Community Organizing Reading List
I closed my last post by saying, “We have to organize our fellow Democrats and as a committed team we have to find the non-voters and convince them that their interests are best served by electing Democrats. In 2022, we can give our candidates a fighting chance.”
I wanted to find out what “organizing” really means, on the ground. I developed a reading list. The full list of the reading I found helpful is at the end of the post. My reading revealed four lessons: First, that engaging with the community face-to-face is critical to the success of the Democratic Party. Second, that “deep canvassing” is an effective way to meet the community face to face. Third, that to effectively deep canvas requires listening, not arguing. Finally, that it will require good leadership, as well as a good plan, to make our effort successful.
Community engagement has been the secret to Democratic Party organizing for a long time. George Washington Plunkitt was a Tammany Hall organizer and politician in New York City a hundred years ago. He had many flaws, but he knew how to win elections and he did it over many years. Here is his secret, in his own words: “To learn real human nature, you have to go among the people, see them and be seen. I know every man, woman and child in the Fifteenth District, except them that’s been born this summer—and I know some of them, too. I know what they like and what they don’t like, what they are strong at and what they are weak in, and I reach them by approachin’ at the right side.”
Stacey Abrams notes that the Plunkitt approach is still what works: “The secret to President Obama’s victory remains the fundamental (and traditional) key to winning elections: organizing voters and turning them out to the polls. In our campaign, as in contests around the country, the changing landscape of who is running and who is voting does not change the basics of how to win. The formula for winning is clear: (1) reject the myths of who votes and why, (2) make early and sustained investment in outreach to an expanded voter pool, and (3) recruit and support candidates who demonstrate authentic and consistent beliefs.”
The disappointing 2020 result in Texas was attributed, in part, to the conscious decision of Democrats to pull back from door-to-door canvassing in the Rio Grand Valley because of the pandemic. Emma Platoff, of the Texas Tribune said, “The Valley is old school, and you need that grassroots mobilization,” she said. “And there wasn’t grassroots work, at least on the Democratic side, because of the pandemic. And arguably the GOP did have at least a bit more grassroots work because they had a different vision of public health.”
I heard the term “deep canvassing” for the first time this year. Deep canvassing is just a formalized, trainable way to do what Plunkitt was doing before there were automobiles in New York City. It is one of the most proven and durable forms of persuasion and is far more effective than other forms of persuasion employed by traditional political campaigns. Deep canvasses are candid, two-way conversations where canvassers ask voters to share their relevant, emotionally significant experiences and reflect on them aloud. Deep canvasses typically involve:
• Non-judgmentally soliciting voters’ views and asking follow-up questions about voters’ experiences.
• Sharing narratives about personal experiences with the issue that reinforce values relevant to the issue.
Brian Resnick wrote an article entitled “How to talk someone out of bigotry” on vox.com January 29, 2020, “What does it take to divert someone away from prejudice and toward greater acceptance of others in order to build support for progressive causes? “Deep canvassing,” a relatively new technique, is showing promise—and is backed by rigorous testing from researchers and activists in the field.”
Effective deep canvassing is listening, not arguing. We are all faced with the challenge that the position of the other side is only hardened when we try to present them with the facts. On the other hand, really listening to the person we have engaged can actually change their position. David Brooks wrote a great article about this in the New York times on 11/20/2020 (actually arguing for discussing politics at Thanksgiving Dinner) His article was entitled “Nine Ways to have Deeper Conversations”. One of my favorite passages is: “Deeper conversations help people become explicable to each other and themselves. You can’t really know yourself until you know how you express yourself and find yourself in another’s eyes. Deeper conversation builds trust, the oxygen of society, exactly what we’re missing right now.”
The final and most important message is that none of this is possible without good leaders. I submit that if you have read this blog clear to here, you are a leader. Leadership is required to find like-minded volunteers, train them, send them out in the community to spread our message, and empower them to become leaders themselves. Jane McAlevey, in her book No Shortcuts writes, “Three separate campaigns to unionize workers in the same factory spanning more than a decade resulted in two defeats and one big victory. In all of the cases, losing and winning a little or a lot can be correlated with one common factor: the beliefs and motivations, or purposefulness of the leadership team.”
That is the challenge going forward—find leaders, engage the community, persuade like-minded people to support our cause, recruit more leaders, repeat. Sounds like fun! I can’t wait! I was inspired by the reading list below:
William L. Riordon. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall. Penguin. 2015.
Stacey Abrams. Our Time is Now. Henry Holt and Co. 2020.
Jane F. McAlevey. No Shortcuts. Oxford University Press. 2016.
Kerry Patterson. Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler.
Crucial Conversations. McGraw Hill. 2012.
Kevin Dutton. Split-Second Persuasion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011.