Employee Free Choice Act

Thursday, October 22, 2009

2010: Are Americans Ready to Confront Obama's Organizing Against America War Machine?

From Dienekes' Place and cross-posted here and here.
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There are some that are positively giddy over the prospects of the 2010 mid-terms, thinking that our country can turn back the tide of Marxism that has begun to sweep across America.

Hopefully, this post will serve as a warning to all those who believe in individual rights and free enterprise: The opposition is better armed, better organized, and has already begun its campaign to win 2010.

Like an advance scout reporting the movements of our foes, this post may better explain what America's adversaries are up to, before asking you: Are you ready for this fight? Can this nation be saved from the onslaught of Marxism?

First, unions are endorsing candidates far and wide for the mid-term elections. The reason unions are endorsing now is that, for many unions, once a candidate is endorsed, the unions can begin to spend their members' money and marshal their resources for those candidates.

Secondly, and most importantly, as this post [with emphasis added] from the Leftist publication Truthout explains, the war apparatus that is known as Organizing for America has already begun its campaign to diminish the risks to Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections:


Congressional switchboards were bombarded on Tuesday with over 300,000 calls from supporters of Barack Obama's plan for health care reform....

The event was a part of a national call-in day billed as "time to deliver" by Obama's political arm, Organizing for America (OFA). OFA is the Obama campaign transformed into a political organization that is housed in the DNC in Washington, DC.

DNC Chairman and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said that OFA is the largest department in the Democratic National Committee, with staff in 48 states. Kaine said that when he assumed the chair of the DNC, OFA was not part of the DNC, but that now it is the heart of the organization.

In the past, incumbents had begun to raise money and set their agenda for re-election early in their terms of office. The difference here is that Obama is cranking up the ground game before his first year is over. He will already have a national field campaign in full gear before the off-term elections, a move that could help him avoid the usual losses the party in the White House usually suffers. OFA may also emerge as the most powerful voice in 2016. A candidate with access to OFA's organizational strength will have a huge leg up.

While there is a grassroots model in place, the agenda will come from the top.

While it would be ideal for the agenda to come from the grass roots, in this case, since the glue that holds the organization together is Barack Obama, from an effectiveness standpoint it makes sense for the organization to organize around his agenda. Many national organizations fizzle when the leader who formed them moves on. Case in point, has anyone heard from the Reform Party lately? Once Ross Perot was gone, there was brief life as they fought over the money the party had coming in matching funds, but once the money was gone, so was their momentum.

OFA Still Has Paid Staff in 48 States

Florida has seven paid staff statewide. OFA's Miami Dade Regional Field Director Brad Schenk described the model structure of the organization, which he said was the campaign's model in Iowa in 2007. Neighborhood groups would form and chose captains and team leaders, who would report to a community organizer responsible for multiple neighborhoods. The community organizer communicates with the field office. From there, information continues on up straight to the national office at the DNC in Washington.

The goal would be to have the neighborhood groups extremely well organized; they would have their own phone banks, canvas operations and events. The campaign would provide the neighborhood groups access to data from the 2008 campaign. This is extremely important. In the past, campaigns guarded their lists, but in this case, volunteers in the community will have access to data that will allow them to organize their neighborhoods. Picture the old Chicago model with block captains all over the country.

Schenk described the organization as progressive, but not radical. He said that while the organization will hold rallies, they would not pull off stunts that could make the organization look bad. When others argued that the "tea baggers" were succeeding, Schenk countered by saying that they were hurting, not helping, their cause, going on to say that they were "polarizing the Republican Party."

All of OFA's resources are currently focused on the health care fight and it is an issue that is easy to rally around. The true test will come when OFA is focusing on an issue or supporting a candidate that its supporters are not excited about. The organization has daily access to the Oval Office, it is in transition right now, working hard to reactivate the foot soldiers from the 2008 campaign. If Tuesday's effort is any indication, they are succeeding. The result could give Obama a more powerful political arm than even the two major political parties themselves.


So, tell me, fellow Spartans and Patriots, now that you know the odds America faces, are you ready for this fight, or will we let our nation fall?



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