Building Local Leaders
The most recent Yale Climate Opinion Map, long considered the gold standard for climate research, found out something startling about our polarized country. Despite the fact that many of us think of climate change as a partisan topic, right now 72% of American adults accept that global warming is happening. What’s more, this consensus is seen across the nation. Recognition of the reality of global warming is over 50% in every state and every congressional district in the country. Majorities in every congressional district, even the reddest districts in West Virginia or Mississippi, believe global warming will affect future generations. But – and this is the really interesting part –only 55% of people in the country think scientists think global warming is happening. And this falls to 35% in some congressional districts. More Americans accept the reality of global warming than think that other Americans believe in global warming.
Why is this important? Because too often in political campaigns we buy into the idea that there is a red America and blue America and start to think of these districts as monolithic, and write off whole areas for our campaigns. We accept the current political structure, rather than thinking about where we can disrupt it and build true people power. But this ignores two important points: 1) while partisan news and cultural factors may make progressive (Democratic) candidates unpopular, progressive ideas are often very popular. And 2) even where partisan issues seem most entrenched, people can change.
Recent studies have shown that politicians think that their constituents are far more conservative than they actually are. This is the case for both Republicans and Democrats, but much more for the former than the latter. We can debate why this is the case, but it is so. And we see this in the actual policies that people support. Wyoming, which at 70.8% had the highest vote percentage for Donald Trump, is now likely to expand Medicaid. On Election Night 2020 Florida voted to increase the state minimum wage to $15 an hour. Arkansas and Missouri have also voted to increase the minimum wage in recent years. We also see this in the overwhelming bipartisan popular support for the American Rescue Plan and, of course, the aforementioned acceptance of the reality of climate change.
“[E]ven where partisan issues seem most entrenched, people can change.”
The question, then, is how we arrived in the current political climate. Why does it feel so hard to fight for political victories? Whole books have been written on how we arrived at this dynamic– we’ll likely cover many of them in our “What We’re Reading” series coming up. But much of the issue in recent years is that many organizations have given up on fighting for large, structural change and building true, people powered movements. We have focused on national members and donations, and working in a small selection of swing districts, but not on building power where it doesn’t exist. Too often I have been in meetings where the discussion was not on where we thought it would be most valuable to build up local volunteers and long term power, but where we could have a short term win of names on a petition. We look only at where we can mobilize people, not where we can truly build power. Organizations often shy away from the work it would take to find local leaders who could build this long term power. Political organizers or issue campaigners are often brought in for one season, fulfilling a short term need, without making a plan to transition volunteers after the immediate campaign has ended, and identify or form long term leadership.
Organizations who make these mistakes are forgetting the most important point above: people change. And as issue organizers and campaigners it is our job to convince them to change. This takes effort and time, but with the proper planning, resources, and commitment, people power can be built anywhere and the upfront investment pays dividends because these wins are DURABLE. As we have seen above, there is majority support for many progressive issues. But individuals, not just politicians, think that there isn’t. And it’s hard to go against the crowd. That’s why campaigns need local organizers to bring people together and make it safe to talk about the minimum wage, climate change,and racial injustice, building a movement for long term change.
Those of us who formed New Fundamentals have seen this strategy succeed. In one organization I worked with we called our volunteers who were alone at their churches, or in their neighborhoods, who were without a local chapter, the “lonely onlies”. They felt as if they were powerless. But the fact is that they weren’t alone. Others in their community cared. The trick was just connecting them. When I was organizing for support for more money for foreign aid, I worked in Appalachia, the South, and the Southeast. This meant going to rural Kentucky, to the Mississippi Delta, and to Texas and Oklahoma. In every place I went my goal was to find local leaders who would build their volunteer team, and in every location I was able to find them, people who cared and wanted to learn how they can grow their groups’ people power to make meaningful change in their communities.
One effort in particular stands out to me, to build our volunteer base in Oklahoma. Armed with a list of online petition signers and a willingness to make cold calls, I set up several meetings. In each and every one, the person I met with talked enthusiastically about how much they cared, but thought that there was no one else in the city that did. At the end of a few days we were able to put together a meeting of a dozen people who thought they were lonely onlies. I was also able to identify a local leader who could call together others, keep the team going, and build and maintain our power. Because while I could talk to those who had already shown interest, only a local leader with roots in the community could bring in new leaders and build that power.
Our job as campaigners is not to look and where we can already win, but to create the conditions to win anywhere.
If you or your organization is interested in building local leaders and long term change, contact us. At New Fundamentals we have years of experience in building and demonstrating the people power that we need not only to win campaigns in the short term, but to win in the long term. We are committed to the philosophy that we can build power anywhere, and that our job as campaigners is not to look and where we can already win, but to create the conditions to win anywhere. By identifying and training local leaders, we can build this power. And by working with an organization on creating a campaign plan, or on how to execute strategic tactics, such as state or federal lobby days, we can successfully demonstrate this power so that politicians know what their constituents truly stand for. Change is possible through people power.