"Obama Fix # 2 -- Get Rid of OFA"

Linnie Frank Bailey (HuffPo):

Time for OFA to be scrapped. At least as it currently exists.

I can't tell you how disappointed I was after all of our kick-butt, grassroots groups -- part of the 'social network' MYBO (mybarackobama.com) -- were morphed into the boring, unorganized, OFA (Organizing for America).

Some of us tried to stay on-board after the 2008 election. We were ready to take on our local city councils, our county boards, and our state houses!

WE had a mandate for change. Hell... we should have been the Tea Party!

We had the same anger and frustration as the Tea Party, we just know who the real culprits are, and it's not the poor, the old, the unemployed, the sick, OR people of color! We worked hard to elect Obama so that our country would not be BOUGHT!

But while OFA tried to figure out what to do next, the 'buyers' and their media reps used our slogans, our organizing tactics, and our Internet savvy to form the Tea Party. Their 'movement' wasn't a natural occurrence like ours... built from $5.00 and $10.00 contributions. Their movement is about exclusion. Our movement was about inclusion.

So where was OFA while the Tea Party was created and let loose in our suburban, rural, and southern towns?

OFA couldn't seem to figure what should come next after Obama won the White House. After a few months, they sent out some C-list organizers from the campaign to conduct 'listening' tours around the country. MORE...