Document Actions
Obama Beyond the Beltway
The New York Times asks me what President Obama's return to campaign-style rallies says about his style of leadership and his approach to presidential power.
Check out the full article at the New York Times Room for Debate Blog.
A Community Organizer First and Foremost
I must admit, for weeks the president had me scared. I thought he had forgotten the lessons that every organizer from Chicago learns. I thought the Beltway had already infected his soul. But then he started traveling around the country and talking to voters. Glad to see I was wrong. Glad to see he remembered his lessons.
Which lessons? There are two that come to mind:
1. There is a temptation in progressive politics to always want to be right. To have everything thought through. But Americans are emotional. They are not stirred by 50-page plans, nor by well reasoned policies. What moves them is their belief in people. Americans believe that any challenge, no matter how big, can be met with resolve, courage and hard work.
Only when President Obama took his message to the American people did the tide on the stimulus debate begin to turn. He defined the specifics when needed but raised the focus to overall message and values. He didn’t shirk from the hard parts, rather he challenged us to meet them head on — people respond to that. It resonates with their core beliefs, their values.
2. Every Chicago organizer knows that battles are won and lost on doors and on phones. When the administration stuck to Washington and didn’t take their message to the people, they faltered. Sealed inside Washington, President Obama wasn’t able to sway House Republicans.
But when he took the show on the road, when he engaged real people, when he put the heat on, the response was much different.
This president’s election was predicated on good field work. His 50-state strategy and the unprecedented small donor fund-raising are just two examples. Moving forward we can expect to see a lot more grassroots activism, because that’s what wins fights and this president knows that.
Gabe Gonzalez is the Director of the Campaign for Community Values at the Center for Community Change.
