As un-sexy as it is to say about the most exciting electoral win in the history of American politics, the Obama win was all about organizing and infrastructure. For several decades, progressive infrastructure has been waning, and we’ve been organizing like it was the 20th century with “fold” rather than “baton” media models and “we-just-need-to-be-louder” broadcast rather than conversational engagement strategies. Yeah, we needed help communicating our values, too. But when it comes down to it, the quantity and quality of organizing and infrastructure is what allowed the Obama campaign to have so much engagement with voters and volunteers.

An engagement marketer named Alan Moore explains how by looking at exit polling and determined that Obama was able to contact 11 million more voters than McCain. (Obama reached 34 million. McCain reached 23 million.) This means that the Obama campaign had contacted one in every four people who voted in this year’s election. Through an incredible field operation that was “disciplined volunteer-driven bottom-up-AND-top-down, distributed and massively scalable organizing campaign”, according to the NY Times, Obama was also able to convert more of his contacts.

The Obama campaign structured this organizing and infrastructure based on engagement strategies of this century not the last. “Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, FDR used radio to change the way he governed, JFK was the first president to understand television, and Howard Dean saw the value of the Web for raising money. But Senator Barak Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.”

Indeed, the field operations that Obama campaign created and ran seem to be completely different than previous efforts. They spent considerable time and resources identifying, recruiting and training volunteers who would identify, recruit and train more volunteers. “We decided that our volunteers would not be measured by the amount of voter contacts that they made in the summer—but instead by the number of volunteers they were recruiting, training and testing,” said one Field Organizer. In doing this, the Obama Campaign amassed an army of volunteers across the country that were able to have millions of conversations with would-be voters on issues of the day, and those millions of conversations are now part of the organizing and infrastructure legacy of this campaign because they imbibed a sense of ownership in the campaign. As the NY Times recently reported, “Now Obama’s 20-month conversation with the electorate enters a new phase. There is a sense of ownership, a kind of possessive entitlement, on the part of the people who worked to elect him.”

Beyond the Obama Phenomenon there was a huge amount of progressive infrastructure being built. In 2004, the Democratic retreat and navel gazing inspired more focus on a state level. Organizers in places such as New Mexico and Michigan (and by the time of the 2008 election in a dozen states) began to focus on building power at a state level. The progressives got together to agree to utilize a single database for voter activation. And more than in previous years and election cycles, a renewed focus on how independent nonprofits and advocacy organizations could play a role in electoral politics, as well as leadership development. The results can be seen in places like New Mexico where a clean sweep has transformed the state from red to solidly blue.

Now what remains to be seen is how will Obama continue to nurture the campaign organizing and infrastructure as he and his team transition into governing? Will he be able to apply his community organizing skills in governing? Reports such as the Obama administration’s intention to put all government contracts online and his indication in his text message to his list that he will “be in touch soon on what’s next make me think he will.

One way that Obama could do this is to set up a Community Outreach position in his administration to liaise with the young people and the nonprofit world that helped him move voters and issues in this election. This position could include a national coordinator in the White House that coordinates “State Ambassadors” who play an active role in maintaining and enhancing the Obama Movement, or what I like to think of as the “Opportunity Movement” (more on this in a later rant).

The second thought is that the progressive movement needs to immediately come together around an issue that will activate and reinforce and connect the Obama + state infrastructure. The ideal for this kind of a campaign would be an issue that has national scope, but is legislated at a state-level; that is connective, meaning that it incorporates multiple issues rather than silos them; and that is not distinctly progressive in nature, but can reach across the divide of partisan politics to, as the Obama field operation was fond of saying “Respect. Empower. Include.” the 46% of the country that voted for McCain.

The issue that stands in my mind as fitting of these needs is Energy, as its policy is decided largely at a state level, it has national and even international implications and consistency, it incorporates economics (think green jobs), environment, and American innovation. We have seen a few wins at a state level (think Missouri’s Prop C). And we might even find that our greatest foes in this battle--corporate lobbyists—might have other worries given the economic collapse. Finally, energy has incredible existing infrastructure to build upon in organizations like the Apollo Alliance, Green for All, 1 Sky, and Energy Action Coalition.

Next, given the economic situation our country finds ourselves in, we also need to immediately prepare our organizations and organizers for lean resources and extraordinary possibility. If enough of us can get together to think this through, I think we can find a sweet spot between what resources we think will be available next year, and the quick and successive waves of opportunity that we are sure to face in the coming 12-24 months.

I tend to think that all of the leadership development we’ve been doing across the country could lead to efficiencies that organizers are not often known for. We need to be able to do more with fewer resources. Again, innovation, collaboration, making connections between organizations and issues, and focusing on proven engagement strategies that will reach people outside of the Moveon.orgs and other established and successful organizations. The best way to find innovation, to inspire collaborations and to make connections is by bringing people, particularly organizers, together.

We also need to make sure that whatever we embark on has cultural relevance, or is framed in a way that it can be carried by the stream of culture. By this I mean that we need to think about issues and campaigns that can tap into our American identity, how we form community, and how we find meaning in our lives. When we do this, we win not just on issues and in election, but we win the hearts and minds of America.

Resources:

Alan Moore’s website


How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks Power

The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game

The Other Winner