You’ll laugh, but I’m going to start by telling you that NOI has an annual operating budget that’s about 0.000000000446% the estimated cost of building a Death Star.1
Wait, what does this have to do with anything? Let me tell you. (Major #nerdalert. You’ve been warned.)
A long time ago, when the Death Star disappeared in a ball of fire, it wasn’t because there was another Death Star shooting it out of the sky above Yavin IV (or Endor, the second time around). Nor was it the result of an all-powerful guru unleashing a blast of The Force.
Ruminating on #roots13, Conservative blogger Ed Lyons writes “I’m watching the Death Star being built.2” I love the sentiment, but the metaphor’s all wrong.
You see, the Death Star(s) came to pieces because the rebellion ran effective campaigns. The kinds of campaigns we’ve been training people to run since 2006. (The kind of training we need your help to continue running.)
A long time ago, the first big rebel victory started with a focused effort to acquire, protect, and ultimately deliver the requisite data (Death Star plans) to where it could be utilized.
Today, smart campaigns rely on data to build, test, and refine our efforts. We’ve moved beyond broad categories like “soccer moms” to focus our efforts to individual people, some as seemingly hard to reach – and as strategically chosen – as a two-meter thermal exhaust port.
But success against the Death Star wasn’t just about knowing what to hit or having the right torpedo to fit the target. It was – probably most importantly – about culture. When Rebel Command deployed a fleet, they gave them a single, clear goal. They provided tools and support. But they didn’t map out every tactic or the strategic maneuver. They trusted squadron leaders to assess the state of play “on the ground” and execute program as the situation developed.
By contrast, the Galactic Empire put nearly all its stock in a single, massive weapon – one micromanaged by leaders too confident in their own power to believe any threat was credible and commanders too afraid to give negative reports. Sound familiar?
The 2008 Democratic Primary. The 2012 General Election. The 2013 Virginia gubernatorial. When you look at campaigns in the digital age, winners decentralized decision making, put advanced tools and training in the hands of local staff and volunteers, and utilized a combination of science and relationships to move the ball forward.
In Star Wars it was a newly-recruited X-Wing pilot – equipped with pinpoint data (the location of the thermal exhaust port), supported by a powerful digital program (R2D2), and bolstered by a strong field team (Red squadron) – who delivered the decisive blow. When the time came, that pilot trusted his intuition and experience to evaluate the final state of play and make the winning move. Oh, and let us not forget the mentor who helped guide and support him.
So when RedMassGroup writes, “I look at what the New Organizing Institute is doing (Rootscamp is their showcase) and feel like I am watching the Death Star being built,” I laugh a little.
But I also remember.
In October 2007, I signed on with President Obama as a wide-eyed dreamer in the distant desert of Las Vegas. I remember the elation of every win, and the sense of unbridled opportunity when the last votes came in.
But in early July of 2009, I was standing outside a DMV on West Flamingo Rd in Las Vegas, collecting signatures in support of “health insurance reform.” A woman approached and said reform would create panels to kill her grandmother. That was the first I’d heard of such a crazy idea. It wouldn’t be the last.
If you were on the ground that summer, or on a progressive campaign in 2010, you know that the Empire strikes back. If your issue has been dead in the House of Representatives or blocked by the Senate, or crushed by a tea-party legislature swept into power (on Koch money) in the 2010 wave, you know that the Empire strikes back.
It doesn’t matter how far ahead we feel today. If our focus is misplaced, or our last Death Star destruction leaves us overconfident, we’ll fail. If we start holding to “sacred truth” and forget to keep innovating, we’ll fail. If we overinvest in the top and forget to invest in the bottom, we’ll fail. If we forget that the enemy isn’t a single megalith – that Jabba the Hutt and the Trade Federation are at least as dangerous to our efforts as the Galactic Empire – we’ll fail.
Most importantly, if we forget where our real advantage lies, we’ll fail.
Our real advantage is people. It’s a big advantage, but it’s one you have to keep nurturing.
We must celebrate leadership where we find it -- roaring Wookies, amphibious battle commanders, or fresh-faced kids from distant deserts. But leaders aren’t born, they’re fostered.
We need our Obi Wans – our battle-tested veterans – to mentor the next generation of leaders, to travel to Tatooine (or Tulsa) to find them. We need our Mon Mothma’s – the current field generals – to build adaptable command structures with technology-supported, data-driven, people-focused campaigns. And we need to welcome and celebrate the Han Solos, the skeptics among us who call bullshit when they hear it, especially if it’s coming from Obi Wan.
And, critically, we must invest in Rebel Academy, bring in new recruits and train them for the fight. That’s NOI’s core role in this movement.
Running campaigns is exciting work. It gets the press, it gets the money. We’re invested in something else. Since 2006, we’ve slowly, methodically built an infrastructure for today’s campaigns.
We’ve trained nearly 600 leaders and future leaders (and maybe a Jedi or three) at New Media BootCamp, nearly 400 at Data BootCamp, and thousands more at shorter trainings. We just brought more than 1,700 of you together to share and learn at RootsCamp 2013. The data and tools we’ve curated and created have helped campaigns save millions of dollars and helped millions of Americans participate in elections.
And we’ve done it all with an annual operation budget that’s about 0.000000000000446% the estimated cost of a Death Star.
We don’t need a Death Star size budget – or even Crossroads GPS’ budget – to keep doing this work. But we do need your help.
$10 a month covers two RootsCamp tickets for organizers like Ahmad Abuznaid (who received one this year) to attend and share their learning. (Lightsaber not included.)
$25 a month is a plane ticket for an activist like RootsCamp scholarship recipient Michelle Wright. (Thankfully her trip was much shorter than 12 parsecs.)
$50 a month allows us to give 2-day training scholarships to folks like Nancy Leeds to take their skills to the next level. (Jedi Mind Tricks aren't part of the curriculum...or are they?)
$100 a month pays half the costs for the next Michael Crawford or Jess Morales to attend New Media BootCamp. (We'll take the next Leia or Han, too.)
We’re going to keep training. Keep connecting. Keep building and innovating. But we need your support to do it.
But Rebel Academy won't build itself. We need your help. Become a monthly contributor, or make a one time donation. Anything helps us keep the advantage on our side.
1. How Much Would It Cost to Build the Death Star from Star Wars?. Forbes, February 21, 2012
2. Why the New Organizing Institute is the Left's New Death Star Aimed at the Republican Party. RedMassGroup.com, December 16, 2013