that's what i thought!

There's a piece in yesterday's The Nation that articulates my feeling of cautious optimism about the Obama administration. Besides all the obvious good qualities of equanimity, a sense of gravity about our current situation, a clear intelligence, and a rhetoric free of personal rancor (not to mention being hot as sin with a gorgeous family), I've always though that it is the Obama campaign machine that might just give this administration real power. Politics can compromise and corrupt the smartest and most principled people, with solid organization we may stand a chance.

As Nicholas van Hoffman writes:

Obama's nationwide ground operation is the ideal instrument for making members of Congress vote the national interest, not the special interest, when major legislation needs to be enacted. It can keep the heat on in every Congressional district and every state and convince a wider public to accept unpleasant and difficult measures, such as a serious energy conservation program...

The conversion of the Obama campaign organization, which is composed of volunteers with lives of their own, into a tool of governance cannot be done with the top people sending down orders to the rank and file. For the organization to go out and sell the public on the Obama program, the people in the organization will have to be sold themselves--which means communication from the bottom up as well as the top down.

The first internet government? Dispersed funding, direct feedback from your supporters, and able to organize large groups of people at once? If we hadn't seen it during the campaign I wouldn't have believed it.

While I do agree with von Hoffman on the ability of an organization like this to effectively mobilize people (an organized left? Holy shit!?!) I am more skeptical of his apparent faith in the structure of this kind of organization to respond coherently to Obama's proposals.

Take his enthusiastic support for ethanol made from corn, a bio-fuel that sounds nice until you factor in the incredible amount of farm-land, fresh water resources and, uhh, regular fuel required to produce it. Obama has admitted supporting it because of the influence and power of the corn lobby. I know if he proposes any major energy bill that is highly dependent on ethanol I would oppose it, but what about all the Obama-maniacs we saw dancing in the streets on Tuesday night? (Okay, I danced a little.)

This does come back to the original point van Hoffman is making, which is that a strong, dynamic organization is an enormous asset to an Obama administration that tries to pass wide ranging progressive legislation, without getting bogged down by competing interests. Fingers crossed.