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Over at The Next Right, Gary Andres has a revealing post examining Obama's efforts to sustain grassroots activism during his presidency:
This past Saturday, President Obama formally announced the formation of "Obama for America," an effort to harness and mobilize the millions of activists who worked on his campaign to help advocate for his legislative agenda....It's also a little ironic that a president who consistently criticized the practice of "lobbying" during the campaign is now mobilizing an army of his own grassroots advocates.It's a bit strange -- or, at the least, sort of weirdly literal -- to liken millions of citizen activists interested in e-mailed their congressmen in order to push various issues to DC's collection of highly-paid political mercenaries. It's sort of like saying that lobbyists and voters are both human beings, and Obama says all human beings deserve respect, doesn't he? That said, the piece does contain some interesting reflections on the potential pitfalls of Obamas grassroots strategy. "One of Mr. Obama's biggest challenges will be how to bring these activists into the policymaking process and still retain the kind of flexibility necessary to negotiate with Congress," writes Andres, and he's correct. What separates the grassroots from the lobbyists -- aside from foreclosure rates -- is that the grassroots are there, at least in part, because they believe in issues and solutions. When they have to face down the late-game horsetrading from Obama there'll be inevitable discontent and disillusionment. If the compromises are small, it won't matter much. If they're large, it might matter rather a lot. It's much trickier to anger supports who are paying attenton and who feel that their work and money is powering the process.
