Progress Illinois

In December, The American Prospect's Mark Schmitt wrote a widely-circulated piece on Barack Obama's "Theory of Change." In it, he assessed Obama's calls for bipartisanship, hope, and common purpose not as naive or overly idealistic, but as shrewd and transformational.

As Schmitt explained, by taking seriously Republican arguments and policies, which are often made in bad faith, Obama would be better positioned as president to show voters the true vapidity of conservative solutions and push through a progressive agenda. He would also be better suited to take advantage of Senate math, where three to five Republicans will almost certainly be necessary to break rank and pass Democratic-sponsored programs. To believers of this theory, it's the most powerful way to subvert what Schmitt calls the "unified conservative power structure."

At the Huffington Post, Matt Stoller has detailed another plank of Obama's theory of change: the ground game. By emphasizing the Internet, Alinsky-influenced leadership development, voter registration, and message discipline, he's reworked the fabric of a party apparatus dominated by the Clintons for 16 years:

The primary has been exceptionally good for party building. Obama has created a number of significant infrastructure pieces through his campaign, displacing traditional groups the way he promised he would by signaling the end of the old politics of division and partisanship.

Given the amount of influence Obama has consolidated in such a short time, Stoller asks the right questions: Can he pivot and do the same thing against Republicans? Will he use this influence to advocate progressive causes? How can progressives "put ourselves in a position to help him take the country in a progressive direction?" While those questions are yet to be answered, it's clear that Obama's network and approach to politics are here to stay.