I’ve been welcomed…

Consorting with the enemy, I am, on this day of coronation, er, inauguration…

Michael —

I’m Jon Carson, the new executive director of Organizing for Action Against America.

I hope you’re as excited as I am for this new organization, and for what our grassroots movement can accomplish in the next four years.

If you haven’t already, you should check out this short video First Lady Michelle Obama recorded about our organization, and then say you’re on board.

Just a little bit about me. I’m a Wisconsin guy, and I grew up on a farm in the western part of the state. In 2007, I joined Barack Obama’s campaign and served as the national field director. After the election, I went to work for the President in the White House, most recently in the Office of Public Engagement.

That brings me to now, when very soon, my family and I will be moving back to Chicago as I start this new role with all of you.

I first joined the President’s campaign because I was inspired by his belief that ordinary people have the power to change our country if we work together to get it done — and that belief will be at the core of this new organization as it unfolds.

And the way we’ll get it done can be summed up in one word: local.

That means each city or region will have its own OFA chapter, and you’ll decide the issues your community cares about most, the work you want to do to make progress on them, and the kind of support you’ll need to get it done.

At a neighborhood and regional level, OFA members will grow their local chapters, bringing in new leaders and helping train a new generation of volunteers and organizers to help fight for the issues at stake.

There’ll be times when we pull together at the national level to get President Obama’s back on passing major legislation, like reducing gun violence or immigration reform. And we’ll all work to help transform Washington from the outside while strengthening our economy and creating jobs.

But for the most part, the direction our work takes will be completely in your hands — with the support of this organization behind you every step of the way.

In the next few weeks and months, I’ll be asking for your input on putting together an OFA plan for 2013, we’ll be holding online briefings about the issues we want to tackle, and we’ll start organizing on those issues as they’re debated in D.C.

But for right now, I just want to say thanks and welcome. There’s a lot to be done, without a doubt — and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of OFA with you.

Take a look at the video the First Lady recorded this week, and go ahead — say you’re in:

(Video link removed.)

I’ll be in touch soon.

Thanks,

Jon

Jon Carson
Executive Director
Organizing for Action Against America

So they’re going local, eh? Well, they certainly have the local strength and willing dupes, as the recent election showed – the fact they’re publicly inaugurating Barack Obama today, much to the chagrin of liberty-loving Americans, makes that plain. And I’m certain that the overarching themes of their local work will be those closely resembling their national efforts.

But the one stroke of genius they’ve hit upon is that of making it sound like they really care about what those in flyover country think, and that can be their Achilles heel. What if liberty-loving Americans took over the local chapters?

If I’m on their mailing list, there are probably a significant portion of people on our side who also get the same Obama propaganda. Some of us are known to the radical liberals who comprise the true believers, so any efforts we might have toward infiltration would be either rebuffed outright, or politely shunted to areas outside the inner circle. But people who sympathize with our side yet have the sterner stuff to withstand the absolute rhetorical stench which may emanate from their gatherings AND aren’t necessarily the most-known local faces of the pro-liberty movement may have a role to play.

Think of this: if we can get a couple moles inside their group, and in time they recruit a couple more liberty lovers, and so forth and so on, we receive two benefits: one, an insider report on some of their action plans we can use to counterattack, and two, perhaps eventually enough to take over the group and use it for the causes of good. I’ll admit that, if the OFA people want to volunteer at a local homeless shelter or spend an afternoon cleaning up the local river bank, there’s nothing wrong with providing some benefit for the community and most of us can agree to that.

But if they’re going to play political action committee and do a lit drop extolling the so-called “benefits” of Obamacare or portray an interested, unbiased group which just happens to show up en masse at the school board meeting to support the Common Core curriculum, well, those are the sort of moves we need to know about in advance.

And who knows? They may find the dialogue to be respectful, sort of like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation people who were at the WSOP meeting last week. We had some comments for them, they answered some of our questions, and we moved a little forward. I happen to think these OFA groups simply need a little bit of mature leadership, with a push given toward the RIGHT direction. The old saw “Question Authority” would work quite well in this instance.

Unfortunately, there exists such a state of mistrust among the two sides (for good reason, in some instances) that it would be difficult for many of the more activist among us to complete the task. It will take a special subset to contribute to the pro-liberty cause in this way, and we need those among us who step forward to subtly put up with the other side for a time. In time, it may be worth it.