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Organizing for Campaigns vs. Organizing for Legislation

Submitted by Gary Andres on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 10:26
in

Organizing citizen involvement in campaigns is a lot easier than mobilizing Americans in the legislative process.  It's a hard lesson President Obama and his team are learning this summer.

The White House says it's going to pull out all the stops to show a groundswell of support between now and when lawmakers return to Washington after Labor Day.

I'm skeptical it will work.  Some of the reasons are outlined here.

Part of it has to with asymetrical energy.  My friend Jon Henke has it right when he says the Democrats enjoyed the power of a "storming the fortress" mentality while Bush was president. No more.   Now  the enthusiasm is with conservatives and Republicans.

Then there's the issue of lawmaking vs. campaigns.  Elections involve a binary choice: vote for candidate A or B; give money or not; make telephone calls for a candidate or do something else, etc.

The legislative process is more nuanced and often requires compromise.  It's hard to get people energized about supporting a middle ground position.

For all the talk about conservative "astro-turf" grassroots, it seems the White House and DNC are more guilty of trying to prime their allies.  My guess is the genuine energy and enthusiasm we see developing this summer around a "counter moblization" to the President's health care approach will only grow int he weeks ahead, no matter what the White House tries to orchestrate.

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