From the time students began to flood the campus walkways at the beginning of the year, strolling from class to class, many quickly noticed they were not alone.
Most students have not had to bother looking for this organization for they have done a remarkable job of being found. Perhaps “found” is an inadequate description; eagerly identified or obnoxiously presented, rather.
In fact, once approached, most every student feels as if they are the ones being identified.
Well, you are. “Are you registered to vote?” In the atmosphere of the presidential campaign, dodging this question in the classroom and then between classes makes you feel like you are in the next Mission Impossible movie.
So, the big question is — who are they? Answer: Organizering for America.
They have been the ones lingering in front of the BA, Olscamp, the Education Building, Eppler, University Hall, the Union, like land sharks waiting to give the next passer by their registration spiel. Many of you have experienced them first hand in classrooms passing out registration forms as well. All this for what? Who do they represent? Are they some politically conscientious organization that believes the youth vote is a dwindling demographic? Are they attempting to just register students to instigate political activity?
That is how it would seem to appear. They show no concern for what party they are registering, as long as they are getting registration cards. But, they are not non-partisan; they do indeed have an official political stance.
OFA is a non-profit community organization that focuses on developing grass roots with the backing of the Democratic Party. Obama for America was an organization which focused primarily on progressive ideas — more importantly, getting Obama elected back in 2008.
Shortly after his inauguration, the name was formally changed to Organizing for America. OFA acted as an on-call network of staff and volunteers that would be summoned in order to increase support pieces of President Obama’s legislation.
Techpresident.com, a Democratic info blog, highlighted the efforts of Organizing for Obama in light of President Obama’s health care bill: “Indeed, the sheer numbers of actions tallied by OFA in the last ten days are impressive: Made nearly 500,000 real-people calls to Congress, sent 324,000 letters to Congress, held nearly 1,200 health care-related events with more than 10,000 attendees, sent nearly 1 million localized text messages and called nearly 120,000 supporters using OFA’s Neighbor-to-Neighbor tool online.”
On the surface, this would appear to be nothing more than a miraculous grass roots effort to rally support for a common belief.
However, in January 2010 the Supreme Court rested on an important case in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, regarding campaign financing laws. The ruling would allow for corporations and unions to directly support a candidate or party, with corporate or union funds.
The decision in 2010 overturned both, Austin V. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, and McConnell V. Federal Election Commission, two cases that did not allow for corporations or unions to support a presidential candidate or campaign.
Citizens United is a democratic support party, and after the Supreme Court settled, corporations and unions would be as well.
To highlight how constitutionally troubling this is, let us evaluate the following strands of events:
In 2008, President Obama was elected, primarily from the support of Obama for America, one of the largest grass roots movements for a candidate.
In 2009, Obama for America is renamed to Organizing for America. In 2010, the Supreme Court rests on Citizens United V. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporate and union funding to support parties and candidates, but through a third party.
Later, in 2010 we witness the passing of the Health Care Reform Bill.
Organizing for America is the grass roots voice for President Barrack Obama, and in 2010 the Supreme Court allowed them almost unlimited access to funds, outside of a campaign year. Imagine the power if Obama was passing a bill to give tax cuts to Unions.
The amount of union dollars thrown at Organizing for America would allow them to push the bill around the world.
But the worst part of it all, who is their opposition to any particular bill? The President of the United States has a personal army waiting next to him to advocate for whatever he wants to do.
Just like we have seen here on campus, Organizing for America is not an organization; it’s a following.
Even while forcing their ways into our faces and walking into our classrooms, I could not even find them registered as a student organization.
So if you want to get involved, join College Democrats or Students for Romney/College Republicans.
Just leave the corporate financed lobbying groups in Washington.
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