|
|
A fascinating article in the New Republic by Sam Tanenhaus on the death of American Conservatism following the 2008 US election.
The editor of the New York Times Book Review argues that through successive Republican administrations the party has transformed itself from a mainstream political force into a counter-revolutionary ‘movement’ - one that reached its apotheosis in the neo-conservative charge of George W Bush’s foreign and domestic policies. By doing so, however, it lost sight of an older Burkean tradition of American conservatism more interested in conserving and protecting the institutions of civil society than waging culture wars against them.
Tanenhaus suggests that it is this tradition of mainstream American conservatism, progressively vacated by the Republican party over the past half century, that Barack Obama successfully monopolise in his bid for the White House last year; territory the party will have to win back if it is to stand any chance of re-election.
What is fascinating about Tanenhous’ analysis for a British audience is the way his diagnosis of the contemporary American conservative movement mirrors the debate that took place in the Conservative party over the legacy of Thatcherism after the party’s 1997 defeat. Thatcherism too was seen as a ‘movement’ that ultimately consumed and undermined the conservative foundations on which it was built, allowing New Labour to step in and make its pitch on the centreground. Similarly, much of David Cameron’s appeal to his party has been based on a repudiation of rigid Thatcherite dogma and a return to an older ‘realist’ British Conservative tradition embodied in the legacies of Disraeli and Burke. Indeed, Tanenbaum’s concluding advice to America’s conservatives could have been copied straight out of the Cameron playbook:
What our politics has consistently demanded of its leaders, if they are to ascend to the status of disinterested statesmen, is not the assertion but rather the renunciation of ideology. And the only ideology one can meaningfully renounce is one's own. Liberals did this a generation ago when they shed the programmatic "New Politics" of the left and embraced instead a broad majoritarianism. Now it is time for conservatives to repudiate movement politics and recover their honorable intellectual and political tradition. At its best, conservatism has served the vital function of clarifying our shared connection to the past and of giving articulate voice to the normative beliefs Americans have striven to maintain even in the worst of times. There remains in our politics a place for an authentic conservatism--a conservatism that seeks not to destroy but to conserve.
So will the GOP follow in Cameron’s footsteps? Under the potential leadership of the increasingly influential failed vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, it seems unlikely. In the past political inspiration have tended to flow the other way across the Atlantic, not least in the influence exerted by Bill Clinton and his New Democrats on Messrs Blair and Brown. But is it just a coincidence, I wonder, the sudden interest a senior member of the Republican inner circle seems to have taken in the internal machinations of the British Conservative blogosphere?
Previous posts on this blog have tackled the expectations surrounding Obama and the Obamamania that has taken over America in past months. Whilst working on the campaign in the autumn I was struck by the demand for stickers, yard signs, badges and posters - anything to save a piece of history. For some however Obamamania has gone much further. A quick Google search reveals the amusing, the moneymaking and the downright weird paraphernalia that has been on sale over the past few months. First on the list comes this toy – an action doll we can believe in. Alongside this are products such as this birthday card and nothing less than Obama lipstick adorned with the phrase ‘I Kiss Obama’. Obama fans can also purchase these stylish flip flops and those wanting to celebrate in style on election night could treat themselves to some Obama wine. Not forgetting of course the famous Spider Man comic. My particular favourite is Ben and Jerry’s newest ice cream flavour – Yes Pecan. Sadly not available in the UK. All this hype did make me wonder if we’ll be seeing anything similar in the next UK general election. A quick email round returned the following ideas: A "Darling" range of valentines day merchandise (2.5% more lovin')
Osborne's First Book of Economics
"Adonis, for men. Calvin Klein."
Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Primarolo?
"The Audacity of Phil Hope" the man, the vision.
Jim Knight Chess set
Liam Byrne range of incense and incense burners with Andy Burnham matches
Just William - one mans’ quest for someone who agrees with him internationally
A selection of Eric pickles Any other ideas? Comments welcome!
Tomorrow the whole world will focus its attention on the inauguration of Barack Obama, in what will be a reminder of the power of American democracy. Whatever you think of the United States, one cannot but be amazed by the capacity of its democracy to renew and rejuvenate to meet new challenges and end past wrongs. Barack Obama's campaign and election is the latest demonstration of it, but there are many others.
In the UK, the 20th of January will mark a rather more low profile sign of democratic transformation as the Youth Citizenship Commission closes its consultation on votes at 16. I have written on The Progressive before about the case for votes at 16, so I won't rehearse the arguments, but if you want to have your say you can do so by going to www.ycc.uk.net.
Omar Salem writes in a personal capacity.
Last week I was in the USA campaigning for Barack Obama in the swing state of Colorado. Just getting a small snapshot of a presidential campaign was a great experience.
Here are a few reflections from my stint campaigning stateside:
1. Youthfulness
Obama’s campaign is driven by a youthful energy. This means there is a constant drive of positive momentum (helped also by the bounding poll lead). The campaign is young; all the organisers and staffers I met where easily under-30. I met activists and volunteers of all ages on the campaign, but there was a significant balance towards younger people; including school age teenagers who would arrive at the campaign office straight from school!
2. Organisation
Much has been made of Obama’s grassroots organisation and the campaign’s transformation of organising techniques. From what I saw the Democrats have got a formidable grassroots organisation in place. I did not see the high command of this organisation but I did see it delivering on the ground locally. There was no shortage of volunteers; there was a meticulous organisation of tasks being matched to volunteer’s skills and the political needs of the campaign.
This organisation has also been key in generating support beyond natural Democratic support base and much has been said about Obama’s phenomenal fundraising from small online donors.
I suspect some of the organisation structures being utilised by the Obama campaign were put in place when Howard Dean broke the mould of campaign organising back in his run for the candidacy but there is no doubt that the Obama Campaign for Change has taken 21st Century grassroots campaigning to new levels.
3. McCain’s desperation
The week I was in the states was probably the tipping point for the campaign. It was the week that Obama’s lead accelerated and the McCain campaign got desperate. The mixed messages being reported in the media about McCain’s strategy can only suggest total confusion inside the campaign: were they giving up in Colorado or not?
At one point in the week the messages were so confused you could be forgiven for thinking McCain’s strategy had descended to hurling darts blindfolded at the campaign map as their method for shifting campaign resources.
Unfortunately this desperation led into vile tactics. I heard firsthand the automated telephone calls to voters questioning the origin of Obama’s surname and seeking to use Islam to create doubt and fear. This shocked me and was the most blatant use of race and religion I have ever witnessed in a political campaign.
It devalues democracy, insults voters and demeans John McCain’s political career.
4. The risk of complacency
Democrats are nervous of complacency hence Obama’s warnings to his supporters not to be cocky. Significant poll leads are great things to have but they also create risks. This is why a large part of the Obama campaign is now about getting out the vote – in those states with early voting and where large numbers of supporters have registered for mail-in ballots (postal votes). There is a determined effort to get as many votes cast for Obama before election day next Tuesday.
Rory Palmer
This post was first written at the end of October.
With 27 electoral college votes, Florida is America’s largest swing state. With its, shall we say, eventful elections in 2000 and 2004 our group of 20 parliamentarians, political consultants, journalists and party activists were keen to work with Miami Democrats to experience the final week of the election campaign and pick up techniques that we might apply back home. We certainly learned a lot that will be of use, but my abiding memories are of some of the poorest and disenfranchised communities in America for whom Obama’s message of change resonated loudly.
Undoubtedly, there is a great deal we can learn from this election - especially around energising and organising a volunteer base, using new media and getting out voters. President-elect Obama ran an extraordinary campaign, harnessing powerful social tools and one of the most motivated and committed grass roots volunteer bases ever seen. Without seeing the Obama machine in action it was hard to appreciate just the powerful investment in the grassroots campaign base. Certainly the sheer numbers involved was impressive (over 150 came through our precinct campaign centre on the morning of 4 November) but the efficiency with which those volunteers were utilised and kept on message throughout the campaign was on another level.
That being said, despite predictions that turnout could reach over 140 million, it was disappointing that participation in this election - despite the efforts of the Democrat campaign - only increased by 2 million to 123 million. Undoubtedly, the appalling electoral administration we witnessed played a huge part in this. In the context of an election where campaign spending smashed all records, to see voters in the poorest areas wait in line for eight hours in blazing sun and torrential rain was incredible to see. One of my enduring memories will be the hours we spent handing out bin-liners as makeshift waterproofing as hundreds of people were caught in downpours as they waited in line to vote. In my mind, the long lines were a tactic to prevent people in certain areas from voting and I wonder whether white voters in the suburbs would have tolerated the way in which African Americans in the slums were being treated.
Similarly, having campaigned in some deprived communities in the UK, I was staggered at what I saw in parts of Miami: big families living in two bedroom apartments and their bed adjacent to the front door. For these people, there will need to be significant change in healthcare, jobs, and housing over the next four years. Obama has to return confidence in the political process by working to improve prospects for the residents of main street; whilst federal government has a duty to bring back trust in the voting process as anything less will be disenfranchising voters. Many people who stood in line for the first time last Tuesday, will need to stand again in line again on 6 November 2012.
Obama’s change narrative resonated strongly, and it was articulated everywhere you looked. The three campaign themes coming through loudest amongst voters were Obama’s priorities on the economy and jobs; energy and climate change; and the pledge to deliver on universal healthcare. However, perhaps unsurprisingly it was his response to the economic situation that impacted most on the doorstep particularly the idea that ordinary Americans should be protected from the worst fall out of the financial meltdown. The McCain ‘Joe the Plumber’ attack on Obama’s redistribution plans gained very little traction in face of the obvious gravity of the current situation.
The people we came across during the campaign wanted and deserve a President concerned with the fortunes of the poorest in society, not tied to the interests of powerful lobby groups that helped to get him elected; committed to universal health coverage, not an uninsured working class; and delivering on climate change instead of denying its existence. The expectations on Barack Obama are monumentally high: but as he said, the change was not his election, the real change starts on 20 January.
John Lehal, Insight Public Affairs
Several days after returning to the UK, I am still buzzing with the excitement of having been involved in one of the most important elections ever. Spending a week in Columbus, Ohio gave me the opportunity to witness ‘real America’, to meet some incredibly talented people and spend time in neighbourhoods which desperately need a change after 8 years under President Bush. One in every 400 houses in Ohio is said to have been repossessed, giving real evidence of how the economic crisis is hurting families.
The area I was working in was solidly Democrat and largely African-American, but with previously low levels of voter turnout it was crucial that we got our supporters to the polls. Our campaign office, which was normally a barber's shop, was a hive of activity with a steady procession of canvassers, phone bankers, data managers and the all important ‘comfort captains’ providing food and drink.
The way that every contribution is seen as important, no matter how little, was one of the crucial lessons for me. Each shift was clearly defined, meaning that people knew what to expect, and daily targets meant that we went home satisfied having achieved them, rather than feeling we could have done more. Everyone who was able to had a role to play, including a young girl who stood on the side of the road in a Superwoman outfit with a sign saying ‘Honk for Obama. My superhero partner’!
The reaction on the doorstep was fantastic. People were proud to say that they had already voted and that they knew the rest of their family had voted. There was a real sense of ownership and none of the suspicion of the campaigner with a clipboard that we face on estates in London. It was their campaign; we were all equals and were working together to elect Barack Obama.
One of the disturbing things was just how hard it can be for people to cast their vote. Volunteers were deployed at polling stations to give out food and drink and persuade people to stay in queues which were expected to be up to five hours long. They also pass around sample ballots so that people can see what they will be required to fill in. The Franklin County ballot took 18 minutes on average to fill in as there are so many State elections and ballot issues. Before election day there were real concerns about whether people would be able to vote, whether the machines would work and whether the whole election would hang on legal challenges. The fact that every State, and in fact every County, has different election laws makes it even more complicated, and several people I spoke to supported a move to a system where the federal government determines voting systems for all states.
Election day itself was nerve-wracking. The hundreds of people I had spoken to on the streets of Columbus, the thousands who queued to see Obama speak at the rally in Columbus, not to mention the millions watching around the world, had so much to lose under a McCain/Palin administration.
In the end the belief, organisation and Obama’s message paid off. At 8:30pm CNN predicted an Obama win in Pennsylvania and at this point people around me burst into tears. If I felt so overcome with emotion and jubilation, what must if feel like for people who had worked on the campaign for nearly two years and waited a lifetime for a candidate like Barack Obama? When Ohio was finally called and victory was inevitable, the party really took off, and I’ve no doubt in some places it is still going.
Kate Groucutt is Vice Chair of the Young Fabians and a Labour activist in Islington North
As Barack Obama left his pre-election rally in Columbus to the sound of Stevie Wonder’s hit, at least one of the 70,000 crowd cast his mind back to Manchester in September. Surely there couldn’t be any other similarities between the Democrats’ political superstar and our own beleaguered Labour Party? Thankfully, there are.
Beyond the slick posters and amusing badges (my favourites - ‘Alaskan wildlife for Obama’ and ‘Discobama’), this was a traditional campaign, brilliantly executed. For all the $650 million raised by Obama, he couldn’t have won the presidency without the efforts of the unpaid volunteer movement he built up in little over two years.
In Ohio, the 55,000-strong Obama Army knocked on 1 million doors on the eve-of-election - in a state with 8.2 million voters! Exit polls reported that 53% of Ohio voters had been contacted by Obama’s campaign, against 35% by McCain’s campaign. These figures explain his narrow win in the state.
Chants of ‘O-H-I-O Fired up? Ready to go!’ and ‘Yes we can!’ might fit uneasily within British campaigning. Perhaps a more Fabian alternative could be ‘Yes we might, in the fullness of time’. Yet, our campaigning in Ohio looked very familiar - we canvassed target areas, spoke with voters, and then worked to get the vote out on election day.
These tactics are not new; they worked so efficiently due to the unprecedented numbers of volunteers. Many of these had not worked on a political campaign before. Many had been called from Democratic strongholds such as New York, Illinois and California, or Republican strongholds in the South. Obama’s $650 million did not create this volunteer movement, and Labour’s lack of funds should not preclude us from doing the same.
Obama had to build a movement from scratch; ours already exists. Obama reached out beyond the groups that normally participate in Democratic politics - embracing community groups, churches, single-issue campaigns, and anybody who shared the Democrats’ ideals but did not form part of their traditional coalition. Labour must do the same to re-build our battered movement.
We must target our resources ruthlessly. One Obama volunteer from Houston was volunteering in Ohio - a 2,000-mile round-trip - as he had been prevented by the campaign from working in Texas! Obama also trusted his volunteers to make their own contacts, through outside organisations, friends and family. CLPs must be free to develop their own campaigns and coalitions, making full use of technology and local connections to energise the next generation of activists.
Opening up the party and creating a broad-based progressive movement will strengthen Labour, not dilute it. Obama’s campaign has shown the powerful necessity of creating a mass army of volunteers. This will not be easy and it might mean changing the traditional branch and party structure but, hey, yes we can!
Mark Rusling is Young Fabian Chair. The Young Fabians and Labour Staff
Network sent 80 volunteers to Ohio to get out the vote for Barack Obama.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a Labour Party meeting where there was a discussion around ‘democracy’ and how we can address the decline in voting and active citizenship. The consensus of the meeting was that people will only get involved in politics if they feel empowered. But what does ‘empowerment’ mean to the average person? Or more importantly, how does one achieve it?
I have spent the last year working on the Barack Obama US Presidential campaign, both in the US and the UK. The experiences I gained give me greater understanding of what is needed to be done to create a 21st century active citizen.
I was elected to my role as a Councillor on the London Borough of Enfield in the London Borough of Enfield at the age of 21. I am often being praised for getting elected so young. Sadly, my story is not reflective amongst the majority of my generation. So many young people care deeply about political issues – like the many millions who marched against the war in Iraq, against climate change or joined the Make Poverty History campaign. However, they feel the vehicle of our democracy, through voting or standing for public office is no longer a force for change while politicians continue to move towards the centre ground and continue with the status quo.
The area I represent, Edmonton Green, is an area of high social deprivation with unemployment and worklessness above the average of the UK. Edmonton is also a place of great and rich diversity, with Afro-Caribbean, Turkish, Greek, Irish and Asian communities living and working together. I think our diversity gives us character and makes us stronger as a community. Sadly again, there are people in Edmonton that do not see politics as a power to change things. Those of us who are active in our local communities know that this apathy exists right the away across the UK.
In March this year, I travelled with a few fellow party members to Chicago to work on securing Barack Obama the Democratic Party nomination over Hillary Clinton. Analysts of the election campaign are praising the Obama campaign’s way of connecting to voters through new media and technology, exclaiming that much of it was groundbreaking and has never been used before. I beg to differ.
I contacted voters using much of the same traditional methods we use in the UK, through telephones e-mails, leaflets and more. I even used the more recent social networking sites like Facebook and the impressive my.barackobama.com. We have the technology in the UK. The Labour Party use Facebook and the new MpURLs for Labour Party members. However, the difference is the Obama use these tools to empower whereas we use ours to inform.
If the Labour Party is to learn anything from Obama’s style of campaigning it’s that they must learn to trust members, to trust ordinary people to take ownership of a campaign. My.barackobama.com allowed ordinary people to sign into an online account and call voters from home, while earning points for their efforts. In the UK, activists were allowed to arrange canvassing sessions themselves to find American voters living abroad. It is because of this trust and ability to make the campaign personal to every person that got involved that led to millions of people give $5 or $10 to the campaign and subsequently leading to a Barack Obama victory.
The Obama campaign furthermore understood that every vote counts and that everyone should have a chance to vote. Democrats Abroad registered record amounts of Americans living overseas. The campaign recognised that Americans abroad care about their country too and should have a say on its future.
The campaign was also very effective with its message. I remember speaking to voters in small towns of Texas and Ohio being told by the Obama campaign to use the word ‘change’ and ‘hope’ as much as possible and try to make that rhetoric relevant to their local situation. Consequently, people from all walks of life felt encouraged that change will come to their community, that through being active they could be the change they wish to see in the world.
The Labour Party could learn from this too, with CLPs being seen as the force of change in their local area. They need to engage with sections from all parts of the community and share the co-operative and progressive value that we can achieve more together than we achieve alone.
Nationally, Labour can do something similar. By returning to its core values and understanding that we are part of a wider movement than just a political party, Labour should build on its affiliate base, not ruling out single issue campaigns as part of this, and reach out to an audience far greater than an ever dwindling membership.
Kris Brown
It was the holiday of a lifetime – six days in northern Virginia with lots of exercise and sightseeing, new friends and partying.
Five of us from west London stayed with Virginia and Bill in their home in Falls Church, just over ten miles outside Washington. We had made contact by email through the Democrats in Virginia, a key swing state, and they made us at home immediately.
As did the local campaign headquarters in Falls Church. They soon got us canvassing, leafleting or ‘door-hanging’, ‘flushing’ out the vote and of course celebrating Obama’s victory on 4 November in the Dogwood Tavern.
Here are ten impressions and some lessons from our experience:
1) the sheer number of local volunteers and quality of the grassroots organisation – people were mobilised and knew what to do, with good training at the start of each session.
2) the enthusiasm of people of all ages and races for Obama – we went to his last rally of the campaign on election eve in Manassas where almost 100,000 people waited patiently for five hours to see the next President. The excitement reminded me of the 1997 election in Britain.
3) the young African American man who chatted to us on election day – he had been working flat out for Obama since June, even though he was only 17 and couldn’t vote.
4) the election materials – from badges to posters, car stickers and Tshirts – were very popular and visibly displayed everywhere. Obama Tshirts had sold out at the street stalls in Washington near the White House while McCain’s remained stocked high.
5) everything was very well prepared – the canvass sheets were informative and easy to use, for example, with good packs and maps (crucial given how spread out many of the homes are, hence the exercise although a car seemed key to canvass in this part of the world).
6) on election day there were substantial refreshments for both volunteers and those waiting in line to vote; even when the weather turned wet on polling day, there were ample supplies of umbrellas and ponchos for those outside polling stations and waving banners at passing motorists.
7) people were queuing at polling stations from 4am on election day to vote, such was the desire for change and the faith in democracy. Some had queued more than three hours to vote early before election day, helping to raise turnout.
8) the simplicity of Obama’s key messages – from ‘yes we can’ and ‘change we need’ to his plans for healthcare, early education and taxation. Messages and materials were also adapted to appeal to different communities.
9) Obama’s strong and public conviction in collective action and fairness – such as raising tax for the rich and cutting tax for those on lower incomes – which chimed with the times and contrasted with the unpopular Bush.
10) the style and tone of the e-communications for months and months in advance of the election – Obama’s website encouraged participation and repeat visits.
Having been in Florida for the 2004 election, there was no comparison. What was very different in 2008 was the scale of the organisation, fuelled by millions of donations and hundreds of thousands of volunteers, and inspired and motivated by Obama. Everyone wanted a piece of the action.
For more about our trip to Virginia, see www.virginiareal.blogspot.com
Stephen Burke
I flew first into Cincinnati, where swing state Ohio and red state Kentucky glare at each other across the broad Ohio River. While there was not a lot going on in Kentucky, Cincinnati saw a procession of visitors. I attended a rally at which Hillary Clinton gave an impassioned speech on behalf of Obama, but unfortunately missed Obama himself a little later. Some local activists had a ‘Trick or Vote’ campaign on Halloween, and I wandered from porch to porch in suburban Cincinnati, wearing a stuffy, sweaty Bill Clinton mask, reminding people to vote. Because my attempt at a modified Arkansas drawl could not be sustained much beyond ‘Pleased to meet you, ma’am’, I was identified as British, but this seemed to be regarded as a welcome curiosity rather than an affront.
Election day itself was spent GOTV in NoVA (i.e. Getting Out the Vote in Northern Virginia), specifically in the Democratic stronghold of Arlington County. In the evening I was ‘trained’ as a ‘line manager’, i.e. someone whose task was basically to persuade people to stay in line and vote – any means of doing so should be considered. However, Arlington County was well-organised and people had voted early, so there was no problem. I ended up giving out ACDC flyers (Arlington County Democratic Committee, an acronym that had to be explained to me when I first heard it) to people emerging from a Metro station.
Polls closed at 7pm, and I headed to the Washington DC offices of the League of Conservation Voters for their party. When Pennsylvania was declared for Obama, it was hard to see how it could go bad from there, but everyone still felt the fear of jinxing it… then came Ohio and we knew it was going to be all right. The room was full of people cheering and chanting out the countdown in the last seconds before polls closed in California and Obama could be declared the winner. Then later, out into the streets of Washington, surrounded by jubilant, ecstatic people riding around in cars, waving flags, shouting ‘USA’ and ‘Obama’ and hugging strangers… it was like being in a liberated city. The exuberant patriotism and pride that Obama supporters demonstrated in victory conclusively gave the lie to the shameful talk by Sarah Palin and others of there being ‘pro’ and ‘anti-American’ parts of the country.
Being an election buff, the big story was not the end of it by any means – lots of lovely numbers appearing for the next few days, and some interesting stuff in the House and Senate. I was particularly pleased when Obama was declared the winner in North Carolina, and wished that Jesse Helms had been alive to see it and splutter in impotent fury. It was also excellent to see anti-Muslim bigot Virgil Goode given the boot. It was disappointing, however, to see that the criminal Ted Stevens and the vile Saxby Chambliss might be back to lower the tone of the Senate, although neither contest was resolved by the time I returned to Britain. Two referendums also went the wrong way, Proposition 8 in California on gay rights, and Issue 8 in Cincinnati on PR for the city council – which means that I can’t wear my ‘Yes on 8’ T-shirt without the need for disambiguation. But I shall look back at election ’08 with pleasure, and pride, and a sense of privilege for being there when it happened.
Lewis Baston
|
|
