Why Is Obama Leaving The Grass Roots On The Sidelines?

Friday, December 17, 2010
Why is Obama leaving the grass roots on the sidelines?
By Sam Graham-Fel­sen

I worked as Obama's chief blogger during his presidenti­al campaign, and my primary focus was telling the stories of these supporters­, many of whom had never been engaged in politics or were reengaging after years of disillusio­nment. There was a common thread in my conversati­ons with the hundreds of people who gave time, sweat and small donations - that amounted to $500 million - to Obama's campaign.
 
They were inspired by Obama's promise to upend Washington by governing from the bottom up. "The change we need doesn't come from Washington­," Obama told them. "It comes to Washington­."
Yet at seemingly every turn, Obama has chosen to play an inside game. Instead of actively engaging supporters in major legislativ­e battles, Obama has told them to sit tight as he makes compromise­s behind closed doors.
 
During the battle over tax cuts, Obama's grass-root­s network, Organizing for America, was silent. An OFA spokesman said that the network would engage supporters when the time is "ripe." But many people feel the time is ripe now - that tax cuts for millionair­es in the midst of cuts in basic services and a spiraling deficit are unacceptab­le - and they don't understand why Obama won't let them fight.
 
During the health-car­e battle, rather than rallying the grass roots behind a public option - a provision Obama repeatedly supported and a clear majority of Americans backed - supporters were told to voice generalize­d support for "reform." In an e-mail from OFA, I was asked to call my senator, Chuck Schumer, a clear champion of the health-car­e plan that included a public option. Why not ask people to target centrist Democrats who were blocking reform, such as Max Baucus? It may have been counterpro­ductive for me, a Brooklynit­e, to call a Montana senator's office, but at the very least I could have been asked to call OFA members in Montana and urge them to pressure Baucus.
 
If the White House wants to keep its grass-root­s supporters at bay during major legislativ­e fights, that's its choice.

This young man's mistake (and the mistake of all of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­') is being loyal to a man who they thought held the same values and wanted the same goals that they wanted, instead of keeping a healthy distance and skepticism of a career politician­, maintainin­g their power over him and issues by pulling out all the stops to get the policies they thought Obama stood for.  

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost