Obama ran like a populist, but governed like Chuck Schumer. Meanwhile, the GOP of his day was dominated by its "grassroots" group, the Tea Party movement that was funded and organized by the Kochs but who slipped the leash and became an ungovernable force that conquered the party. It turns out that the kind of people who get really involved in party activism are, well, *passionate* (a less charitable term might be *cranks* - and I say this as a certified, grade-A crank).

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They really believe in the principles that bring them into party activism, and the only people they hate more than the other party are their own sellout leaders (oh, hi, Senator Fetterman!).

For a leader whose theory of governance involves a lot of back-room favor-trading and Extremely Grown Up compromising, an activated, organized base represents a powerful obstacle.

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Obama's seeming genius was his ability to awaken a grassroots campaigning force that he could then hit pause on once he attained office, then re-activate on demand (Obama "revived" MyBarackObama.com for his second presidential campaign):

computerworld.com/article/1532…

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But ultimately, I think we have to conclude that Obama's strategy was a losing one. By putting his own organization into an induced coma between elections, Obama lost an important source of discipline and feedback that would have told him when his compromises overstepped the tolerance of the electorate - and the fact that Obama didn't have an organized base meant that his Democratic Party rivals and his Republican opponents could force him into bad compromises, as with the ACA.

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Contrast Obama with another "populist outsider" in the Democrats: Bernie Sanders. Sanders has never been afraid of his own base or their passion. Members of his staff disproportionately come from community and union organizing backgrounds. Think of the difference between Sanders' "Not me, US" and "Our revolution" slogans and Obama's dotcom URL, "MyBarackObama.com." Sanders' presidential campaigns were always organizing campaigns, and he's kept those going in non-election years.

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Since Trump/Musk's shock therapy assault on American democracy, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been made headlines with a series of gigantic rallies across the country. The two Democratic Socialists have turned out vast crowds in Republican strongholds: 11,000 in Greely, CO; 15,000 in Tempe, AZ - and even bigger crowds in traditional Democratic turf: 34,000 in Denver.

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Writing for *The American Prospect*, Micah Sifry describes the larger strategy behind these rallies. According to Faiz Shakur, the Sanders staffer who's organizing the events, the point of these events is to build a massive, grassroots organization that gets shit done:

prospect.org/politics/2025-03-…

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Bernie’s ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Tour Is Organizing, Too

Capitalizing on a surge of Democratic energy, the Sanders team is hiring full-time organizers and pushing supporters toward critical local issues.

^{Micah L. Sifry (The American Prospect)}

The campaign is hiring full-time organizers in "Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and several Western states," and they're already actively fighting in state-level battles, like a Colorado bill to make it easier to form a union:

cpr.org/2025/02/03/colorado-la…

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How the Colorado Labor Peace Act came to be and why unions want so desperately to get rid of it

Colorado once fought a guerilla war over labor organizing. Now the fight is in the chambers of the State Capitol.

^{Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun (Colorado Public Radio)}

These people-powered movements are mobilizing directly against Musk's dark money operation, like the Wisconsin Supreme Court election where Musk is paying people $100 each to vote against Susan Crawford, a progressive candidate:

prospect.org/justice/2025-03-2…

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The Wisconsin Court Election Drawing Elon Musk’s Money

Liberals and conservatives face off in the most political apolitical race in the country.

^{Emma Janssen (The American Prospect)}

The campaign is using online RSVPs to build out mailing lists. One interesting fact from Sifry's article: 65% of the signups are from people who are new to Sanders' mailing lists. 107,000 people have RSVPed so far. You can sign up here:

berniesanders.com/oligarchy/

Rationalization is easy to slip into and impossible to avoid.

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Join Us on The Fighting Oligarchy Tour | Bernie Sanders Official Website

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll be hitting the road to have real discussions across America on how we move forward to take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.

^{Bernie Sanders Official Website}

Politicians who make themselves beholden to organized supporters who really care about the issues are armoring themselves against the enormous pressure on elected representatives to make compromises. Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have made compromises in their careers that I disagree with. I don't support them because I think they're perfect or immune to self-serving justifications.

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I support them because they are deliberately putting themselves in a position where it's *much* harder for them to make excuses and get away with it.

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel *Picks and Shovels*.

Catch me in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2:

exileinbookville.com/events/44…

And in BLOOMINGTON on Apr 4:

morgensternbooks.com/event/202…

More tour dates here:

martinhench.com

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Image:
Matt A.J. (modified)
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

CC BY 2.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b…

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File:Sanders rally Council Bluffs IMG 4014 (49036624512).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

^{commons.wikimedia.org}