Let me get the context out of the way first:
I was a volunteer, regional organizer, and multiple-time donor for the Obama campaign, which means I received multiple e-mails a day from the organization throughout the summer and fall. That’s pretty normal, I guess, when a campaign realizes they’ve got a live one on the line.
However, what at first surprised me, and then intrigued me, and finally impressed the heck out of me (even while occasionally annoying me) is:
They haven’t stopped.
It’s like someone forgot to tell the president-elect’s team: You won! It’s okay to stand down now.
But of course, it’s not okay. How simple the world ‘s problems seemed even just weeks ago on Election Day compared to where we are now. There’s so much work to be done, so much damage to repair.
Which is why I’m so impressed with and appreciative of how the president-elect is conducting his transition.
Consider:
I’m not completely enamored with this inclusive strategy—although I would be if every other e-mail wouldn’t be hawking an Obama mug, calendar or t-shirt as a reward for just one more donation! Although I think the strategy is brilliant, I’m annoyed primarily because it works so well on me (Calendar hanging in my office, t-shirts worn with pride, car magnet stolen weeks ago. I drew the line at the mug, though, mostly because I don’t want to be thought of as easy. A guy needs to protect his reputation.)
But what has me absolutely gobsmacked and convinced that we’re in for a very different form of government than any of us in the U.S. have heretofore witnessed is what happened this past weekend.
This weekend, I hosted a house party.
This, in itself, is a precedent. I’ve co-hosted house parties in the past, meaning that my wife threw a party in our hose and I didn’t leave, but this is the first time I actually planned and hosted all on my own (Beth made cookies, though. Thanks, honey!)
The interesting part is why I threw the party:
The Obama campaign asked me to.
This past weekend, there must have been thousands of these parties all across the U.S. I say this with confidence based on the speed with which my party filled up—18 RSVPs within an hour of me posting the event. I didn’t even have a chance to invite any of my friends!
So on Saturday afternoon, I had a house full of strangers, most of whom had volunteered during the campaign, some of whom hadn’t but wished they could have. All were fueled by the fire of their passion and determination to bring progressive change to America and lured by the promise of an opportunity to direct their energies.
We introduced ourselves, watched a video sent to us by the campaign, and identified the issues we cared about individually and found common ground collectively.
Then we did something really cool: we decided—as did neighborhood meetings across America this weekend—to drive a community service project. Thousands of groups in communities across America, all responding to the president-elect’s call to service within their own communities.
That’s true power: the ability to inspire and motivate masses of people to positive action.
That’s shrewd politics: demonstrative and visible action in every community, promoting the president-elect’s agenda and building capital among the American public.
That’s smart campaigning: with millions of volunteers and donors, why let them slip away and have to hunt them down in four years when it’s time to run for re-election? Keep them engaged all along the way, and as a not-so-incidental consequence: think of all of the success stories you can tell.
What was our project? We decided to focus primarily on education and care for our senior citizens. We have a senior center nearby that is about to lose funding from the state, and a school district undergoing draconian budget cuts. We plan to start up a relationship between the senior center and local junior high and high schools to benefit both.
We’re starting with having the kids mentor the seniors in the use of technology, teaching them how to use computers and the Internet. But we also have our eye on having the seniors mentor the kids by sharing the benefit of their expertise and experience to help compensate for the cuts happening in the schools.
Around the room, there was also a lot of passion around the environment, economy, science and research, healthcare, and America’s standing in the world, and we saw opportunities over time to address these issues—either directly or indirectly—with both audiences.
We arrived at our idea as a natural outcome based on the people in the room, and the talents we bring to bear: we had a volunteer accountant at the senior center, husband-and-wife photographers who offered to document the project, a public school teacher and a PTA officer, and more. It was a lot of fun to come together with people I had never met and find an opportunity to serve the common good.
And it struck me, as it has many times over the last month: Barack Obama is a consummate community organizer. It’s in his background, and I’m betting it’ll be the way he chooses to lead and govern. I remember at the Republican convention, Governor Palin and Rudy Giuliani dismissing the work of community organizers; of all the things said by both sides during the campaign, it’s those words that I think will prove over time to be the most foolish.
Experience as a community organizer may prove to be *the* most important experience for governing inclusively and effectively.
At least I think it will be. We’ll see, won’t we?
Today, I’m back at work, and the professional side of me is taking lesson: if I can do this within my neighborhood, and the president-elect can do it with America, what could we accomplish on other stages?
If those of us in the MCP and MCT communities acted together, what could we accomplish for our communities?
Food for thought.