Apparently, Organizing for Action has turned into a big fat failure.
Who would have guessed? Democrats really believed that a bunch of spoiled, screaming razor-blade snowflakes invading town halls and lecturing people about their Western, white privilege was going to be well-received.
These obnoxious organizers are so out of touch with reality. They don't seem to recognize that working men and women of all backgrounds are barely making ends meet.
Most parents–you know, responsible people who care about the future, want to ensure that their kids are safe, that the trains and the buses move on time, and the roads are safe and secure.
Of course, Democrats across the country are pushing a secular utopia in which the government has all the answers, and everyone answers to the state.
That's not a Utopia, by the way.
That's a discredited tyranny, one which has fallen again and again to the denizens of time and truth, of tradition and life.
Friends of mine and well-connected political operatives have been telling me over and over that Organizing for Action is going to make Trump's Presidency one disaster after another. All these young people and old hippies are going to rebel and fight in the streets, demand socialism at all costs, and harass politicians until they do what the protests and the liberal organizers want.
Here are the problems they are facing:
1. Working people have begun to organize, motivated by deeper beliefs and motivations than whatever OFA can offer.
2. The promises for "marriage equality" and Health Care for All has blown up in their faces. Why? Economics. There is not enough of other people's money to spend.
3. The Democratic Party in red states and throughout the country is chaffing under the arrogant stupidity of the whole OFA aggravated agenda.
Chek out what the Daily Beast reported:
Democratic activists and leaders are with Organizing for Action (OFA), the
political and community-organizing army that grew out of Barack Obama’s
presidential campaigns.
parallel-Democratic National Committee, was founded to mobilize Democratic
voters and supporters in defense of President Obama’s, and the Democratic
Party’s, agenda. Instead, the organization has drawn the intense ire, both
public and private, of grassroots organizers and state parties that are
convinced that OFA inadvertently helped decimate Democrats at the state and
local level, while Republicans cemented historic levels of power and Donald J.
Trump actually became leader of the free world.
that OFA “relaunched” itself last week to protect the Affordable Care Act,
boost turnout at congressional townhalls, and train grassroots organizers
gearing up for the Trump era.
Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, wrote in a
private Democratic-listserv email obtained by The Daily Beast. Handwerk was
reacting to news of OFA’s post-election retooling, which was shared “without
comment” to the group of state-level Dems by Crystal Kay Perkins, executive
director for Texas Democrats.
in the past 8 years… all because of this crap,” Handwerk continued. “Let’s get
through the next two weeks—but then we gotta figure this out and keep the
pressure on. WOW.”
among state Democratic Party leadership.
as a shadow party because Obama operatives had no faith in state parties,”
Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb told Politico last week.
for OFA,” South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison (who is also
running to chair the Democratic National Committee) said at a recent DNC
“future forum,” according to The Washington Post.
long been credited with leading a savvy, vigorous grassroots campaign to win
the White House in 2008. However, it wasn’t long after he first stepped into
office before state-level Democrats all around the country began sounding the
alarm that his formidable grassroots army was being left to wither and rot.
President Obama, DNC members were still loudly expressing fear that OFA ran the
risk of denting the national party’s fundraising and (more importantly)
diverting much-needed resources and organizing power.
Obama the worst President in history |
boogeyman. For instance, when reached by The Daily Beast for this story, two
Democratic operatives independently referred to OFA as “The Devil.”
would say OFA hurt state parties badly,” Handwerk told The Daily Beast,
elaborating on his leaked email. “It certainly had an undercutting effort. And
there is a lot of work state parties do that isn’t very sexy… and that becomes
incredibly difficult when budgets are cut in half because people are trying to
curry favor with the president and his allies.”
his personal experiences with OFA weren’t bad, per se—it’s that they were
nonexistent.
for OFA who has been in the role for what I’m told is multiple years—none of us
know who she is,” he said. “She only just followed me on Twitter [four] days
ago. That’s how I know who she is.”
Beast that “I really have not talked with [Handwerk]. I’m sure he’s aware of
us. I’m sure they’re aware of what we’re doing but there doesn’t seem to be an
interest to come together on what we’re working [on].”
as 2013, contended that “we have reached out to the Louisiana Democrat Party
[and] would be more than happy to come together to work on issues… But [as to]
why he doesn’t know what we’re doing, we haven’t been secret. I can’t speak to
that.”
party and OFA, she said she was “not quite aware, but I do know that it
exists.”
that OFA came to town to present Louisiana Dems with a gameplan. The outside
group was purportedly ready to send organizers down south, to help prop up and
“like-minded people” in deep-red areas.
Handwerk said.
saw promises unfulfilled.
lamented. “I have not seen any real evidence of OFA doing any real work,
certainly not here in Louisiana.”
stories. “I was never a fan of OFA,” Marcel Groen, chairman for Pennsylvania
Democrats said, tersely.
up to, the Age of Trump is not, however, any single organization’s fault. The
DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign raised many times more money than OFA for the
2016 cycle, and that didn’t stop President Trump, either.
OFA is just one of several “devils”—one that is emblematic of large-scale
institutional problems.
of permanent state infrastructure,” one red-state Democratic operative, who
requested anonymity, said. “And OFA built an alternative infrastructure that
was very top-down. OFA’s actions were wasteful, duplicative, and it made no
sense… There were these tensions on the ground that we saw that all over the
country. Local officials felt tossed aside. A lot of these red states were
abandoned. The OFA model was never a 50-state strategy—it was about the
president’s agenda.”
rebooted OFA, the operative simply said, “It’s like seeing an ex-girlfriend
show up.”
assessments, and are quick to point to their track record during presidential
races.
nationwide—we’re engaging people who have never been involved before,
connecting them to others in their communities, and empowering them to realize
their own ability to enact change,” Jesse Lehrich, OFA communications director,
told The Daily Beast in an email. “Building this kind of well-trained network of
volunteers who can mobilize to win fights on key issues boosts the progressive
movement in both the short and long term. Just look at Obamacare: OFA
volunteers are organizing with their fellow constituents to ensure lawmakers
hear exactly what’s at stake for them if the law is repealed, and the tide is
rapidly turning.”
level. David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, told The Daily
Beast that the best thing a reeling Democratic Party can do right now is not
censure OFA, but learn from its victories.
organizing—it won states we otherwise would not have won,” Pepper said. “My
attitude is learn everything there is to learn from its incredible successes.
For state parties, we should mimic what made it so strong… However, the
strength of parties has obviously eroded because too much emphasis has been put
on building out other organizations. In some ways, I think OFA becomes
something of a scapegoat for the erosion of state parties.”
treacherous terrain of the Trump years, Obama’s one time grassroots juggernaut
will be right there fighting alongside them. Now, it’s a matter of the group
convincing a host of skeptical progressives that it can still be a worthy ally.
“I don’t know what the mission is with the new
OFA, what the purpose is supposed to be,” Jaime Harrison told The Daily Beast.
“There are a lot of these various [outside] groups… and if having all these
other groups means diminishing the impact of state parties, that’s where I have
a problem. We need to figure out the best path forward. Now, that doesn’t
necessarily mean a world without OFA, but… we have to focus on rebuilding the party
across the board, not just focusing on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
OFA was Obama's baby. They did not care about the state parties. The whole movement was a cult of personality! Of course, Obama refused to prepare a successor for the group.
Now what about Politico? What did they have to report about the broken infighting between the Democratic Party and OFA?
Democratic State Party Leaders: Obama's Organizing For America 'GRADE ABulls***'
At least Politico has slightly better journalistic standards.
Slightly–they did not write the complete word "Bullshit".
high opinion of Barack Obama’s group Organizing for America (OFA). We now know
this because of emails that were leaked, illuminating the contempt the party
leaders had for Obama’s wrecking of their party.
drawn the intense ire, both public and private, of grassroots organizers and
state parties that are convinced that OFA inadvertently helped decimate
Democrats at the state and local level.”
Did I say high journalistic standards? Well, they relied in greater measure on The Daily Beast, for what it's worth …
turnout at congressional townhalls, and train grassroots organizers. NBC News
reported, “OFA has hired 14 field organizers in states home to key senators as
part of its campaign to defend Obama's signature healthcare law . . . OFA is
looking to expand into other issue areas as well, like climate change and gun
control.”
Obamacare cannot be defended. Period. For this reason, Organizing for Action is organizing for failure.
Party, wrote in a private Democratic-listserv email, “This is some GRADE A Bulls***
right here . . . It also to me seems TONE DEAF—we have lost over 1,000 seats in
the past 8 years… all because of this crap. Let’s get through the next two
weeks—but then we gotta figure this out and keep the pressure on. WOW.”
What's interesting, though, is that the Maine Democratic Party leadership shared their concerns, too.
Maine has been a reliably blue state since 1992, but for the first time in its history, a Republican presidential candidate won an electoral vote!
Incredible! For the first time in over nearly 20 years, a Republican Congressman represents the state of Maine, too.
Democrats are losing ground all over, and worse than what Republicans had lost in 2008. Indiana went Democratic, then shifted back to Republican in 2012, and two years before that Republicans dominated the Hoosier State from Top to Bottom!
OFA is DOA for the Democratic Party, and if they don't get these unprincipled activists under control, the DNC will be DOA next!