I and my fellow Obama for America staffers are coming together to demand that the change we worked seven days a week, 16-18 hour days for, is the same change President Obama told us we can believe in.
UPDATE: Thank you to all who contributed so far. Word is getting out, Progressive Change Committee Campaign has met their goal of raising $100k for their ad. Now they have increased the goal to $150k! There is power in the people!
UPDATE II: Thank you all for the constructive advice on this diary and for the recs! Its up us to fight for the change we need.
UPDATE III: I am including the "Yes We Can" video in this diary as a reminder of what we did, TOGETHER.
UPDATE IV: President Obama is about to speak at the AFL-CIO Labor Day BBQ. Perhaps a mention about health care reform. CNN Live Feed Event has Ended.
Boy, oh, boy do I remember the fight to get President Obama elected. My first experience with the campaign was driving to Pennsylvania the weekend before the primary. I found out about a neighborhood canvass through the OFA website. So I signed up, and stated that I would need supporter housing. I asked my god-sister to go with me (this was also a first for her). We were assigned to the Philadelphia suburbs. I remember feeling weird at the thought of staying with a complete stranger, but its something about Obama supporters, they just become family. Its a kindred spirit that is just, the Aloha spirit in a sense.
Now, I'm known for keeping it real. My god-sister and I are African-American. So at this time we had been hearing on the news that you had some "racist lunch bucket types" in Pennsylvania. And lots of guns and clinging. So where we were to canvass I would describe as the "lunch bucket" suburbs. We were a little nervous. But we knocked anyway. Let me tell you, it was one of the best experiences of my life. The people were always kind and respectful, even if they still weren't quite sure about Obama. I had an exchange with one gentleman, but it was just an exchange in facts.
After we canvassed, we drove to Harrisburg, PA to hear, then, candidate Obama speak. He spoke in front of the State Capitol of a new America, a fairer America. The streets were so packed with about 15,000 people. Those numbers at a presidential rally were almost unheard of. That sea of every different race, age, and gender, myself included, hung on his every word of change we needed. They were words of inspiration.
After Obama secured the delegates for the nomination, the campaign sent out an e-mail for an Obama Fellows Program. I signed up, went through an interview, and was accepted into the program. This program was an intense 6 weeks of community organizing. It was also a voluntary program. When I was accepted I drove from Washington, D.C. to Detroit, MI. The first day we met up at the Teamsters Union Hall and started right away. We were teamed up in groups and set with the task of registering a minimum 20 voters a day, recruiting volunteers, and form neighborhood teams for six weeks. It was seven days, a minimum of 12 hour days from June to July.
After the Fellows program, a lot of Fellows were hired of as field organizers. Which was almost the same as being a Fellow, except now we were responsible for certain cities and to turn them out for the vote, to speak at neighborhood engagement on behalf of the campaign, and GOTV (which is still one of craziest days of my life).
I, like so many other Americans, had never volunteered, donated, or been a part of the staff of a Presidential campaign, let alone any other campaign. However, there was something about, then, Senator Obama. What he spoke of and the blueprint of his vision on where to take American touched my soul. I wholeheartedly believed in the change he sought and was willing to fight hard for it. And believe me, whether you were a volunteer or a staffer it was a hell of a fight! Remember?
Now although I had never participated on this level of politics, I was not so naive as to think politicians weren't willing to tell you anything to get elected. But as both someone from the outside in, and then the inside out, there was something different about, then, Senator Obama. He was like one of us. Someone not born of wealth, but who beat the odds. As FLOTUS Michele Obama used to say during the campaign:
"When was the last time we had a president of the United States who was just a few years out of debt?"
Now just as I am still not naive enough to believe everything a candidate says, I also do not believe everything the media says. But what I do know is what President Obama said to us at our staffer's Inaugural ball. And my good fellow staffer reminded me of that night with his HuffingtonPost article posted below.
I Am a Former Staffer of the Presidents And I Want Him To Fight Like He Promised Us Article
As Mike Elk points out in this piece, the President told us:
"I promise you if everybody in this hall is willing to keep doing what you guys did over the last two years, then I am optimistic about America. I may make some mistakes, but you'll set me right."
Video of President Obama Speaking at the Staffers Inaugural Ball. January 21, 2009, D.C. Armory.
http://www.youtube.com/...
Another quote from President I wanted to pull out from this speech. He was telling us back then, we are the change we've been waiting for.
"What an enormous force you've got inside yourselves. Don't put that on the shelf and wait for the next four years."
And setting President Obama right when he could be on the verge of listening to some very bad advice from the ConservaDems is exactly what former staffers are doing.
Trust, but verify.
Moreover, my experience working on President Obama's campaign teaches me he needs a strong reaction from Progressives. He needs to know we are willing to fight everyone, including him, for what is a moral obligation in a nation such as ours, universal health care.
First we have been mobilizing ourselves across the country and reactivating our volunteers through Organizing for America. Secondly, we are participating in a petition that now has hundreds of former staffers, thousands of donors and volunteers asking President Obama to fight for us as we have fought for him.
As Mike Elk points out in his piece:
"During the campaign, we defeated two of the strongest political machines ever assembled in the primary and the general election. We can beat these guys too."
Please join us in fighting for the public option by 1) signing this petition at Yes We Still Can.
Yes We Still Can Petition for Strong Public Option
And 2) support Progressive Change Committee Campaign in running an very effective ad about bi-partisanship and health care reform. Support them as well please.
Support Progressive Change Committee Campaign
Please support us by supporting them and calling your local representatives, senators, and the white house and tell them we want nothing less than a robust public option ready on day one.
I close this diary with a letter to the President.
Dear Mr. President:
Your former staffers did not expect you will get everything out of Congress, but we do expect for you to put up the good fight. The same good fight staffers, volunteers, and donors put up to get you elected. There were some tiring days, days we wanted to quit, and take the easy route. But we didn't. We stood up for what we knew this country needed. A new direction.
Mr. President this is your first domestic test. You never accepted half-assed from us as staffers and we cannot accept half-assed from you as President. It is important that you fight for your very own vision just as we are fired up and ready to do. The public option has to be robust and tied to medicare rates.
Mr. President, your former staffers did not fight hard to put you in office so that one lone republican ends up writing the health care bill. Health care has already been triggered. You have said yourself, the current course is unsustainable and that medicare will be in the red in a decade if nothing is done. Sounds to me like every trigger has been met.
Mr. President we need you to lead.
Sincerely,
Your Former Campaign Staffers.
"We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way,nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
Barack Obama
Candidate for President of the United States