Ari Melber has been doing the reporting:
Protesters are storming Barack Obama's website. But they all support Obama.
A grassroots group of activists has been organizing on MyBo, Obama's official social networking portal, to protest the Senator's recent decision to back controversial legislation granting the President more spying powers. The effort hit a big milestone on Tuesday afternoon: It is now the largest self-organized group on Obama's website, topping networks that were launched over a year ago. The spying protest, "Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right," launched last week. (See Obama Network Organizes and Revolts Over Spying, The Nation.)
Membership spiked to about 8,900 people on Tuesday, edging out a student group with roughly 8,600 members, and one organizer estimated that the growth rate reached a rapid four percent during the daytime.
It's over 10,000 now.
Jeff Jarvis had some good thoughts on the effort:
I've argued since Howard Dean's run in 2004 that campaigns aren't or can't really be bottom-up when it comes to policy. They are necessarily propagandistic: This is what the candidate says. Indeed, Dean's supporters acted like white blood cells in his blog discussions quite effectively surrounding and strangling dissent and opponents in the bloodstream. That's the way campaigns have to work if you're going to decide what this guy stands for and whether to vote for him, right? It's about the message, no?
... I find two things fascinating about this: First, we are beginning to see a campaign built openly on coalitions. Even though I disagree with them, I am happy to see the anti-immunity lobby crack the monolithic, glassy-eyed facade of the Obama fan club (the sort of people who yell at me in my comments and tell me I'm not allowed to disagree with him about anything). Thank goodness we see disagreement and discussion -- democracy -- inside a campaign. I believe the greatest impact the internet will have on politics will be that it enables like-minded groups to find each other and organize apart from old organizations and labels (red, blue, Republican, Democrat); we will organize around issues and priorities rather than parties. See the comments under this post.
Second, I wonder what these self-organizing groups will look like when they get into power. The Deaniacs and Joe Trippi made valiant attempts to stay organized after their campaign melted but that didn't work. If Obama gets into the White House, though, will his supporters at MyBarackObama continue to use these tools to influence him and government? And will he have to listen because he is beholden to them?
What I find ironic is all of the naysaysers within the comments on the Nation after Ari's post. Belittling, of all things, the numbers. This is a moment that has been a long time in waiting, when the netroots would turn toward organizing effectively within the institutions around which have they have campaigned for heavily, first with Dean in '03 and all the races in-between then and now with Obama in '08. Fundraising and mobilization have happened around campaigns, but the FISA organizing is more powerful and portends the future. This is going to be a clash that continues to happen, between many first-timers, that have been brought into politics through Barack Obama, and those that have been pushing for progressive policies through the netroots over the decade.
Now, I do understand the argument that we need to get power first, getting a strong Democratic trifecta, before the push for progressive reform begins to happen, but the efforts around FISA over the past year point the way, this merely the latest example.
Joe Trippi makes a note in the comments:
Jeff I want to make two points: The Dean campaign did not extend itself for two reasons. 1. Many immediately turned to the 2006 elections and got involved and made a big difference including some major upsets and big wins. Yes people did not "stay" in a "Dean Community" but most helped build the vibrant progressive community we see today. 2. The many of the tools that exist today (including most of the social networking tools that exist today) were either non existent or barely off the ground in 2003. I think it wasn't possible til now - til 2008 for a candidate (or the supporters of a candidate) to build something that would last beyond the campaign. I believe that the next President will stand at the end of the Television Presidency and at the beginning of the Networked Presidency in which the President and the people will connect and work to pass their agenda together, where they can and do agree. Obama could be that President. I stopped being disappointed a long time ago -- if you wait for the perfect candidate its a long long long wait.
It demands a balance, between pressuring for the politicians to walk the talk, and realizing that we have to get them elected in the first place. The dogmatism on both sides of the argument is better off rejected. At the congressional level, what good is it to get rid of a Blue Dog Democrat in a primary that will get replaced by a Republican in the GE? I have no problem with supporting primary challenges against incumbent Democrats by more progressive candidates in CD's where we will win in the GE regardless, but lets be strategic about it. At the presidential level, there was no such push against John Kerry over any of the issues in '04. I'm a bit surprised that Obama is getting challenged from within, but as Trippi points out, it takes having the tools to organize effectively. As pointed out over on
the next right, the dissent from within is a powerful asset for Obama:
Rather than react in accordance with the practices of most campaigns by shutting and muffling dissent Obama is providing dissidents (many of whom are supporters of his) the opportunity to organize on his campaign web-site. When last I looked over 140 opponents of Obama's decision to support FISA have banded together on his site to launch an anti-FISA campaign.
The Obama campaign has made the courageous decision to keep his dissidents under his tent and armed with the tools his campaign can provide to organize. Can you imagine a Bush campaign reacting like this? I can't. But if we are going to campaign effectively on the web we must understand that power resides in the grassroots and the days of autocratic control from above are over.
Now, the real test comes when Obama next speaks/votes on FISA.
