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Blue the Pug and I were just having a conversation about how to get national organizing back into circulation. I told him that I distinctly remember returning to Montana in 2013 and interviewing to be a local organizer for this outfit called Organizing for America. https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1328049733709877248
I was one of the “Founding Members” and the sticker I got for that got removed from a bumper a few years ago. But I kept it a long time, long beyond the shelf life of OFA. Blue wasn’t impressed.
When I interviewed it was a couple years before HRC became the candidate but it was apparent she would be. I asked what the plan was and the MT organizer gave a non-answer. Why would HRC and the party abandon this amazing cast of folks deeply set on keeping the movement going?
Since there was no apparent future, I turned down the gig. I didn’t enjoy that, because I am to this day a true believer in what OFA did. And it went away. And yes there are a ton of reasons why HRC lost but not having OFA at her call was a major one.
Election 2016 was a wash. We got the opposite result in 2020 but that’s because a lot of folks became motivated to remove Trump from office. That dynamic won’t be there in 2024. And the GOP is going to spend the next 4 years making sure Biden gets nothing done. It’s how they win.
So we need to start that infrastructure for a national, inspiration, team effort for 2024. We need to bring in the @WarrenDemocrat folks (I am one) and also the @OurRevolution folks. We need to make sure @staceyabrams doesn’t get sucked into the bureaucracy and consultant-driven
Democratic Party machinery. I see Stacey leading that national OFA v2 movement. She has the chops and ability. We need her doing something outside the confines of the party, which is what OFA did. If she can mimic what happened in Georgia in targeted states or even all 50 ...
We have a huge leg up over the opposition’s desire to suppress and ensure people DON’T vote. And we need to energize that amazing diverse coalition of folks who got Biden in. That’s the future. But people need to feel activated and important (because they are!).
Blue concurs and wishes he had been alive to see one big national movement rather than lots of different pieces. What @MoveOn and @WorkingFamilies and others are doing is so important and so key. But we need everyone unified in one central place. The party ain’t cuttin it.
So that’s what I would like to see happen again. A little dip back in time to how we won in 2008 with an eye to making sure that’s in place for 2024. Without an effort like that, it’ll put everything we just accomplished these last few years on ice. And that would be awful.
So don’t let Blue down. He is so named (and will soon learn to wave) because he entered our lives on the day Biden locked up the nomination. Blue deserves a chance to grow. He deserves a chance to show the world how awesome he is. Go Blue!
And now he rests for a moment. It’s important to rest. Then have bursts of energy.
P.S.: You don’t get a wave of the gravitational pull isn’t strong enough and the winds aren’t going the right way. You can’t just expect it to appear, it depends on a lot of forces working together to make it happen. We have to make it happen.
