Andrea's Op-Eds

President Obama’s wired for activism at grassroots

By Andrea Silbert  |   Tuesday, February 10, 2009

President Barack Obama faces a minefield of challenges both domestic and international, but he also has a tool in his arsenal that no other leader in history has enjoyed: a direct line of communication to 13 million online supporters.

Obama should call upon his network of supporters to launch a nonpartisan campaign to build an all-hands-on-deck community of caring at the local level assisting needy citizens through the economic crisis. He should make it clear that increased government spending in the form of the stimulus and new programs will provide a necessary basis for improving the lives of America’s poor. Yet government investment must be supplemented by citizen action.

So far, Obama has charted a promising path. Just before Labor Day, as Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Gulf Coast, he directed his campaign to e-mail and text message supporters with a plea to donate to the Red Cross. In November, he did the same for the raging California wildfires, and, just last month, he issued a call for Americans to participate in a National Day of Service on Martin Luther King Day.

These actions are a start but serve merely as a launching point for a much larger and organized campaign aimed at involving this massive list of supporters.

The pressure to turn the Obama e-mail list into a Democratic cash cow will be intense - after all, his backers helped raise a record-breaking half billion dollars online. And there’s an undeniable appeal to swaying wayward legislators with a direct appeal to their constituents. But for the good of the country - to help us become the nation Obama told us we could be - now is the time to put aside partisan considerations.

Imagine the impact that $500 million and millions of hours of volunteer time would have at the neighborhood level in our food pantries, child-care agencies, schools and health centers.

The Obama campaign aroused deep passion in many Americans, and turned that commitment into action with state-of-the-art technology, connecting voters with their neighbors. The same can be done to create an ongoing campaign to help our fellow citizens, harnessing the energy of Obama’s supporters and reaching out to those who did not vote for him at a time when we truly need to come together as Americans. The Web site Obama’s Inaugural Committee rolled out for the National Day of Service was a positive start, linking people directly to worthy nonprofits in their communities and showing them exactly how to get involved. Yet Obama needs to add an overarching goal and call to action to truly leverage this community.

Obama has a unique moment in time to rebuild our government and to reshape our society into one where people truly take care of their neighbors. This, coupled with the power of mass communication, creates an unprecedented chance to mobilize America on so many levels. As one of his 13 million online supporters, I welcome that call.

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See this article in the Boston Herald.

 

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