The Obama grassroots army's new mission

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/20/obama-organising-for-america

In winning the English civil wars, Oliver Cromwell found himself confronting an unforeseen challenge. A number of troops in his New Model Army saw a politically more egalitarian future for the country. The Levellers, as they came to be known, insisted on a raft of political reforms and even went as far as demanding an expansion of suffrage. Cromwell responded by brutally and clinically suppressing the radicals. But the lesson was clear: arm men, give them a defining mission and you cannot completely control the consequences.

Barack Obama's movement for change is a political New Model Army in our time. It's now under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee's Organising for America arm, but essentially it's the Obama '08 campaign. The 13 million or so reservists who make up the most valuable resource in US politics, the Organising for America email database, are awaiting a new mission. It's been four long months since they've seen action, and that is just too long for this battle-hungry horde. There's not yet much sign of mutiny – but still, the decision to call them into action in support of the president's budget comes not a moment too soon.

There has been much debate about what to do with the millions of Americans who donated a few dollars, gave their time, submitted their contact details, held house parties, knocked on doors in their neighbourhoods and shovelled voters into polling places across the nation on 4 November 2008. Should they just be kept in deep storage until the next congressional or even presidential election? Could they form some new cadre of civic activists working to change their communities? Or should they be deployed to both communicate the president's agenda and persuade members of Congress to support it?

It is this latter course that has now been taken. President Obama's budget proposals are highly controversial, as headlines proclaim an eye-watering budget deficit that comes in at 12.3% of GDP in 2009. It's because the administration is nothing if not ambitious: the major elements of Obama's plans include a 14% reduction in greenhouse gases on 2005 levels by 2020 through a cap and trade emissions system, and massive investments for wind and solar energy. Taxes will be reduced for the middle classes, and George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy will expire. The administration also plans to build a reserve fund of $600bn or so to reform healthcare – and education is due some major investment as well.