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now until the arm albert he cat has written a such a four-page report on
organizing for america's brocco obama's grassroots group they still want to use
for actual policies being policies pass laws is for winning elections
anne what this protect president he joins us now hard-working bacterium
alright alright first i have to confess that even before i read your port i've
thought organizing for america was hurled insults
and after reading it i think it's a little more useful than i suspected
uh... but overall
ninety percent useless
the first professor let's address my concerns with it
it appears that they're playing patty cakes that their main objective is to
back democrats that are already you know bombers quarter
which in politics
those are really do anything at all doesn't change any votes
so in that a gigantic problems were organizing for america
and problem and it's a strategy that comes straight from the white house
so if that's really the source of
most of the strategic decisions that we're seeing and have long advocated
what i argue it actually looks
relatively novel program with a lot of grassroots volunteer buy-in from
both my reporting original for this
project as well as other data like two hundred thousand she was ours
from volunteers
in his first year alone the changeling valuable and as you say they are not
actually putting it toward
a heart properties will shout if you change a vote on the hill which is what
my reporting fallibility democrats don't want them to do better don't think
having much impact
now wasn't
you mentioned something that's one of the pos is a list that is that as well
you got two hundred thousand hours of volunteerism basically here now in
in advancing an agenda that they believe ida progressive agenda
that could be really really powerful and they've got people actually doing it you
know they've got is useful in these super active as a setter
soul that you'd have to give him credit for that how will have they done and
bring people out
i think it's a really keep part and as often happens apparently washington
are both wrong and they're both a little extreme one is
pitch for the failure you never hear about it stocks and the other is pieces
perfect opal obligated great toobin tough times that he would have been said
that they have been talking about his work and i think
but the other states person to both of those if you pay attention to the folks
in an open for two extreme out at this level of volunteering in converting
campaign volunteers into what i call government activist
it's a relatively new thing for a national party to tabloid
it's good for civic engagement even if some of the legislative strategies are
perfectly
effective or taylor
out and i don't know that we should expect they would be a bit early stage
there's room for change
finally now this is a program that its first year turned itself into a single
issue lobbying campaign on health care
uh... there are many other issues
some of which might even be more progressive
i thought it could also look toward st dot member priority than the other
indicators
that would also provide shade i found my research that forty four percent of the
online organize engineer one with the health care
more than any other issue
the most of the other focuses more on
before breaking into social events that i call community maintenance
which are really about affecting congress a rabbit keeping the network
activin and maintain social capital it actually gets back today
i think you have not related to lobbying so
they could do a lot more that a lot easier to left in the back
alright leveling as i said i was there one quick know that i'm gonna make
before asking those questions
i noticed that they spent a lot of time on health care et cetera since it
appears june non our spent on the economy
that seems to be and i want to strange decision but in reality it's not of
course this willing to do
lowly reduce pressure democrats so what
so it and that's fun part of the problem here but let me ask you about another
concern that i have art which is now you know wind bush enroll ran the permanent
campaign
we were a little concerned about that and in
is in this in some ways though also running a permit campaigns for example
you mention that they've sent over a quarter million letters
to the editor on health care alone
now if both sides are doing this republicans and democrats and you've got
these
organized you know these quorum call grassroots people organized by the
political parties that are running permanent campaigns
whether the letters to the editor almost becoming stone-faced as an example
right the problem is if you have a dilution of the actual impact of certain
gretchen becky end up
real question about how grassroots they are
coupled with
somebody'd
of campaigning that we generally don't like
which includes being confrontational and being simplistic and turning pink into
bumper stickers either the rich academic literature about permanent campaign that
suggest a lot of problems for democracy totally separate from what i've read
your personal politics
might be and i discussed at length in the report one thing that it again
different is weak typically think of the primary campaign of the media
financial operations and this is different and that is adding a field
component
uh... man since the conservatives have are deeply
found their field component in the p party protest taking a lot of media
coverage i hated understandable now the word an era where both sides are trying
to wrap up field
but allot of the academic literature suggest the primary campaigns
it actually bat for some of our
civic gets course and that's the point i make i think a point that there's more
study in and more robust debate from participants crapshoot organize ring
toppled in the community bottle and the obama campaign bottle
without building power relationships not judge
pushing messaged originate in washington
put on our melbourne you wrote this report for tech president seventy four
page report
on organizing for america that was a bomb is group in the in the campaign
that he's now using ha throughout uh... his administration is thirteen million
people on that female isthmus was powerful finally harding com you
mentioned that this is top-down organization is their tremendous irony
in a grassroots group
being told what to do by the white house and then
and i are most think that'll most of the shakes the whole point of a new tomorrow
i think that's very important point uh... real
deep range of views on that
stepping up side of my own opinion for attacking
i felt plenty of activists who fell that they already signed up for the oklahoma
agenda back during the campaign that they do trust
kim and they want to do with helpful to him and they trust the people he picked
uh... in this political operation i got a lot of people felt that way and these
are people who work in twenty twenty five hours a week
ob and they're not stupid and they're not just soldiers
they believe in that sense of the quote a lot of them but i tell some of those
stories and that's why i hope the project is interesting to people who
want to get a deeper view having said that they found many other people um...
who are also started passion desperately want obama to fix feet
who do feel
part that the
organize begin grassroot component of that have been somewhat draped photos
one twenty-three laurin either
according to who work forty hours a week this summer for a lot of faith
this is a person who's was deeply deeply committed i don't think anyone could
much in their the workers are looking good dictates that the opposite of the
paula lipsky model that opa maha originally
put forward because it does not target power because it did not have a
reciprocal relationship
with the people
in the grass roots until kent the reported seventy four pages in part
convict go they are cowboys sound bite to get extended contacted both of you to
tell people check it out
uh... and let me say it'd attack
president dot com
all right i think president dot com dot com home on the side of the slides in
the world because
when the d_n_c_ runs the roof panorama menu *** gives you your marching orders
you are not challenging power
your aiding abetting power
alright carmel birthing so much for joining us for appreciate that you would
expect you looked at their first for let me check it out
all right thanks a lot of will be right back