Why Britons still haven’t learnt from Obama’s campaign
9:20 am - April 7th 2009
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While Barack Obama has moved on to a serious if difficult effort to cope with the economic crisis and some real movement towards the investment in infrastructure, health care and energy independence he promised during the campaign, it feels like the British debate has scarcely moved past this nonsensical “who is the British Barack Obama” argument.
The launch of the (excellent) Fabian Society book, The Change We Need, recently brought this navel gazing to a new peak.
In recent months I’ve been meeting with a lot of British candidates and political organisers who seem to believe that if only they could copy one easy thing from Obama’s efforts, all would be well. But they also need to be careful not to learn the wrong lessons from this success.
Here are the top five things I think British left of centre politics still gets wrong:
1) Misuse of the internet. Blogging and twittering and Facebooking alone will not win you an election. In fact, if you use them wrong they could lose you one. The reason Obama’s online efforts were successful is because he built online infrastructures that worked like a much better version of a telephone. Everything we did online was aimed at a call to action – getting people offline to donate, volunteer, or persuade. But in Britain the party websites still seem more discussion than action oriented. Then you complain that you don’t have enough money or volunteers. Unsurprising.
2) Fixation on persona rather than message. Much has been made of the fact that personal narrative played in important role in Obama’s race. It did. He had a great story to tell, and he told it well. Firstly, you should tell your own stories, not try to shoe-horn your narratives into the Obama model.
But secondly it’s even more important to get right the other strategic communication decision that Obama made – his clear, consistent and early message definition. He told us early on that this campaign was going to be about change. He talked about getting past the conventional wisdom in Washington, ending divisions and restoring hope, and he never deviated from any of this. This messaging wasn’t a policy statement, it was a vision of what the election was about that superseded the tit for tat of campaigning. By sticking relentlessly to the big picture idea of what the country was looking for, he bent the shape of the election around himself.
No British political party has yet accomplished anything like that level of strategic messaging for this election cycle – but at a time of national crisis, with an electorate that I firmly believe is ready to be inspired to action, the opportunity is there for whoever is the first to frame the election in this way. Ask yourself what you think the voters are longing for right now, and whether or how your party can provide it. That’s your message. Once you’ve got it, stick with it.
3) Underestimating the scale of the volunteer outreach. Obama’s ground effort in terms of volunteer mobilization was epic, and no party here is even attempting to replicate it. I’ve actually seen discussions about whether it is worth bothering to try and expand the volunteer base – some suggestions that new volunteers are more trouble than they are worth, or that they won’t ultimately be loyal party members, or even that “we don’t have enough volunteers to run a good volunteer program.” If you really want to change politics in the UK, you are going to need a lot more feet on the pavement than you currently have.
The first couple months of Obama’s general election effort was almost entirely dedicated to volunteer recruitment, training and development – because the entire game plan was based on having those resources. I’m doubtful that any campaign in this day and age can win without a robust volunteer effort. Inspiring commitment and action by your supporters is what campaigns are FOR. You should be doing it not because it’s what Obama did last year, but because it’s the only way your party will grow next year.
4) Empowering volunteers. Right now, I bet everyone reading the above is thinking to themselves “easy for you to say, but not enough people want to give us that level of commitment…” Well, from what I can see, you don’t ask them to. I am constantly being told that there is no spirit of political engagement in Britain – but campaigning organisations are thriving, charities are doing well and literally hundreds of British people came knocking on my door asking to work on Obama’s campaign.
I believe there is a tremendous longing by the British public to be given an opportunity to change their world for the better. But, too often the parties don’t see themselves as being in the business of offering supporters that chance. I did a panel discussion recently about the election where one an audience member asked me “at what point should we begin trusting our volunteers?” — the correct answer, of course is that the question should be reversed – at what point did you STOP trusting them? Let them help you until they give you a reason not to. Ask everyone you come into contact with for their help. Always have something useful for them to do. If you don’t have something useful for them to do, ask them to think of some way they could be helpful. Follow up to see how it went. Thank them for their help. Ask them to do more. Repeat as needed.
5) The Money. And speaking of things I am tired of hearing – I don’t want to hear any more people say “we haven’t got the money for that” – as if the amount of money available to a political campaign was preordained by the gods and unalterable. If you need money to do something you think is important, tell you supporters what you need and why it’s important. I recently suggested to a Labour MP that she should ask all of her supporters for small donations. “Sure,” she said, “because maybe some people could give money instead of volunteering.” Um, no.
Maybe they could BOTH volunteer AND give money. A hundred £20 donations are worth a lot more than a £2,000 cheque, because it brings 100 times the loyalty and engagement. Those people can give £20 again and again, and can encourage their networks to do the same. And while you’re at it, ask them to come out and volunteer. Then thank them. Then ask them to do more. And repeat as needed. (Are you detecting a pattern here?)
In short, there was a lot of glamour associated with Barack Obama’s campaign. And from over here it may have looked like glamorous was the most important thing it was – technologically savvy, with a sexy candidate and heaping piles of cash.
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This is a guest post. Karin J. Robinson is a political and communications consultant and Vice Chair of Democrats Abroad UK. She was the Democratic Party’s Regional Field Director for Americans Abroad in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia on behalf of Barack Obama's campaign. She blogs at www.obamalondon.blogspot.com
· Other posts by Karin J. Robinson
Story Filed Under: Blog ,Foreign affairs ,Our democracy ,Think-tanks ,United States ,Westminster
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Reader comments
Astonishingly, you seem to entirely missed discussion of ‘having good policies’ as being something that the Left don’t do enough of.
I cannot believe how many people on Lib Con and elsewhere on the political Left pine about being able to use the internet like Obama or fundraise like Obama or recruit volunteers like Obama when the main political parties on the Left never discuss policies, principles or vision. Without something worth fighting for, the Left will never mobilise their support base – something that Obama managed with ease because he knew and his supporters knew what he was fighting for.
So Derek Draper’s taken the wrong tack on counts 1), 2), 3) and 4) (and possibly 5)), by being central, dogmatic, inappropriate, hectoring, mistrustful of those of the left but not ‘on-message’ in his blinkered view, no message to pitch, just knocking the opposition (y’know Lab’s in Govt: has it no message other than ooh, the other lot are bogey-men?), and so on…
i have to agree with LFAT (the irony being, of course, that his party has no policies). Karin makes a good list but misses out policy and leadership. Policy is the cornerstone of effective politics: without policies you can have no vision, with no vision you can have no message, with no message you can’t inspire, and so on.
This is the order in which Obama did things, as we would be well to pay attention to it:
1) Policies of ending the war in Iraq, cleaning up lobbying, green energy, healthcare
2) Message of change, bipartisanship
3) Strategy of winning Iowa caucuses, then other primaries, then general
4) Online campaigning to help promote all of these and promote…
5) Ground game
Start with the question that Karin asks: “Ask yourself what you think the voters are longing for right now, and whether or how your party can provide it.”
The voters want the current idiots in charge out, but aren’t enthusiastic about the only other idiots who can take power. People are fed up with it all, with the expenses scandals, the corruption, the hand-wringing, the inaction. About the only thing the government has done which chimes with the people was to praise Jade Goody and let her criminal husband off his curfew so he can make more money from a dying woman.
But there’s one thing so simple that it feels almost stupid to point out:
Obama was from a Party that had been in opposition for 8 years. They had to defeat the Republicans, the Party presiding over the crisis and the Iraq fiasco. It was quite obvious that voting for him would represent at least some degree of change.
The left in Britain is lumbered with a Labour government that has been in charge for TWELVE years and has presided over the same crap as GW Bush. People detest the Brown government and its arrogant on-message non-entities.
I would welcome any political party that actually stood on a platform of idealism. It seems to me that there are arguements on the left end of the political spectrum that are never addressed by the managerialists that have power now.
The Convention for Modern Liberties addressed some of them. The Greens address others.
It could be argued that the G20 protesters are an incoherent grass roots political party in the making. Though their voice would have to be a whole lot clearer before anyone could take it seriously.
Slightly off topic, I really like Sunder Katwala, but I keep thinking to myself, he should be leading his own political party, for the policies he espouses here and there are good and sensible, but they do not ever seem to be reflected in what Labour does, rather than what Labours’ ego says it is. It is the failure of vision thingy that eventually does for any political party.
Is this an advert for election consulting? You are making a case for organising a campaigning base, but for who? If you want to mimic Obama’s message of “change”, “hope”, etc, then surely you won’t be using it for Labour. The Labour Party local campaigning resources are severely depleted; they are generally hated by the ordinary people you hope to engage in volunteering.
Do you have any understanding of the current political situation in the UK?
Karin,
Err…
Correct me if I am wrong – I’m a man that doesn’t even see George Clooney as vaguely ‘sexy’ – but none of the three leaders of our political parties has the slightest bit of Obama’s charisma.
As for Alex Salmond….
Claude got there first. The left need to realise that there is no hope from New Labour & the best chance they have is a reinvigoration & discovery of their true selves in opposition.
How many times will you stand in line waiting for a kicking?
How many fucking times, for that matter, do you need some party hack braying at you that we need to rally behind Napoleon, or else Mr Jones will be back, before you start asserting yourself? I take your point that there should be a broad left, but there’s too much apologising & partisanship on this site.
Slightly off topic, I really like Sunder Katwala, but I keep thinking to myself, he should be leading his own political party, for the policies he espouses here and there are good and sensible, but they do not ever seem to be reflected in what Labour does, rather than what Labours’ ego says it is. It is the failure of vision thingy that eventually does for any political party.
I know what you mean but I’m actually rather glad that there are still people like Sunder in the Labour Party. If the party is just left to some of the members or supporters (especially the younger ones) you see commenting in various discussion forums, especially about civil liberties and related issues, then it is absolutely doomed as any kind of progressive force. Thankfully there are still some decent, progressive, liberal centre-left elements in the party and we need them to stay and counter the über-Blairite young Turks.
yeah good luck with that Karin. I haven’t actually had anyone come to the door and well, you know, actually canvass for the vote, in bloody years.
I agree with some of the other comments, you need policies, you need a vision and personally I haven’t seen either that reflect a leftist stance. In fact I haven’t seen it from the other lot either.
Since Tony Flair came to power politicians in this country think its just all down to the spin. When is a politician going to stand up and connect with the masses like Obama did? All we get are soundbites, no substance and plenty of sleaze. Ask anyone who is not active in politics in this country what their opinions are of MPs and then try that five point plan.
As someone who’s been telling them all of the above for at least five years, I can only give you a round of applause, Karin. They are learning very, very slowly.
I must reluctantly conclude that sometimes greenfield initiatives (starting something new), like we did with Avaaz on a global scale, are the only way to get people inside the structures to wake up. That’s the beauty of an open coalition, and of the renewing force that Dean and then Obama brought to US formal politics.
Conversions on the road to Damascus are still possible… but they need to understand that it’s about putting people at the centre of your politics, instead of trying to suck them in to the same old politics with some kind of magical online hoover.
Andrew Adams,
Point.
Though with the Labour Party we are now almost at a stage where reasonable people will be the new entryists, somewhat like Militant Tendancy was in the ’80’s. Would be interested to hear more from Paul Hilder, frankly.
Off topic, again, but I still think this site should brand itself as a political think tank.
LfaT –
What are the ‘NEW’ policies of the right? Re-branded Thatcherism? We all know how that worked out.
To the OP – I don’t think you quite get the fact that the UK public are not just sick of politicians they are sick of politics.
Every Tory government of the last 30 years has let them down, with the exception of the few. Brown’s light touch, Cameron’s idiotic “The market is innovative – will regulate itself…”
This government did do some things right, the minimum wage for one, re-investing in the NHS – although they made a total bollox out of that – which leads me to the point that with what they have done over the last few years – IE, getting off message and into the pants of the Tories has shown they are weak!
I saw yesterday Even Harris MP take on Grayling in the Guardian – and that was great to see and I wish more LibDems would do the same. Every blog post that Labour or Tory do, get the LibDem in to refute it with facts – then the LibDem message will get out to the MSM because, at the moment, the MSM is concentrating on just the two main parties.
I feel if the LibDems can do that then they will start to be taken more serious and get more airtime – which is something you forgot to mention in your opening piece.
The people wanted to hear Obama – and the MSM knew they could sell commercial space if he was on the show – so they got him or someone very close to him on – his message got out!
Ahem. No comment for now, Douglas! Speak softly and carry a big stick is my motto.
(Of course, if you want to know what I think about this generally it’s easy enough to track it back,
E.g: http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-open_politics/article_2312.jsp
or http://personaldemocracy.com/node/316)
“Off topic, again, but I still think this site should brand itself as a political think tank.”
I don’t think the word “think tank” has very much marketability. f we were playing one of those psychology games where you are just shout out the first word or phrase that comes into your head after hearing something, I can’t imagine “think tank” would attract especially good associations. “Armchair” would probably be one of the nicer ones!
Hi everyone, thanks for reading and for your comments – all of which were thoughtful.
Unfortunately, in editing down my article from the unreasonably long rant it was originally the final paragraph got left off: here’s a summary version of the original final para:
“But in truth, the most important thing about the Obama movement – the thing that made it inspirational as well as successful – was the endless hard work. British political activists deserve to savour that same opportunity to make change, but wishing won’t make it so. It’s time to re-learn the fundamentals.”
A few specific responses:
Ace wrote: “I haven’t actually had anyone come to the door and well, you know, actually canvass for the vote, in bloody years.” Precisely my point. Direct, person to person contact – whether by phone or face to face – makes a HUGE difference, and I sometimes worry that the better we get at online campaigning, the worse we get at actual persuasion.
Douglas Clark: Precisely my point. We can’t all be sexy – so why is that the one part of the Obama phenomenom that everyone tries to emulate. It was as much – or more – about old fashioned political organising and calm, cohesive message discipline as anything else. And that’s the part that we can emulate here. Unless you’ve got a bi-racial, oratorical sexpot hidden in a closet somewhere? 
Chavscum: I’ve lived in this country for 10 years, and have been talking to both Lib Dem and Labour candidates as well as continuing to work with some candidates and organisations back in the States. First and foremost I’m a progressive, and like a lot of people in this country, I’m on the lookout for leaders who want to fight and win for progressive values. If such entities or voices could be dug out from the cowering masses of the Labour party, I would leap to their side immediately. Until then, I pen screedsand and I flirt with the Liberal Democrats: http://www.libdemvoice.org/an-obama-organizers-beerfuelled-rant-to-lib-dem-activists-12450.html
Letters from a Tory: Eh. I dunno. I think the left has some good policies, I just think people (quite rightly) don’t believe that Labour will or that the Lib Dems can deliver on them. So coming up with more and better policy ideas is a waste of breath until we can persuade the country to believe in our ability to make it happen. And THAT is a function of hard, grassroots level, door by door effort backed by great leadership at the top. And could still not work. But it is the only thing that might.
There are many issues worth fighting for on the left, it’s just that Labour Party HQ doesn’t want to fight for them. I know many people active in Young Labour who try time and time again to change this so that their party does fight for those issues. I know many others who are involved in campaigning organisations fighting for a living wage, strangers into citizens or civil liberties. But they won’t volunteer to help the Labour Party campaign to get even tougher on immigrants and the unemployed or waste money on ID cards and Trident. In fact, they won’t volunteer for any of the other parties because they don’t stand up for their issues either, save the Green Party.
At the end of the day, it’s a shame that political parties won’t listen to its members or empower volunteers to campaign on the issues they want to fight for, but there’s enough energy and action taking place elsewhere you can get involved in – whether its Climate Camp, Put People First, Compass, London Citizens or Avaaz.
In fact, come and join us on Bank Holiday 4th May and London Citizens to turn http://www.strangersintocitizens.org.uk/
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