Why Electoral Organizing

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." This quote has always stuck with me in my 25 years of organizing. I have to admit that I was first exposed to it not while reading Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the Bible, but from hearing the Byrds sing it on the classic rock station that was always on in my dad’s GMC pickup truck. 

I began organizing as a college student against the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999. Since then, I have done just about every possible type of organizing, with just about every constituency you can imagine, in just about every state, around several dozens of issues. I’ve used a multitude of tactics — from lockouts and street blockages to mass marches and electoral campaigns, as well as traditional community organizing campaigns. 

I find it odd when people emphasize only one specific way of taking political action. It always confused me when one set of political actors dismissed another based on its choice of tactics. For example, those who emphasize civil disobedience have dismissed others who engage in elections as sellouts or “using the master’s tools,” or those who focus on elections have dismissed others who have chosen direct action as “radicals” or “extreme.” Does a plumber dismiss an electrician while building a house? In our hands, the master's tools cease to be the master’s.  

Electoral organizing is just another tool in the tool belt. To continue with my metaphor, it’s a highly skilled craft that, when paired with other highly skilled crafts, can come together to build a political home. 

I try not to over-identify with my craft. In fact, I don’t even really like electoral politics. They’re just way better than the alternative. As Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party said, “Politics is war without bloodshed, war is politics with bloodshed.” I want peace and justice for everyone, and it seems to me that electoral politics is one of many ways to help us get there.