DNC Dispatches: “Respect, Empower, Include”

DNC Dispatches: “Respect, Empower, Include”

Community Organizing and Kandahar

The Obama campaign’s ground game from 2008 has become the stuff of legend. During the final days of the race, it seemed as though the ratio of field organizers to swing state voters was roughly one-to-one. It was impressive to witness the sheer strength of this effort. It was inspiring to see how many students and youth devoted themselves to it. And it was gratifying to find out on Election Day just how effective it was.

The veterans of 2008 are here in 2012. They are a bit older, and they convey an aura of being seasoned, of having been down this road before. For many, the grassroots effort of four years ago was a transformative moment in their lives. It was their gateway to movement culture, and it is fascinating to see how the spirit of ’08 has shaped their decisions in the years since. In some cases, the outcome is startling.

One unexpected story came from a man who was raised on a farm in Pennsylvania. In 2008 he had been a young field organizer near State College, devoting most of his waking hours to the campaign with the zeal and dedication that were common among Obama’s field staff. After the election, he joined the United States Army and was deployed to Afghanistan. In the south of the country, his job is to work with local people, though I didn’t learn from him what that work entails. He did tell me that on the wall of his office on the base, he has hung a sign that reads: “Respect, Empower, Include.” This was the motto of the young Obama field team that he led in central Pennsylvania, and it is the set of ideals that he carries with him—in a radically different context—in Afghanistan.

Mr. Mayor

Svante is the mayor of Ithaca, NY. At twenty-five, he is the second youngest mayor in the United States. He carries two smart phones with him: one for his personal life, and one for Ithaca. In his first term in the mayor’s office, he is learning how to manage 450 city employees, how to pitch public works projects to federal officials, and how to reboot a single twenty-something’s social life in a town where you are now Mr. Mayor.

There are plenty of young folks like Svante running around at the convention. And they are, literally, running around. They are staffers for elected officials and local committee members beginning to establish themselves in their districts. They aspire to run for office and, in some cases, they already have. If political parties were baseball teams, these would be the players learning the game down in Single A. They are four of five levels away from the major league club, but they’re in the pipeline; they’re part of the organization.

What are the experiences today that will shape the political leaders they become tomorrow? During speeches, I sometimes look around the room to find that it is the young people who are listening most intently. The older folks are more often huddled in conversation—they have business to transact. But the young are hearing the words the speakers speak. They are watching. They are imagining what, when the microphone is finally in front of them, they will say.

Michael J. Brown is a graduate student in the department of history at the University of Rochester, where he studies the place of intellectuals in American political culture. He is the founder of Flower City Philosophy, the coordinator of Rochester Educators for Obama, and a New York delegate at the DNC.