Dirt Road Revival by Chloe Maxmin

Author:Chloe Maxmin [Woodward, Chloe Maxmin and Canyon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

COMMIT

In the days and weeks after Trump was elected in 2016, we received an outpouring of calls and Facebook messages from friends and acquaintances lamenting their lack of involvement and asking for advice on how to become more politically active. We attended meetings for upstart community organizing groups like Indivisible and Our Revolution that November and December with hundreds of attendees spilling into the hallways. People were more motivated to get involved with politics and organizing than we had ever seen after witnessing the profound failures of the Democratic establishment and the devastating consequences.

Despite this encouraging outpouring of energy, we felt frustration. Where were all these people in the months prior when we and so many other organizers were pulling teeth to get volunteers to canvass, phone bank, and get out the vote for Clinton and other candidates? Where were all these folks when movements for Black lives, indigenous rights, fair wages, climate justice, and all fights for human dignity were actively resisting the rise of Trumpism?

All too often it takes massive injustice—the election of a demagogue or the broad-daylight murder of a Black man while jogging—to motivate people to engage in political movements. Our task as organizers, therefore, is to tend to that fire after it starts to die down and nurture the embers so they don’t merely turn into ash and blow away. The ultimate goal is to connect people with a political home warmed by the sustainably burning embers of commitment.

Commitment must be one of the primary principles of our political movement. It is the necessary ingredient for long-term social change. Motivation ebbs and flows, but commitment carries the day. It’s okay that many people will only show up in those stark moments of upheaval. We need them too. The key is that more and more of us must commit to the long-distance organizing work so we can effectively harness the energy of those big moments to make sustained progress in between.

This strategic principle was important to us because we knew that our work was long-term, not just a reaction to the 2016 elections. It was that kind of commitment that allowed us to jump into the unknown, committing to bold, wild ideas, and letting everything else unfold from there. This commitment—to ourselves, to each other, and to the cause—is what enables us to put in the hard work day in and day out. Whatever your commitment—whether knocking on doors once a month or giving your all in a run for office—be clear about what it is. Hold that commitment sacred.

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