For connoisseurs, Barack Obama's fundraising emails for the 2012
election campaign seem just a tad forlorn -- slightly limp reminders of
the last time round.
Four years ago at this time, the early
adopters among us were just starting to get used to the regular flow of
email from the Obama campaign. The missives were actually exciting to
get, because they seemed less like appeals for money than a chance to
join a movement.
Sometimes they came with inspirational videos
from Camp Obama, especially the volunteer training sessions staged by
organizing guru Marshall Ganz. Here's a favorite of mine, where a woman
invokes Bobby Kennedy and Cesar Chavez and says that, as the weekend
went on, she "felt her heart softening," her cynicism "melting," her
determination building. I remember that feeling, and I remember clicking
time and again to send another $50 off to fund that people-powered
mission. (And I recall knocking on a lot of New Hampshire doors, too,
with my 14-year-old daughter.)
It's no wonder, then, that I'm
still on the email list. But I haven't been clicking through this time.
Not even when Barack Obama himself asked me to "donate $75 or more today
to be automatically entered for a chance to join me for dinner." Not
even when campaign manager Jim Messina pointed out that, though "the
president has very little time to spend on anything related to the
campaign ... this is how he chooses to spend it -- having real, substantive
conversations with people like you" over the dinner you might just win.
(And if you do win, you'll be put on a plane to "Washington, or
Chicago, or wherever he might be that day.")
Broken promises
Here's the thing I'm starting
to think Obama never understood: For most of us the 2008 campaign was
partly about him, but it was more about the campaign itself -- about the
sudden feeling of power that gripped a web-enabled populace, who felt
themselves able to really, truly hope. Hope that maybe they'd found a
candidate who would escape the tried-and-true money corruption of
Washington.
None of us gave $50 hoping for a favor. Quite the
opposite. You gave $50 hoping that, for the first time in a long while
in American politics, no one would get a favor. And the candidate, it
must be said, led us on. His rhetorical flights were dazzling -- to
environmentalists like me, he promised to "free this nation from the
tyranny of oil once and for all," and pledged that his administration
would mark the moment when "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our
planet began to heal."
Once in office, it was inevitable that
he'd disappoint us to some degree. In fact, we knew the disappointment
would come and braced ourselves for it. After all, our movement was up
against the staggering power of vested corporate and financial
interests. It's hard to beat big money. Still, we didn't mind thinking:
Yes, we can. We'll work hard. We've got your back. Let's go!
What
we completely missed was that Obama didn't want us at his back -- that
the minute the campaign was over he would cut us adrift, jettison the
movement that had brought him to power. Instead of using all those
millions of people to force through ambitious health-care proposals or
serious climate legislation or (fill in the blank yourself here), he
governed as the opposite of a movement candidate.
He clearly had
not the slightest interest in keeping that network activated and
engaged. Though we had brought him to the party, it was as if he didn't
really want to dance with us. Instead -- however painful the image may be
-- he wanted to dance with Larry Summers. (Fundraising idea: I'd pay $75
to be assured I never had to have dinner with Summers.)
As the
months of his administration rolled into years, he only seemed to grow
less interested in movements of any sort. Before long, people like Tom
Donahue, president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, were topping
the list of the most frequent visitors to the White House. And that was
before this winter when -- after they'd been the biggest contributors to
GOP congressional candidates -- Obama went on bended knee to Chamber
headquarters, apologizing that he hadn't brought a fruitcake along as a
gift. (What is it with this guy and food? At any rate, he soon gave
them a far better present, hiring former Chamber insider Bill Daley as
his chief of staff.)
New strategies
Now, with his popularity
tanking, Obama and his advisors talk about "tacking left" for the
election. A nice thought, but maybe just a little late.
Increasingly, it seems to me, those of us who were ready to move with him four years ago are deciding to leave normal channels and find new forms of action. Here's an example: by year's end the president has said he will make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. The nation's top climate scientists sent the administration a letter indicating that such a development would be disastrous for the climate.
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