Pre-party formations

Our leaders or, if you will, politicians like to talk about hearing the voice of the people, and activist groups of all sorts yearn for a movement of masses to effect needed change. But glib phrases and wishful thinking do not a democracy make; it isn’t easy to mobilize people in any meaningful way.

I attended a post-campaign powwow of the Obama folks last night in a private home, one of thousands apparently taking place around the country. Those of us receiving invitations had either worked for or given money to Obama, and the first 90 minutes were taken up with a round of introductions that turned into mini-speeches about the issues closest to our hearts (or pocketbooks).

My conclave took place in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so it was professional, largely though not exclusively Caucasian, and late-middle-aged. Nothing wrong with that, and the personal histories were illuminating and varied. The whole thing had a bit of an air of a 12-step meeting, and when each person started off by saying, ‘I’m Charlene’, you half-expected them to add, ‘And I’m an alcoholic’ so that the rest of us could chime in, ‘Hi Charlene!’

And therein lie both the charming potential and tricky weakness of this exercise. Concern and a willingness to pitch in arise periodically among just about every collection of bipeds, and it’s exciting to get together and mull over what could or should be done. But someone has to synthesize the opinions and gauge the strengths of the group, come up with a realistic action plan and manage the myriad complications of actually organizing the next steps, especially when it comes to finding the person-hours necessary for something more than a political cri de coeur.

All of which should logically be handled by, um, a political party—like maybe the Democratic one? It’s a curious sign of the times and the alienation most of us feel toward the eviscerated Democratic establishment run by the nobles of finance and industry and a few connected mega-interest-group elites that Obama’s camp feels the need to generate a parallel structure from within its own campaign. Good for him/them, and I’m in for now to see if it works and also to see how long it takes for it to clash with the previous one.