I had lunch recently with a good friend and colleague, going back more than four decades. And he and another former colleague had wondered what those of us who have spent our lives as organizers, with many frustrations, but many more successes and a still-growing track record of impact, should be thinking about and doing given the reality of the new national administration. Essentially, they were asking, “Now what?”
Let’s start with a 17th century quote from Rabbi Nachman of Breslau: “All the world is a very narrow bridge; and the important thing is not to make oneself terrified.” In other words, don’t freak yourself out.
A few nights ago, in a planning session with our leaders from three counties in New Jersey, we discussed our plans to reach out and meet with the major candidates in this year’s race for governor.
One of the leaders said that it was so refreshing to be doing this — the normal, healthy, demanding-in-a-good-way process of non-partisan politics. I dubbed it our “sanity preservation plan,” and that seemed to resonate. But you cannot deflect and eventually vanquish the tendency to freak yourself out, if you don’t have the energy, focus, and mechanism that enables you to engage with others in meaningful political activity.
The second thought is to resist the temptation to react to every national twitch, however promoted by either party. Identify all of the arenas — city, town, county, state, region — where more normal political dynamics operate and choose the place or places where you can make a difference, working in concert with others.
Assess the challenges in each arena and pinpoint the potential allies and partners who might help make progress there — partners who might not agree with you on five other matters but could and would be pivotal in creating a change on an issue you do agree on. That requires a kind of flexibility that has gone out of fashion — working with people on one challenge, working against them on another, skipping engagement on many more.
The third thought is not to demonize your opponents. When you do, you give them status and power that they don’t possess, unless and until you confer it on them. See them for what they are: just the latest generation of power operatives. And figure out what moves they most want to make. This might be the hardest discipline to maintain.
Because opponents will demonize you and those you care about. But it’s a trap. It takes your eye off the core actions of those you believe are up to no good. And it alienates those in the mixed middle, who are tired of the dramatic demonizing that has characterized public life recently. If anyone thinks that this is a plea to be soft, ask any mayor, governor, or corporate leader that our network of organizations has battled with. “Soft” is a word you will never hear them use to describe our approach.
So what is one of the core actions of the new crowd? My best guess is that crypto is its No. 1 priority. Axios just reported that crypto has made Trump a billionaire. In addition to generating wealth for themselves, crypto is their way of not regulating or deregulating the financial system of the nation but, as an insightful observer said to me, of replacing the existing system with a complex alternative that only they and their cronies understand, own, and control.
Crypto pioneers were among the largest contributors to both parties in the recent national election, as well as in local and state elections. They were adopted and touted by leaders in both parties at every level of government. Crypto proponents have been meeting feverishly with the transition team, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Crypto will make the financial extraction and damage done by the housing scandal surrounding the so-called collateralized mortgage obligation securities look like child’s play. Crypto, like those bogus bonds, wraps itself in layer upon layer of tech complexity. The crypto crash, when it comes, which it will, will be blamed on the unwashed who simply didn’t understand the new system and who will pay the highest price.
So think through the plays they want to run and disrupt them early and often. Fight smart and fight hard. Combined with a robust offense — priorities and improvements that your organized work advances at every level — you have a game plan for four exciting, hair-raising, productive years.
Gecan is a senior Metro IAF organizer and the author of “Going Public.”