the bus project

we think it should be called the bus(t) project. Why? Because this is atlas(t) and we just roll that way.

Be that as it may, The Bus Project in Oregon is a mass canvassing operation which, the org itself claims, is transforming politics in Oregon and nationally. They bought a bus (vintage, of course, and outfitted for biodiesel, 'cause that's how they roll) and periodically fill it with volunteers they take out to various places for canvassing events. They have themed canvasses (like a "Trick-or-vote" Halloween turn-out-the-vote effort--what a cool idea!) and just generally try to make the whole event as fun as possible.

As I know from my days canvassing for a PIRG (the people responsible for a great deal of political earnestness and organizational competency among our nation's white liberal young), canvassing is hard and unrewarding work, basically a door-to-door salesman job without, you know, the salary---or even the commission. But canvassing a get-out-the-vote effort is a different matter. You're not so much convincing as you are reminding people, like a person-sized PDA with bell-ringing-fingers. This is something people can do, something that they only need to be convinced that they can do.

This is the moveon.org generation at its best. One of my problems with moveon.org itself (until this election when they set up phonebanks) was the fact that they conducted business entirely online, so that my getting involved in the political process didn't actually involve my getting involved with other people, you know, at all. One of the few rewards of the hard work of political action (besides, you know, saving the world), is getting to meet, work with, and get to know other people who share your opinions and passions (and energy level). So, until they started setting up phone parties, with real people, moveon did not move me.

Ironically enough, once I got to working on Moveon's phone bank, I found that convincing folks to become phone volunteers wasn't that hard, provided they were older than I. I mean to say, it was baby boomers and older who were used to ponying up actual volunteer hours for a cause, and who were the easiest to convince. The GenXers and younger tended to be "busier," and more savvy about the ways in which strangers on the phone can take advantage of you---that is to say, warier. With thick defenses. Harder to get around.

It's young people who need to be trained in a culture of volunteerism, who need to develop a knee jerk reaction to requests for political help that include the responses "yes, of course," and "what can I do?" And this bus project, if I were 25 again, would move me. Especially since, as the language and images (see above) of the website prove, the whole effort is snarkily, self-consciously, geared toward overcoming that silly GenX and beyond hesitation to take things too seriously. Here's a snippet:

The Bus Project began like many great movements: with young people in a bar. After several cocktail-napkin-centered discussions at the end of 2001, the Bus launched with a goal to turn Oregon once again into a positive progressive model for the nation – an example of what to emulate rather than what to avoid. We lamented when comparing our proud history of revolutionary ideas such as a public beaches, the bottle bill and progressive land use legislation, to the current legislative fiasco. With school days being cut, rampant hunger and joblessness, cuts in public safety budgets (now leading to a rash of crime), and a State Legislature turning a blind eye we knew our state could not keep its reputation for livability much longer. And to that end the crew set out to show that a smart grassroots group could engage talented people (of all ages) and have an impact.

If they hired me or a better fiction writer to imitate the voice and language of a 28-year-old American organizer of the early 21st century---with (his/her) cocksure pop culture of an identity vying, word-by-word, with the fading pimples of (her/his) outrage at the world being less moral than (his/her) wealth and social standing would lead one to believe, and (probably his) ravaging desire to seem smart and on top of political history and catchphrases---they could not have come up with a more expressive, representative, or hilarious paragraph than the one above. "Impact," "grassroots," "smart," "liveability," "engage" (used without prepositions), "positive progressive model," etc. Wow.

This thing has legs---or more precisely, wheels.

Of course, on the "omnibus" tip, this is most definitely not "for everyone." I mean that this type of organizing, of necessity, cuts people out---or at least turns them off. There's way too much scope for high-school-style clique-forming within canvass groups, way too much opportunity for people to show off, and take advantage of, their cultural and economic advantages to make or break this experience---to have a "good experience" at the expense of other people. But I could say the same thing about pretty much any other "grassroots" movement that involves the use of new media, middle-class values, and mainstream (white) culture. Maybe I could say the same thing about any grassroots movement. Maybe the grass roots do grow in clumps, and the whole point is not to pull up and go organize elsewhere, but rather to organize exactly where you are.

Which is the foundation of my objection to, and praise for, this bus project. It's mobile grassroots. It's an attempt to combine grassroots mobilization (organizing where you are) with traditional, partisan, top-down organization (bringing the message to the masses). Instead of hiring and assigning full-time canvassers from a central office to go out day after day (like the PIRGs do), they recruit (or, at least, can recruit) one-time, often locally homogeneous groups to pull up and go somewhere else for a day. It is, in theory, bringing every mountain to each Mohammed.

In reality, though, the canvassers will be comprised more and more of repeat offenders, who will be the youngest, most fancy-free, and those with the least financial dependence---in other words, the people who would be staffing traditional canvasses anyway. And there's a distinct class and income line dividing those folks from the people they "serve" in their canvasses.

Okay, that's enough nay-saying for one day. It's an interesting project, it's an interesting slight twist on the model. And, although I'm pretty sure of what sort of outcome to expect, it'll be interesting to see where all these new, party-free, new media political projects take us.

This whole thing via a tip in comments from Rob.