Organizing in the Time of Corona
Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, is upending the world, affecting industries across the spectrum that involve face to face interaction. Traditional political organizing hasn’t been spared.
The traditional tool belt that campaigns have relied on for ages is suddenly unavailable. Door to door canvassing, the staple of political campaigns, is no longer feasible because it could put volunteers and voters each at risk. Rallies, the big events that campaigns use both as stress tests of their organizational capacity and to bolster their volunteer ranks, are off the table. Voter contact, fundraising, all of it has become significantly more challenging.
And this isn’t just a concern for the top of the ticket. Campaigns at all levels across the country are facing this sort of predicament from races for the Presidency to your local School Board. Everyone is trying their best to cope with this brave, new, world in which we find ourselves.
Because, even if we’re facing an unprecedented crisis, this remains an election year. A really important election year. It’s our opportunity to do what impeachment couldn’t — remove a completely unqualified narcissistic xenophobe from the highest office in the world. And while we’re at it, help Democrats win up and down the ballot so we can make progress on critical issues like comprehensive immigration reform, racial equity, climate change, electoral reform, and more.
What’s a campaign to do?
The show must go on. Campaigns cannot afford to take a pause from mission critical activities with the fate of the world at stake.
But here’s the good news: organizing is still possible in the midst of a global pandemic. Digital organizing really isn’t that different from traditional organizing. But it does require creativity. Hint: there’s more to it than just starting social media accounts and throwing together a slapdash video conference.
After working on ambitious, intense, innovative organizing projects for over a decade, I’ve developed a toolkit that could be helpful to the good folks working on Democratic campaigns across the country and will be sharing those here over the next few weeks.
Some of the topics include:
Social Media Best Practices
Dos and Don’ts of Video Conferencing
Using Constituency Groups to Grow Your Campaign
Case Study: How A Facebook Group Helped Us Look Like Rockstars on Amy Klobuchar’s Campaign
At the end of the day, my personal philosophy is organizing is about getting stuff done. And the turf may change, but the game remains the same. In this case, the turf’s gone virtual. But it’s still the same game.
Our nation is at a crossroad once more. Whether we rise from this crisis to build a more just, equitable society that works for everyone, or revert to the old, outdated ways of thinking, will depend on folks stepping up now to do the hard work required to elect leaders who will chart this path. Those folks are you. So thank you for all you do.
Now let’s get to work.