republican sneering about our supposed collectivist tendencies, Democrats are individualists--some even rugged.
That's Obama's achievement and the true mark of his genius. He's somehow managed to organize Democrats, Democrats, for God's sake, and get results from them.
Two days, people. Jackson Browne's "For America" has been running through my head (and on my iPhone) all week. We've got to get it right, this time.
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Thoroughly enjoyed that, despite the burning sensation of deja vu.
November 2, 2008 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
But Democrats throw better parties! Looking forward to the one on 11/5 :)
November 2, 2008 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may be giving more credit to Obama than is due. There is much to be said for unity under a common cause towards reversing the evil from the last eight years. Instead of humming Jackson Browne's "For America", it might be better to contemplate a different song:
November 2, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't it be something if they kept it going AFTER the election---so the apparatus would be activated for critical policy votes in Congress, or for the mid-term elections? I don't mean that the Democrats should ever aspire to be rank-and-file robots like the Republican "base" . . . but if the 2008 campaign could somehow be transformed into an on-going progressive political league, rather than just being the temporary vehicle for advancing a talented politician's ambitions, then there might be hope for this old planet after all.
And I mean no disrespect by speaking of Senator Obama as a talented politician. Lincoln, Altgeld, La Follette, F. D. Roosevelt, Floyd Olson, Paul Wellstone---all were talented politicians . . . on the side of the people. They were winners.
November 2, 2008 11:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
On his Rachel Maddow interview, Obama said he wanted to apply some of the lessons he had learned in the campaign -- particularly with respect to using the Internet as an organizing medium -- to government. Sounds promising.... hopefully we'll see.
November 3, 2008 8:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. I think, hopefully, this kind of apparatus (for lack of a better term) has proven itself and could be re-activated for the future. Alot of it depends, however, on enthusiasm if not $.
November 3, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
ummm...that keep it going thing is the whole idea of how the Obama people tried to set this up and get ownership from communities.
November 3, 2008 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
NCSteve, my congrats and a profound apology. I should've known you weren't going to take the easy way out of this post and simply finish the quote: "...I'm a Democrat!" (Ta-TA-Ta! goes the drum.)
Assuming that Mr. Obama wins this thing, I think he has put something in place that will be not only difficult to discredit, but something that will be studied for a generation.
One final note: to all of the Republican idiots at your shallow, mean-spirited, un-American convention? Maybe having a community organizer at the top of your ticket is something you should look into.
November 3, 2008 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that maintaining the momentum and ability to organize could help Obama and Local political groups play a much more active role in their respective communities. I believe this is what we need, something that united our own respective regions towards a common cause of believing we can do better. As an added bonus I think if we can come up with regional solutions that in some of the more conservative corners of any given state could go a long way to appealing to those conservatives who are weary of Washington solutions but find state and local solutions much more palatable.
November 3, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree that maintaining the momentum and ability to organize could help Obama and Local political groups play a much more active role in their respective communities. I believe this is what we need, something that united our own respective regions towards a common cause of believing we can do better. As an added bonus I think if we can come up with regional solutions that in some of the more conservative corners of any given state could go a long way to appealing to those conservatives who are weary of Washington solutions but find state and local solutions much more palatable.
November 3, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think that the ability to "tease" the message to allow for a more crafted regional approach is a terrific idea--much the same as Kos' idea of more and better Democrats. We need candidates that have strong principles that can win in their districts. I know that sounds simpleminded, but it's the absolute truth.
It's time for a very different agenda, and I know that a President Obama will be up for the challenge!
November 3, 2008 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Barack Obama, the best cat herder in the world.
November 3, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the laughs! Herding cats is the perfect analogy. Since most faculty members are Democrats, I understand anew why getting faculty members organized and unified is always an uphill struggle!
November 3, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
A large faculty committee was a comparison I meant to include and didn't.
However, in hindsight, I'm most taken with the peewee league soccer analogy.
November 3, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I bunch of psychologists can work really well together. But, yes, we need a lot of time to discuss it all - from every possible angle, including possible problems and all the possible consequences.
November 3, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Glad you were at a level to see this side of the campaign. Most people, even those canvassing, don't recognize it, unless you are high enough up. You'll be happy to know that there will be a lot of monitoring in some interesting states. ;-)
Good luck tomorrow.
November 3, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
All I can say is that I tip my hat to both Obama's campaign and to you good folks in the Tarheel state. Those inclined to pay attention to my post in the primaries might remember that I was confident in my assertion that Obama would not carry a single southern state, NC very much included. Was I ever wrong, and never have I been more pleased for that to be the case. We are watching the southern strategy dissolve before our eyes like sugar cubes in a rain storm, and it is a beautiful sight to behold.
November 3, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, FWIW, I don't think its a coincidence he's breaking through in the southern states that have had the most people moving in from other states over the last eight years.
November 3, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also had a very pleasant suprise (so did the House Dem candidate) for the volunteers for poll watchers in our district.
The campaign was hoping that if they could get 30 volunteers they'd be doing okay, they had over 70 of us show up, with some of us promising to bring help on Tuesday for rides and manning the phones.
I live in a RW area in CA that might be be a suprise pickup. Our RW congressman actually started calling people last weekend, the first time he's had to actually campaign for a long time.
November 3, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wanted to be a poll watcher, Steve. But with hearing aids in both ears and problems discriminating sounds in noisy environments, that ruled me out. (but I did get a bit of an inkling for the strategy - and wow!)
You sure described us disorganized folks so well. Emotional - yes. Etc.
Thanks for your post!
November 3, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also live in NC and have experienced exactly what you have described. Following the Dukakis campaign, I had sat out Presidential election efforts as a volunteer because they have been parachute drops behind enemy lines. There was always plenty to do for state and local party candidates. Now our state party chair has a similar view to the state as Dean has for the party. We have to build local folks together everywhere.
As for the pee wee soccer, every once in a while, there is a poetry to their playing style. I mean, everyone gets to touch the ball. It is shared responsibility.
Oh wait, that's creeping socialism!
November 3, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama could organize a group of feral cats and get them do do water ballet.
November 3, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink