Building a movement: The Applause Effect

Kari Chisholm

How do you build a movement?

It's an interesting question - and one that's particularly compelling right now, as the Draft DeFazio movement gets underway.

After all, in our modern world, everyone is busy. Each and everyone one of us has too many things to do, and not enough time to do it. The competing priorities of work, home, family, school, and whatever commitments we've each made to our communities. It can be hard to squeeze just one more thing in -- even if that one thing takes only five minutes.

It's easy to think, "I'll let somebody else handle that. I'm too busy." It's easy to think that your own personal, individual involvement in something doesn't make a difference.

Take voting, for example. If you don't vote, will it really affect the outcome of elections you care about? Probably not. It's rare that one vote actually makes the difference. But together, each of our individual votes do matter.

I call this The Applause Effect: Sure, in a large and crowded venue, if you stop clapping, no one will notice. But if everyone thought that way, the silence would be profound.

Each individual person clapping on their own is what creates applause from a crowd. And it's the same in politics.

In politics, it's easy to agree with an idea - and then fail to do anything about it. "I'm too busy" and "Somebody else will do it" and "What difference can I make?" are all easy and lazy ways out.

And, by the way, this is especially true for those of us who consider ourselves political professionals. "Oh yeah," we say, "hopefully we'll get some grassroots action on that...." as if we ourselves are not part of the grassroots. I'm guilty of this too -- thinking that I don't need to make a call, write a letter, sign a petition, or send a donation -- because, y'know, I'm a professional. Well, that's just a lazy way out. And, frankly, insults the importance of the grassroots we claim to believe in.

So, here's my pitch for the day: If you believe that Oregon needs to challenge Senator Gordon Smith, then donate $5 to Peter DeFazio via the draft movement. Even if you don't believe that Peter will ultimately decide to run - it's imperative that other possible candidates see that there really is broad support out there for a challenge. Even if you think another candidate is a better option, it's imperative that those other candidates see that we're willing to take on Smith.

And if you're "too busy" and you don't think that your involvement matters, well, I'm here to say that you're not - and you do matter.

Start clapping. Ask your friends to clap with you. Ask your neighbors to start clapping. Pretty soon, you'll have people around you who join in because clapping is the thing to do. And soon, the noise will be deafening.

And we'll have built something that matters. Even if Peter DeFazio ultimately decides against running, it's this small network - each one of us - that will have taken one small step toward victory in 2008.

So what are you waiting for? Make that small donation right now. Start clapping.

By Kari Chisholm April 12, 2007