A lot of us have wondered how Barack Obama, as president, planned to utilize this enormous grassroots movement that he created over the course of his groundbreaking campaign. I got perhaps the first glimpse of that today, when I opened my inbox and saw an e-mail from David Plouffe (he just can't seem to quit me!). In the e-mail, Plouffe is asking all of us to complete a Supporter Survey to help Obama and his staff answer the question, "Where we go from here." It's an interesting survey, and its shows once again that Obama is going to be a VERY different kind of president.
Part of the survey asked some useful questions about my volunteer experience with the Obama campaign. Obama didn't just ask me the basic questions about the kind of volunteer work I did on the campaign, but he wanted my ideas on how such experiences could be improved in the future. Yes, Obama is all about excellence, isn't he?
The most interesting part of the survey, however, was where he asked for my ideas and feedback on how he can use his grassroots movement when he's president. The survey asked me to rank the importance of the following four goals for the movement:
- Helping Barack's administration pass legislation through grassroots efforts.
- Helping elect state and local candidates who share the same vision for our country.
- Training volunteers in the organizing techniques we used to elect Barack.
- Working on local issues that impact our communities.
These options give us some clues as to where Obama's current thinking is on the future of the movement he helped create, and I find the options intriguing. Imagine, if you will, a president who connects directly with the people of this country to pass legislation unlike anything ever done before. Other presidents have, of course, tried to connect directly to the public to get their legislation passed, but it's been through televised prime-time speeches, media interviews and the like. Obama is talking about something entirely different; something much more personal, immediate and powerful.
I also find it encouraging that Obama is thinking about using the movement in a broader sense beyond just his needs as President. He's thinking about ways to use the movement to continue building and strengthening the Democratic Party by identifying and supporting local candidates, and to help build our local communities. I would expect nothing less from Obama, our future Community Organizer in Chief, but it's still inspiring to see that he envisions using his national movement to impact local issues.
The survey also asked me to identify the issues I'd be interested in organizing around in my own community, and even asked if I'd be interested in running for public office. Wow, imagine the power of being able to identify and bring together those people among his 10 million supporters who are willing to volunteer around environmental issues, LGBT issues, health care issues, etc.
The survey also provides some open space at the end to share your own ideas with Obama of how would you like to see his movement move forward in the months and years ahead.
This is a chance for all of us to share all our great ideas about how we can help Obama move the country forward. It's an easy survey to take, and I encourage everyone to add their two cents. This is how change happens, right before our eyes.
You can take the survey here.