The End of the Organizing Era

Who does political organizing in America? Well, almost everyone. Political action committees, NGOs, labor unions, and state parties are everywhere. Campaigns are a constant, for the presidency and everything else, so there are always canvassers, mailers, television advertisements, and text messages. Democrats, in particular, enjoy identifying as organizers, and there’s no shortage of human beings claiming the title. When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, he founded Organizing for America, which was intended to ensure the remarkable gains he made that year could continue much deeper into the century. Though Bernie Sanders did not win in 2016, he helped found Our Revolution, the progressive answer to what OFA had been. Like OFA, Our Revolution amounted to little. There has been less written on Our Revolution’s decline because it didn’t, like OFA, cannibalize the Democratic National Committee and preside over enormous downballot losses that severely damaged the Democratic Party for

Who does political organizing in America? Well, almost everyone. Political action committees, NGOs, labor unions, and state parties are everywhere. Campaigns are a constant, for the presidency and everything else, so there are always canvassers, mailers, television advertisements, and text messages. Democrats, in particular, enjoy identifying as organizers, and there’s no shortage of human beings claiming the title. When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, he founded Organizing for America, which was intended to ensure the remarkable gains he made that year could continue much deeper into