| I was really bummed that I wasn't able to get to Netroots Nation this year- book deadlines, a long-scheduled speech, and family visiting this last week all conspired against me to keep me from the event. I was very bummed, and have heard that it was the best one yet. I was also very sorry because I was sent some of the pub quiz questions, and I knew the answer to all of them, so OpenLeft.com would have cleaned up. Oh, well.
Netroots Nation is always one of those events, like the Take Back America conference, that makes me think about movement building. I get very excited, whether I am physically there or not, of the idea of all these smart, creative activists getting together in the same place. Another thing that provoked some thinking about that was an interesting back-and-forth between Sally Kohn and Georgia10 on DailyKos a few days back, where they were debating about the relative importance of activists doing organizing offline.
The thing between Sally and Georgia10 was a little bit of talking past each other, where Georgia10 took offense at what she perceived as Sally's generational biases (even though Sally is a youngun compared to old farts like me), but the exchange reminded me of a little debate that I unintentionally began after last year's Netroots Nation/YearlyKos event where I was writing about the same subject I'm on today. I was discussing movement building, and was a little too loose with my usage of the "we" word, and some long-term bloggers felt that I shouldn't' be referring to myself as a blogger.
I think these kinds of conflicts are worth raising and talking through, just as I think the painful discussion about racism and sexism that the Obama/Clinton fight generated was worth having, because movements don't get stronger without open discussion and putting all this stuff out on the table. But I also think that to build a big, powerful, effective, and truly diverse progressive movement- one capable of actually winning- all of us need to do our best to step back and remember some things, such as:
- It's not about one tactic or one constituency or one anything. It's about building a community, a multi-generational, a multiple-organizing method, multi-racial, multi-class, 50-state community.
- It's not all about "us", whoever "us" is. When I was doing constituency politics in the Clinton White House, every constituency group under the sun would call me with complaints from time to time about how we were picking on them, or screwing with them in particular, or showing them particular disrespect. I would sometimes kid folks that no, it wasn't them in particular, we screwed everybody in an equal opportunity manner. I tell this story because every movement believes that they are special, that they are the ones changing America, and doing things no group has ever done before. And every group believes that they are being picked on, ignored, or unfairly treated, by the Democrats in power. And everybody is right in one way, and wrong in another. For example, I sometimes see where bloggers think that Obama or Pelosi or whoever doesn't like the blogosphere or doesn't care about them. Well, not so much. Democrats will react angrily with the blogosphere when they are getting attacked by it, but if you are helping them on something, they'll love you for it. And then the next week, they'll screw you again- it's the nature of politics.
What progressive leaders of every movement have to understand is that every constituency is important and unique and has an essential role, but that we're all in this together. Politicians, even the ones closest to us, will sometimes use and abuse us, but if we build our power and show solidarity as a movement, they will have to deal with us- all of us.
- I've never understood an either/or politics that says we have to do either online or offline strategies, that we should appeal to either young people or baby boomers, that we should appeal to either base voters or swing voters. The fact is that while doing both is usually harder to do than really focusing on one tactic or one constituency or one whatever, it is almost always possible for us to create a politics that is based on the and word. There are plenty of issues and themes that appeal to both base and swing voters, and to voters of all ages. There are plenty of good organizing models that combine online strategies and old-fashioned community or electoral organizing strategies.
I know that in some ways I'm saying the same things over and over again, but it's because I grow weary of some of these battles. I want a big movement, a broad movement, one that welcomes everybody who wants to play, because I think that's how we build a long-term progressive majority. |
