How bad do we want this, folks?

Despite support for creating a public health insurance exchange in Michigan under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) from Democrats, some Republicans and even Governor Rick Snyder, it’s looking more and more like it won’t happen in Michigan. Why? Because tea party groups across the state are out-hustling and out-organizing progressive groups that could be making a difference.

On Tuesday MIRS news service quoted sources in the state senate who say there aren “not even close” to enough votes to pass legislation that will create the exchanges and cite a deluge of calls from tea party and other conservative groups that have flooded the phone lines of lawmakers for the past several weeks.

Meanwhile, what are progressive groups and our own Democratic caucus members doing to engage their constituents on this issue across the state?

One word: nothing.

We as a party have talked a LOT lately about using issued-based organizing to get Democrats organized around the state in preparation for 2014. It was this very same issue, in fact, that Organizing for America (OFA) used as an organizing tool during the fight to pass the Affordable Care Act. And now that we have it as the Supreme Court-verified law of the land, Democrats (and OFA, I might add) are dropping the ball.

It’s an opportunity to rally Democrats across the state and get them engaged. The Democratic caucus, the Michigan Democratic Party, OFA and any other progressive group in Michigan that cares about the implementation of this exchange have a ripe opportunity to organize around this issue. Instead, they are abdicating the fight to the tea party. The only groups fighting FOR it appear to be the hospitals and, if an email I received from the Tea Party of West Michigan titled “If you belong to the Grand Rapids or Michigan Chambers…” is accurate, chambers of commerce across the state:

If you belong to the Grand Rapids or Michigan Chambers…
…and you are against ObamaCare, you just might want to call them and cancel your membership!!! They are really turning up the pressure on our Michigan Senate. We were hearing today in several publications that there was no way there were enough votes in the Senate for the Exchange to pass. However late breaking tonight we are hearing that the chambers have really turned up the heat and have actually been successful in pulling a couple senators to their side. So, I know we’re all tired of calling but we must keep it up because what we are doing is working. Only problem is the Chambers are now having some success. It’s a tug-o-war now. We need to let our Senators know they will not get by with voting for this a second time against Michigan Citizens!

****EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY,**** call your Senator and then all the other Senators in Michigan and ask them to hold tough against the pressure coming from the Chambers to win them over to selling us into a socialist utopia called ObamaCare. We all know it will not be what is promised.

I cannot promise and [sic] end in sight. I do know that they wanted it in March in Michigan. I’m not sure we’ll ever be safe from the threat until ObamaCare is dead and buried. If we can keep it off the books here along with the other states in this fight with us, I believe we can starve the beast to death! Anything is worth it to stop this socialistic move to take 1/6th of our economy into Federal Government control!

This is, or perhaps WAS, a missed opportunity for Michigan Democrats including the Michigan Democratic Party. This sort of issue-based organizing is OUR forte. We knock doors. We organize phone banks and make calls. WE have the grassroots networks in place all around Michigan that can pull this off yet we are standing here with our thumbs up our bums doing nothing and missing this prime opportunity.

I truly hope we don’t miss many more.

One silver lining, perhaps, is that if the tea partiers DO succeed in killing the state-run health insurance exchanges in Michigan and in other states, the federal government will set one up on their behalf. If they pull it off and are successful, this is one more solid step toward a national single-payer health care system, a move that would lower everybody’s health care costs and help us to join the ranks of countries that spend less and deliver better health care to their citizens.

[Photo credit: Chris Savage | Eclectablog]

What we REALLY need is an “OFM” — Organizing for Michigan

A LITTLE HISTORY
My involvement with Obama for America/Organizing for America/OFA goes back to the spring of 2008. From the very first meeting with local Obama fellows leading up to the house meeting we held in our living room later that month, I was fully “in”. I assumed a leadership position quickly and both Anne and I spent every available minute from then on working to organize locally to elect Senator Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

Because of my involvement, I was invited to the first “Legacy Conference”, a two-day conference with 100 Regional Field Directors, 100 Field Organizers and 100 grassroots volunteers (or “super vols” as they called us), put together to help chart the future of OFA as it transitioned from a presidential campaign to its next phase. I, along with my organizing partner in crime and close friend Tad Wysor, continued to stay organized locally. An organizational meeting we had in Dexter where we live was written up by the Boston Globe who even featured a picture of Anne on the front page. We held a training right before Christmas at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti that featured Ponsella Hardaway from the MOSES group in Detroit and Mike Kruglik, a Gamaliel Foundation organizer from Chicago who was the person who hired Barack Obama to organize on the city’s south side when he was fresh out of college.

AFTER THE 2008 ELECTION
Throughout the spring of 2009 and into the summer when OFA finally got back on its feet our local network was still functioning and actually doing things. We fit right in with OFA’s new goal of helping President Obama enact his agenda. We worked to ensure passage of the Stimulus and, most importantly, getting health insurance reform passed, along with other things along the way including the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

When the 2010 midterms came around, although we had far less resources since it was a non-presidential elections, we still worked hard to get out the vote and I, as the volunteer coordinator (aka “regional lead”) in Ann Arbor, worked with volunteers all across the area on what turned out to be a bloodbath for Democrats at the polls. Shortly after that election, Tad and I were elected as co-Vice Chairs for Precinct Organizing for the Washtenaw County Democratic Party (WCDP.)

I continued to work for OFA as a volunteer leader through about 2011 when my blog and my work with the WCDP began to take up all of my spare time.

I tell this story because it shows just how important OFA has been to me over the past five years.

OFA 3.0
OFA has now transitioned into a new organization, Organizing for Action. A 501(c)(4) group, they will no longer be able to work for candidates and part of what OFA volunteers will be doing is raising funds since they won’t have the luxury of a presidential campaign to do that for them. They will be focusing primarily on national issues and helping President Obama continue to get his agenda passed in Congress. One of the things they have done that has angered many Democrats across the country is to shut down their version of the Voter Action Network or “The VAN”. Although the VAN is used by Democrats all over the America, the OFA version of the VAN was a souped-up version that benefited from all of the data entered by OFA volunteers from 2008 through the 2012 election. That data is now in the possession of OFA who have chosen not to share it with state Democratic parties but will, instead, use the lists of names and addresses and volunteer IDs and volunteer history for their national efforts.

The state Democratic leaders are in some ways quite justified in being angry that OFA has left town with the data. However, it’s also fair to say that this data was never theirs to begin with. It’s also true that they weren’t exactly shooting the lights out in terms of grassroots organizing before OFA came into town. In other words, they haven’t lost much because, frankly, they never really had much.

The OFA model, with their monster database that allowed them to microtarget voters with emails, phone calls, mailings and all manner of voter contacts, has set a path for our party. Over the last year I attended both the Netroots Nation and RootsCamp conferences and a significant proportion of the sessions were on the smart use of data and transferring the national OFA model to the state and local level. Organizers around the country are working hard to apply the lessons that OFA has taught us to all manner of political organizing.

Not only that, OFA has left behind a corps of trained grassroots organizers, organizers that, if they are provided with the right tools, can accomplish miraculous things, things that counter the incredible influx of money that our Republican opponents spend every election cycle to influence voters, especially since the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

Unfortunately, state parties are a disadvantage when it comes to harnessing that organizing potential. They don’t have the lists and the information about these local organizers because OFA has them. Additionally, they will now be competing with OFA for volunteers; OFA asking folks to work on national agenda items to help the president and state parties (as well as other progressive groups) reaching out to them to work on state issues. So, while what OFA did has angered many Democrats, it has also forced them to up their game to be competitive for these volunteers. If they don’t offer something compelling to interest grassroots activists, those activists will take their knowledge and networks and training to groups that do. One impressive sign that this is already happening is that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has, for the first time, hired a national field organizer.

WHY I WON’T BE WORKING WITH OFA ANY LONGER
Here in Michigan and in other states that are majority Democrats but run by Republicans, we simply do not have the luxury of working with OFA on national issues. Don’t get me wrong: I still support and endorse OFA 100%. It’s just that, while I would love to be working on avoiding the devastating sequestration cuts or ensuring that sensible gun control legislation gets passed, we have much more important issues to be working on in our state. From now until Election Day in November 2014, our single-minded focus must be on electing Democrats at every level. We have no other priority. We control nothing in our state:

• Governor
• Lt. Governor
• Attorney General
• Secretary of State
• House of Representatives
• Senate
• Supreme Court
• Court of Appeals

At every level of our government, Republicans are in control and this is despite that fact that we voted for Obama by a 9-point margin and Senator Stabenow by a 20+-point margin. We have to fight back against the gerrymandering and the potent impact of huge amounts of money being spent by corporations and wealthy individuals with a severely right wing, pro-Big Business agenda that is working to crush unions, privatize our public services, and roll back gains made in civil rights and women’s rights, particularly women’s access to safe and legal abortions. Every single thing we do between now and November 4, 2014 must be geared toward executing the biggest midterm election GOTV operation ever seen in this state. Between now and then, we will use issue organizing and everything else at our disposal to assemble our teams and networks and to rebuild the VAN database in a way that will benefit our state and that will STAY in our state.

My wife and I have taken to calling it “Organizing for Michigan”.

Because we have access to the VAN through the Michigan Democratic Party and we have local organization already in place through our County Parties, we are already partly down the road to accomplishing this. Couple that with the fact that many local groups are still organized and still organizing, much like Tad and I did in late 2008 and beyond, and we have a powerful nucleus from which to build from and to organize our state into the future.

So, while I love and admire and respect OFA and all they are doing, until we can regain control of our state from the drunk-with-power, conservative Republican ideologues that have seized control, we just don’t have the luxury of working with them right now. I look forward to the day when we do.

If you are in Michigan and want to stay active, please consider reaching out to your local Democratic County Party organizers and find out how you can play a role in organizing locally. If you are in the Washtenaw County area, please give me a call.

The time for ACTION is NOW!

Last week, I wrote about the new website TheAction.org, a new organizing tool to help pass President Obama’s second term agenda. This weekend marks the first Day of Action using this organizing tool. The activities are designed to ensure that Congress passes a repeal of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest 2% of Americans while preserving the middle class tax cuts that actually help stimulate our economy by keeping money in the hands of those who will immediately put it back into the economy.

In Michigan, we have three events:

4th Congressional District
Rally outside of Congressman David Camp’s Midland office. This rally will be in support of the Middle Class, asking Dave Camp, “Who pays?” the middle class or millionaires. The address for his office is

Location:135 Ashman Street Midland, Michigan 48640, Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 180
Time: 3:00 p.m.
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/346

6th Congressional District
Rally outside of Congressman Fred Upton’s Kalamazoo office. Same theme as above.

Location: 157 S. Kalamazoo Mall Ste. 180, Kalamazoo, MI 49007.
Time: 3:00 p.m.
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/356

7th Congressional District
Congressman Tim Walberg’s Jackson Office- We will be calling Congressman Walberg’s office and leaving voicemails asking him to support ending the Bush tax cuts for Millionaires. The theme for the entire day is Middle Class vs. Millionaires and each event will reflect that. We will have a few speakers doing a short presentation but the main focus will be on taking action by calling Rep. Walberg. No experience is necessary we will have scripts and instructions ready.

Location: 800 W. Ganson St., Jackson, MI 49202
Time: Noon
RSVP: http://find.theaction.org/events/rsvp/366

There are similar events planned all around the country. Go to TheAction.org and click on the “Events” link to find one in your area. The events are all sponsored by the Action. In Michigan, they are working with many other organizations including Working America, Michigan Citizen Action, and the Americans for Tax Fairness coalition.

Respect, empower, and include. Repeat.

With another successful Obama election behind us, those who were involved with Obama for America (OFA) at the grassroots level are likely wondering, “What’s next?” After his first election, it wasn’t until the summer of 2009 that OFA 2.0, aka “Organizing for America” came into being. I was privileged to be chosen to attend a 300-person debriefing conference about a month after election, dubbed “The Legacy Conference” where those of us who were deeply involved in the campaign got together to discuss OFA’s future. Within 9 months, we knew what that was going to look like.

There was a stark contrast between the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaigns. In my area, Washtenaw County, we had around a dozen staff people in 2008. Even after the McCain campaign bailed on Michigan, we still had around six paid people working in our area.

This year, we had two. These two people accomplished what it took upwards of 12 to do in 2008. Why? It was the continuance of the grassroots organization that allowed the Obama campaign to be more efficient and to rely more on local volunteer leaders who had been trained over the previous four years. I’ve written about Alaina, the young woman who ran the downtown Ann Arbor Kerrytown GOTV operation. She worked full time for several months for OFA and was never paid a dime. She did it because she was committed and empowered.

During the time between elections, the OFA volunteer organization helped put pressure on Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act, to pass the Stimulus, and to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. All of the same organizing techniques we used during the election were brought to bear on these issues: canvassing, phonebanking and face-to-face conversations with our friends, neighbors and co-workers.

The same process for shaping the future of OFA is again underway. If you haven’t already, be sure to take the OFA survey which you can find HERE.

This survey will help guide OFA’s decision process. Obama campaign manager Jim Messina describes what they are doing here in this interview with Politico:

Another way to get involved is to hook up with TheAction.org. After the election, President Obama held a conference call with volunteers across the country. During that call, we learned that we can all stay involved NOW (unlike in 2008 when things went quiet for 9-10 months) by connecting with this site. Their current focus is on repealing the Bush tax cuts for millionaires.

If you missed the call, you can listen to it HERE:

Barack Obama is not done yet but already he has left a legacy behind him: tens of thousands of people all across the country, trained in community organizing skills, motivated by success and fueled by a thirst for real change in which they have a significant role to play.

I’m in. How about you?

We’re not getting Obama on the ballot until Malia is ready

2012 was extraordinarily important election because it decided whether ObamaCare would be maimed before it could even go into effect. However, whether the law gets funded and properly will be a constant question because of an election too many Americans just skipped—2010.

Republicans got about 500,000 fewer votes for the House of Representatives than Democrats but they kept their huge majority and they’ll likely keep it until 2020 for one reason: Republicans came out in massive numbers in 2010. This gave them the power to gerrymander districts so they can’t lose—creating an electoral map that virtually guarantees Republican control of the House for a decade.

Slate’s Dave Weigel points out that the President won Pennsylvania by 5 percent, but Republicans still held 8 of the 13 congressional seats.

This means the president will never fully be able to implement his agenda—unless 2014 turns out to be an even bigger landslide for Democrats. It also means the only people that most of the Republicans in the House ever have to answer to will be primary voters.

Todd Akin, for instance, couldn’t win a Senate seat but he was elected to the House ten times. So what we’ll see if Republicans dare to compromise are even more extreme candidates coming out of contested primaries.

In Michigan, Democrats picked up 5 seats in the state House but, with only 4,000 more votes, the House would be tied 55-55.

The margins in 2014 will be tiny compared to 2012 and the GOP knows that the few groups they haven’t alienated—white people in their 50s, 60s AND 70s—are the ones that are most likely to show up at the polls. And while Citizens United and outside didn’t affect this election much, dark money groups like Americans For Prosperity dominated in 2010.

OFA is likely going away. Unless we start organizing now with a positive agenda—public option, anyone?—we’re guaranteeing that Republicans will dominate state and local politics in most states while being encouraged to obstruct the president every chance they get.

If we let that happen, what have we won?

Every little bit helps

In our Obama campaign office in downtown Ann Arbor, we have the fairly typical crew of folks. There’s me, the Canvass Captain, and my Deputy Canvass Captain Jennifer who does as much or more than I do.

We have Kate who somehow manages to keep all of our canvass packets and canvassers organized so that she can report the numbers and so we can make sure everyone gets back safely.

There’s Randy, our Phonebank Captain, who is assisted by Kathy and keeps our steady flow of phonebankers trained and busy, and who manages to stay sane and calm when the predictive dialers are fussy. Thankfully, he’s also an expert in laser printer surgery.

We have Jeanette who is our gatekeeper at the front desk, making sure nobody gets by without being welcomed and then asked if they are volunteering for canvassing or phonebanking.

There’s Etta, our intrepid Comfort Captain, who keeps the coffee fresh and all of our volunteer staff fed along with our volunteers.

And then, of course, we have Alaina, our Staging Location Director. Alaina is doing the work of a staff person and gets paid only in smiles, headaches and the deep satisfaction that she has made a huge contribution to something she believes in strongly. She keeps us all focused and calm and determined and she does it with a big smile. All the time.

This is the normal contingent of volunteers that you’ll see at pretty much any Obama Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Staging Location across the country today. But our office has one more person that not every location is blessed to have.

We have Bette.

Bette is in her 70s, an African American woman who grew up in Washington, D.C. She wasn’t involved in the 2008 election but, this year, she comes down to the office every day during GOTV. Sometimes she brings us some snacks or other food. Sometimes she does small jobs around the office like highlighting our shift times on the volunteer sign-up sheets.

And sometimes Bette just sits quietly in chair near the middle of the room, out of the way but clearly present, doing “nothing”.

But Bette isn’t doing “nothing”. Bette is praying. Bette comes to our office every day of GOTV and prays for us. She prays that our volunteers are successful and safe. She prays that things go smoothly. She prays that we prevail and reelect Barack Obama.

Bette is our self-appointed Prayer Captain.

Got some extra time today after you vote? Then DO SOMETHING! Don’t know what to do? Go to http://barackobama.com/do-something and we’ll get you started. Every little bit helps.

Just ask Bette.

P.S. If you need to confirm WHERE you’re voting (and you should), click HERE.

Feed and supply the troops!

In my piece yesterday “Get Out the Vote (GOTV) – Ann Arbor-style“, I mentioned how a couple stopped by our Obama campaign office with a box of Bunny Grahams and thanked us for what we were doing. It was a small gesture but it really perked us up and put smiles on everyone’s faces.

My wife has had some trouble with her back that has kept her from knocking doors. But, she wanted to do something so she packaged up a bunch of her Obama photomosaic posters and sent them to Obama offices all around Ohio to sell to raise funds for their office or to give to volunteers that are going above and beyond the call of duty.

It’s completely in line with the title of the poster “Forward Together” and for Anne’s motivation for creating the image in the first place.

What she didn’t expect was to get an email like this:

Anne,

Today we received your poster made up of all the rally faces for President Obama. I’ll say that being from MI myself, it gave me the uplift I needed today. I’m a Field Organizer in Montgomery County which is one of the counties that decided Ohio in 2008 and in turn will decide Ohio in 8 days. We work hard down here and when things happen like this…it really is uplifting to all of the staff in this office and me especially since I feel like someone from home appreciates what we are doing down here. I can’t think you enough for this gift for the office it’s definitely an amazing work and would love to commend you what you’ve done. We will continue to work hard down here to make sure that we have another 4 years of surging forward!!!

Thank you so much!

So, are you someone who can’t do the door-to-door thing? Hate talking on phones? How about finding a local office or two and bringing down some food or drinks this weekend? Most office have “Comfort Captains” who are in charge of the food and drink but, to be honest with you, most GOTV teams are so focused on getting their turfs cut, their walk lists created, their call lists in order, their data entered, the volunteers recruited and their shifts filled that the role of Comfort Captain is often over looked.

What do folks want? A variety of things. A crockpot of soup. Some quick healthy snacks you can stick in your pocket. A veggie plate, maybe some hummus. Make it compact and not complicated to eat. Make it self-contained (for example, if you bring soup, make sure to provide bowls and spoons, too.) Make it healthy and nutritious. Make it fun! I’ve seen photos of Obama cakes and cookies and fruit trays decorated with Obama pins. Use your imagination.

You can coordinate your donation with the office ahead of time to see what they need or you can just drop by and surprise them. If you don’t know where your local office is and how to contact them, you can find that information by clicking HERE.

Not everyone can go out and knock doors or make calls (though we’ll try to encourage you to do that.) But most of us can do a little something to fortify those who can. To feed them. To make sure they have something nice to drink. Or something to lift their spirits.

That’s how we get it done: Forward Together.

That’s the way it’s done, kids

In downtown Ann Arbor, tucked into Braun Court in Kerrytown, sits one of two area offices for the Obama campaign. We’re right across from the Farmer’s Market and surrounded by some of the coolest stores and eateries in the city, so we get a lot of foot traffic going by while we do our work to get out the vote (GOTV) for President Obama, Democrats in general and the variety of ballot proposals that Michiganders have to vote on this year.

The Kerrytown office is one of several GOTV staging locations in Washtenaw County and we are surpassing our goals on all fronts.

As folks come into our office, they are immediately greeted by one of our intrepid volunteers. “Are you here to canvass or phonebank?” they are quickly asked.

Often the response is, “Neither, actually. I was just walking by and thought I stop in to see what was going on. Can I get a yard sign?”

“Yes, you can!” is the standard response. “All you have to do is volunteer for a two-hour shift making calls or knocking on doors. Would you like to do it now or come back later?”

Yeah, we have signs. But you have to earn them!

How effective is our little office? This past weekend, for our second dry run before the final GOTV weekend, we had over 70 people canvassing, knocked close to 2,000 doors and made even more phone calls.

That’s just one of three staging locations in our area and that’s just practicing. Next weekend, we get serious.

Here’s what our phonebanking area looks like.

President Obama keeps an eye on Kerrytown phonebankers

While we were working yesterday, Dean of the House Congressman John Dingell and his wife Debbie stopped by to cheer on our volunteers.

l-r, Office Manager Jeanette, Phonebank Captain Randy, Congressman Dingell, Deputy Canvass Coordinator Jennifer and two Ann Arbor volunteers

We’ve had some fun stories over the past couple of weeks. One person our office manager Jeanette talked to during a volunteer recruitment call said, “Hmmm… let me check my schedule. I’m pretty sure I have some free time after Thanksgiving.” [facepalm]

Saturday night we were finishing up cleaning up our canvass packs and getting ready for Sunday morning when a young couple stopped by. “Can we help you?” they were asked? “Would you like to sign up to volunteer?”

“No,” they said. “But we saw you working late so we brought you Bunny Grahams. Thanks for all you are doing.” And, with that, they left us a box of tasty snacks, waved and walked off into the night, leaving us all grinning and laughing (and snacking.)

This is how it is done. This is how you fight back against money and negative ads and lies and lies and lies. Person-to-person contact with your neighbors, making sure they are planning to vote and that they have the facts on President Obama’s accomplishments and about Democrats up and down the ticket.

From now until Election Day, we’re going to contact as many Democrats as we can identify to urge them to vote. On Election Day itself, we will chase down each and every one of those votes, even if we have to knock on people’s doors twice or even three times. Democrats have the numbers but sometimes they just need that extra nudge to get to the polls and OFA is providing that nudge like you’ve never seen.

Next weekend is it, folks. It’s time to stop talking about the polls and the lies. It’s time to GOTV. Contact your local OFA office and find out how YOU can get involved. Vote early, take a vacation day on November 6th, and help us crank up Democratic turnout to “11″. Need to find your local office? Click HERE.

Fired up and ready to go!

P.S. If you are in Michigan, don’t forget to share the Eclectablog 2012 Voters Guide with everyone you know. You can find it HERE.

UPDATE: The importance of our volunteer GOTV effort grew this morning with this announcement from the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Additional Changes to the President’s Travel Today
Due to deteriorating weather conditions in the Washington, DC area, the President will not attend today’s campaign event in Orlando, Florida. The President will return to the White House to monitor the preparations for and early response to Hurricane Sandy.

And then, just a short time ago, this one, as well:

Statement from the Press Secretary on the President’s Tuesday Schedule
The President will no longer travel to Green Bay, WI tomorrow for a campaign event, so that he can stay in Washington, DC on Tuesday and closely monitor the impact of and response to Hurricane Sandy. As he said at FEMA HQ yesterday, the President has instructed his team to make sure that needed federal resources are in place to support state and local recovery efforts. Additional details about the President’s schedule will be announced as soon as they are available.

President Obama is going to be a bit busy this week, doing his job and making sure that our East Coast friends are getting all the support they need as Hurricane Sandy batters them. While he’s busy and kept from campaigning, we need to take up the slack.

Fired up! Ready to go!

We’ve spent a LOT of time talking about this election but now it’s time to take our conversation to the streets and Get Out The Vote (GOTV)!

A recent Gallup poll showed that President Obama is UP over Mitt Romney among registered voters. But, here’s the thing: he’s DOWN by several points among likely voters. That’s where YOU come in. The fact is, if we get our Democratic-supporting voters to the polls, we win. Period. And we don’t just re-elect President Obama. We ensure our Democratic candidates up and down the ticket a victory, too.

The best bang for your buck in terms of GOTV is the Obama for America (OFA) campaign. Starting this weekend, all across the country, OFA is doing “dry runs” for their final four-day GOTV push. There are shifts the next two Saturdays and Sundays, most starting at 10:00 a.m. with the last shift at 6:00 p.m. (this may vary from place to place, of course.)

They will be doing both phonebanking and the more impactful canvassing (door knocking.) What we need from you is to sign up for as many shifts over the next two weekends to ensure this is a success. The OFA GOTV ground game is unparalleled and is what will ensure our success on November 6th. It’s how we overcome massive expenditures by corporate interests that are trying to influence our elections.

Contact your local OFA office TODAY and get involved. If you don’t know how to reach them, try contacting your local county Democratic Party. Or, click HERE and sign up to volunteer.

Please don’t wait. Our future is at stake.

Thanks.

UPDATE: You can also just “walk in” at OFA offices across the county. If you need to know where the one nearest you is, click HERE. Simply enter your zip code and, viola!, you’ll get the information that you need!

“Forward Together” — a new photomosaic of Barack Obama

Four years ago, I was busy devoting most of my free time knocking on doors and talking to people about the presidential election. At first I was very uncomfortable disturbing folks at their homes to talk about a subject that most would prefer to avoid: politics. Admittedly, it took me a little while to become comfortable with the front porch conversations, but, as soon as I did, there was no stopping me. I loved it. All of it.

In ’08, I also spent some time traveling around Michigan photographing Obama rallies. While Obama spoke to the crowds, I photographed them. I viewed, intimately through my lens, the large diverse crowds while he spoke the words “Yes we can” and shared a message of unity and how together we can bring about change.

I think Jonah Sachs outlines Obama’s message in ’08 best in a recent article. He wrote,

Obama’s words glorified optimism over fear, collective sacrifice over individual greed, and engaged citizenship over prepackaged, convenient solutions. My social network wouldn’t have been weeping if Obama had been addressing us as a mass of passive children needing to be coddled and directed. He touched a nerve with an empowering message highlighting our boundless ability to mature and transcend.

As I walked door-to-door four years ago, I thought much about how I should talk to people about Barack Obama and the election. I was worried that if I didn’t know everything there was about the subjects surrounding the election that I would fall short. I was concerned that if I didn’t have all the facts then I wouldn’t be able to defend my support for Obama. What I came to learn was that the details didn’t change people’s minds or empower. My most successful conversations were with people who talked about their issues and concerns. I helped them to connect their lives to the election, hoping they would feel more engaged and would, in turn, vote. Those conversations were the ones that empowered people. Each night when I returned home from knocking on doors, I knew that I was part of something very big. I was beginning to feel very much a part of the “we” in “Yes we can”.

The Republican National Committee put out an ad for the 2012 election where they show snippets of Barack Obama speaking in 2008 and repeating a lot of the same phrases in his speeches this year. He says in this video, “It’s time to realize we are all in this together” and “America is a place where you can make it if you try”. He says, “because I believe in you” and “your hopes”, “your dreams”, “knock on doors with me” and “If you are willing to work with me then I promise you change will come.” The video ends with the phrase, “Are you better off?” and it made me laugh because the message I got from the video was that this election is about us and that we should be part of it, just like it was in the last election. These are not words special to one election, they are words that should be spoken at every election to remind of our power in this process.

Barack Obama said in a campaign speech last week:

Somebody asked me ‘What lesson have you learned after four years?’ and I said I’ve learned that change doesn’t just happen from the inside.  Change happens from the outside.  My opponent got very excited.  He thought, well, he’s waving the white flag, he’s giving up on change. I had to explain it, you haven’t been paying attention.
 
“I said that — I say that now; I said that in ’08.  The whole point of our campaign the first time around was this belief, this profound belief in the decency and the goodness and the common sense of the American people, and the notion that change doesn’t start in Washington, it starts with them.  And everything we’ve been able to do is because they have empowered me to do it, or they have pushed Congress to do it.  But that’s who I bet on.  That’s who I’ve got faith in.  That’s who I have confidence in.

I hear different versions of the phrase “this election is a choice between two very different visions” from both candidates in almost every speech. Of all the differences in the two campaigns, I would argue that the biggest and most important difference is how they view the American people.

Romney is running a “just trust me” campaign devoid of details and, at its heart, the message that HE knows best, not us. This message was reiterated through his statement about the 47% of Americans he says refuse to take personal responsibility for their lives. It is clear that he does not trust the American people to decide for themselves.

On the other hand, we have President Obama. His message is one about moving forward with the changes he has been talking about since before he became president on issues like equality, the environment, stronger economy, better education and energy independence. These changes are not like flipping a switch, they are ongoing.

Most importantly, Obama is running a “I believe in you” campaign. He trusts that we can make the right decisions for our lives. He, unlike Romney, believes that we not only take can care of ourselves, many of us — our teachers, firemen, police officers, nurses and soldiers — go beyond that and take care of others. He recognizes our differences but knows that we all want the same things in life: fairness, opportunity, and happiness.

President Obama reminds us, every time he speaks, that he can’t move this country forward by himself, but together we can. This is what inspired the my most recent photomosaic “Forward Together, Faces from 2012 Obama Rallies.” It is compiled of over 6,000 faces from Obama rallies over the last year. Each face, like the main image of the president, is facing forward to signify our collective desire to continue moving forward with change.

I am donating 50% of the profits from poster sales to the reelection of Barack Obama between now and October 21. Consider buying a poster and help me raise money for this election. Click HERE to see the individual faces up close and to see the mosaic I created in 2008, “Out of Many we are one”. To purchase either of the posters or as a set click HERE.