"Change! Put up or Shut Up, Obama," say the Grassroots

Digby is asking whether Obama will govern his grassroots network, or whether it will govern him. "We the people" once enlisted under Obama's banner may not demoblize as he slides to the center and becomes an apologist for a mildly reformed version of the broken status quo. We see the same old tired Democratic Centrists taking leading roles, because, we are told, they are experienced. "Change!" the nice man said, in his best marketing voice, with sincere intonation. Now, we shall have change whether he and his cohort of DC insiders will lead us there or not. 

Comments

[Jay Taber]

Goldman Sachs’ golden boy has now removed one of his top campaign promises from his website. The windfall profits tax on oil companies, promised often by the Obama campaign as a means for providing energy assistance to poor Americans, disappeared from Obama’s website four days after he became the President-Elect. Maybe Goldman Sachs’ colossal holdings in oil had something to do with it.

[Phil Cubeta]

Perhaps the incipient disillusionment of the networked base will awaken a political consciousness that goes beyond voting for slogans.

[Jay Taber]

Hard to say how long they can be manipulated by the DNC into believing party-sponsored online activities will actually change anything. Judging by the excitement of the author at just being on the DNC list, I'd say the faithful can be strung along quite a ways.

But in terms of social movement organizing, the frustrations, hopes and expectations of the naive suggest that being prepared to lead those who eventually realize the betrayal they've been lured into by slogans and magical thinking might yield some new recruits.

The key, as usual, is mobilizing resources to socialize and mentor them. So far, those have been non-existent.

[Phil Cubeta]

Why fund the dog that bites the hand?