(Community Matters) An insightful email blast from my friend, Andy Tobias:
Listen:
Yes, of COURSE there’s lots to be distressed about. Duh!
And I’ll get back to that.
But —
1. Politifact.com lists 79 campaign promises Obama has thus far kept. (Politifact is the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking service of the St. Petersburg Times.)
2. In commenting on that list, J.E. Robertson writes: “There are a further 226 campaign promises officially listed, after extensive fact-checking, as ‘in the works’ . . . Many of these will be accomplished in 2010, giving Pres. Obama the most extensive record of success in fulfilling specific campaign promises in US history.”
3. Thanks to your efforts in electing Barack Obama and Joe Biden — and the appointment of Secretary Clinton — America’s standing in the world has been restored. Most of the world now once again respects our leadership, is now once again rooting for us.
4. “The Administration has done more in its first few months to protect our air, water and communities than we’ve seen in the last decade,” says the National Resources Defense Council.
5. “Stunning,” writes the tough-minded Democrats for Education Reform of the educational “race to the top” that has been launched and “the tremendous wave of edu-political reform which has been unleashed.”
6. Our Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary his blisteringly smart, intensely motivated team are seeding innovation at an unprecedented pace.
7. Plus . . . lifting the “global gag order” . . . passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act . . . accelerating stem cell research rather than impeding it . . . reforming predatory credit card practices . . . authorizing the FDA to regulate tobacco . . . embracing LGBT equality . . . appointing a progressive Supreme Court Justice . . . averting a Depression. (Clinton handed Bush “surpluses as far as they eye could see.” Bush handed Obama a cataclysm.)
8. And, yes, we will soon sign into law health insurance reform that is +much+ better than most people realize.
9. Likewise, financial reform.
Those last two are not done yet . . . and even once they are, we’ll still face huge economic and structural problems – not least that Congress is broken . . .
. . . and that – in a world where 70% of the 2004 Bush re-elect vote could have believed Iraq attacked us on 9/11 and 52% of Republicans think ACORN stole the 2008 election – the +press+ is broken, too. (Here’s how ACORN got Swiftboated.)
But that just brings us to . . .
10. What a nightmare it would have been if McCain/Palin had won. If you haven’t had a chance to read Game Change, let me summarize: it was even worse than we thought.
So let’s not lose sight of the accomplishments so far, nor the contrast with what might have been — another Alito on the Court instead of a Sotomayor barely scratches the surface of the contrast.
And . . .
11. Let’s consider the contrast between our doing well this November . . . even turning red seats blue, like the one in Rush Limbaugh’s district that I’m betting Green Beret and West Point professor Tommy Sowers will win . . . and our +losing+ Congress to the Republicans as we did in 1994.
THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO SIT PARALYZED IN RUEFUL CONTEMPLATION OVER – THIS IS SOMETHING TO BOLT OUT OF BED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND RUSH TO THE BARRICADES TO AVERT.
Because it’s even bigger than who controls Congress – there are also 37 governorships at stake and all those state legislatures that will be drawing the new Congressional districts based on the 2010 census.
So I say to my friends who are gloomy or disappointed or cynical or are “not doing politics this year” – SNAP OUT OF IT, GUYS! We’re actually doing better than you think – and even if we’re not, that’s beside the point. The point: we need to help this amazing President succeed, and we need to hold the gavels in Congress, and we need to turn out progressive voters – massively – as we did in 2008 – for races up and down the ballot.
And that is not done by writing checks in October to fund competing TV ads (although they do play their role). It is done by writing checks NOW to help build OFA (Organizing for America), which is the sequel to OFA (Obama for America) — and run by more or less the same guys — that was so successful last time.
This is the DNC’s central project, already employing more than 200 people full time in the field, who are recruiting and training the community organizers who in turn recruit and train team leaders who recruit volunteers who register millions of new voters — and who will be tasked with ramping up turn-out in November and driving people to the polls. (In some cases, +literally+ driving them.)
We have identified 15 million enthusiastic Obama voters whom we know, from their voting histories, normally do NOT vote in midterm elections.
Imagine the game-changing impact if OFA is able to up the turnout among those 15 million by, say, 20%. An extra 3 million votes for House, Senate, state legislator, Governor, school board . . .
In a world where elections are often won by just a few thousand votes – just 37 votes in the case of last Tuesday’s successful special election for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates – registering and turning out a few +million+ extra votes around the country can make all the difference the world.
And it is a hugely +leveraged+ investment, because it’s only the few hundred OFA staff at the top we need to pay. The hundreds of thousands of volunteers engaged in this effort all eagerly work for free.
I was in Washington Thursday talking with Jeremy Bird, the man tasked with running this field operation, and came away completely inspired by his enthusiasm and expertise.
So I’d urge you: be inspired, too.
It’s not a perfect world. (In a perfect world, Harvey Milk would be winning Best Picture tonight and hotel rooms would all have TiVo.) But, in my view, it’s a lot better world than it would be if our friends on the other side of the aisle had more control over it.
We mustn’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. It’s the biggest mistake we idealists make – whether it be the 97,488 Floridians who voted for Nader in 2000, or those of my friends who are “not doing politics this year” because we haven’t achieved all we had hoped to in these first 14 months.
Voter turn-out is the key. And voter turn-out is exactly what the DNC and its OFA are about.
Click here if you can help. We’ll apply your contribution to any upcoming event that fits your schedule.
Through the marvels of modern technology a twitter will be beamed to my Facebook that will send an email to my iPhone and within seconds I will be texting to say thanks.
Thanks!
Andy
Community Matters 