Follow @ontheissuesorg

2020 Election:

Joe Biden's book

Cory Booker's book

Pete Buttigieg's book

Kamala Harris' book

Bernie Sanders' book

Donald Trump's book

2018 Senate   Debates

Playing Bigger Than You Are
A Life in Organizing
by Stewart Acuff (Introduction by Bernie Sanders)


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book is about community organizing; to a large extent, Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is about community organizing too. Sanders wrote the introduction to the book because he is recognized as a national leader in this method (as was Barack Obama before him). Sanders summarizes, "Today, America is locked in a bitter struggle between organized people and organized money" (p. 1). "Organized money" means SuperPACs created by Citizens United; "organized people" means community organizing (more on that distinction in our review of FeelTheBern.org).

President Obama was criticized in 2008 because his occupation prior to election was "community organizer." That job description is exactly what Bernie Sanders talks about in his introduction to this book, and exactly what the whole book promotes. Understanding what "community organizing" means is the key to understanding Bernie's progressive politics in comparison to Hillary Clinton's more mainstream liberal politics. Some of the progressive community organizer principles laid out by Bernie and this book:

Most Americans first heard the term "community organizer" when Barack Obama was accused of having that as his only qualification for the presidency in 2008. Yet Obama used his community organizing skills to win the Iowa caucus in 2008, and to parlay that caucus victory with more caucus victories into the Democratic nomination. As we detail in our book review of Outsider in the White House, Hillary Clinton actually won the majority of state primaries in 2008 (Clinton 20 states; Obama won 12), but Obama won nearly all the caucus states (Clinton won only 1; Obama won 17). Sanders inherits that organized community from Obama in 2016 -- the same progressives plus 8 years' worth of newcomers -- so what community organizing does Sanders hope for?

Community organizing isn't glamorous. It means knocking on people's doors, one at a time, or calling people by phone, one at a time, and talking to people, one at a time. Candidates often are able to persuade people to vote for them by TV advertising, in a primary election or a general election -- but there needs to be more personal contact for caucuses. The old joke about the Iowa caucuses goes like this:

In a presidential contest, meeting Bernie's supporters is good enough, that joke notwithstanding. That means Bernie's community organizers have to pound the pavement and make endless phone calls -- that is the "organized people" that Sanders refers to; TV advertising is much more about "organized money." The reason that community organizing works in caucuses is because there are byzantine rules to follow -- the community organizer's task is to inform people about how to go to the caucus and what to expect. Bernie persuades people by TV debates and TV commercials and so on; but the community organizers on the ground have to get the people to caucus.

The mainstream party establishment intentionally makes caucuses challenging, to thwart outsiders from winning. The establishment Democratic Party prefers that Hillary Clinton get the 2016 nomination with little struggle, so her efforts can be focused on the Republican opponent. That same party establishment thought that same thing for that same Hillary Clinton in 2008, but Obama intervened. Obama beat the byzantine rules, and hence beat the party establishment at their own game; Sanders is attempting to beat those same rules in 2016. What are those rules? Here are some from the many caucuses that I have attended in Massachusetts:

The Massachusetts caucuses are typical -- the Iowa caucuses have SOME different rules, as does every state, but the basic rules are the same everywhere. And Massachusetts party officials are no more corrupt than in other states -- they believe they are doing the right thing, and fervently believe that the establishment candidate is the right person. They might be "sloppy" in applying the rules, like "losing" registration status or giving out "incorrect" directions -- but they do follow the rules. It is the community organizer's role to enforce the rules, on the spot, at every caucus, after guiding people through the byzantine rules to get to the caucus on time, at the right place, with the proper paperwork. It's not glamorous -- but THAT is how outsiders win caucuses!

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, November 2015