My wife has always been my touchstone for what will affect normies, even though she’s a lot more politically engaged than she used to be. The first time in the Trump era that I told her something about politics that she thought was really touching and important was Kat Abughazaleh’s first campaign event, where the price of admission was a period product (pads, tampons, etc.). This is “mutual aid”. If you can tolerate Joe Scarborough (I could only listen to a couple of minutes of him), Abughazaleh explains the basics of it at the beginning of her Morning Joe interview:
The video is from a post by Tom Nichols at Digby’s place, called Show Don’t Tell. The whole thing is worth a read, and Tom is a favorite (I know T-Bone likes him, too.)
Anyway, since Ken “Jerry Lundegaard” Martin repeated in his Pod Save America interview many, many times that the lessons of 2024 were reflected in the 2026 Democratic Playbook [pdf], I thought I’d take a look at what they’re saying about mutual aid. By the way, Abughazaleh didn’t invent mutual aid — it’s been a staple of machine politics for generations. AOC did it as soon as she got elected, and I’m sure there are some other Democrats doing the same in their districts.
I confess that I didn’t read all 208 pages of the playbook. As someone who has actually knocked on doors — albeit a long time ago — the initial parts that I read seemed like an OK primer on what to say when you knock. It’s hard work, and good on the DNC for putting something together that will help people build up the courage to knock on a door. But overall, the parts that I read seemed un-genuine and manipulative, like “your goal here is to pretend to care so you can get a person’s vote.”
I know that my co-authors here and many of you who read this blog have knocked on far more doors than me, but my attitude on door knocking was always meeting people where they are and just answering questions, trying to maybe change their mind if possible, but overall being really frank about who I was (in their eyes at the time, a kid who didn’t know shit) and that I was just trying to share a little info if they were inclined to listen. Totally different from my personality on this blog.
Anyway, here we go, all of the references to “mutual aid” in the handbook:
“An Impact Program is a new organizing program that can be managed by an Organizing Department. Its goal is to reach supporters and persuadable voters that the campaign is less likely to reach through traditional voter contact methods. This program is exclusively focused on two key priorities:
• Community Service - serving the communities we are working in and organizing in ways that are specific to the needs of that community.
• Community Building - building relationships with all members of the community through events, engagement, and welcoming office policies.
Through this program, we encourage each region to have 1-2 impact organizers who almost exclusively focus on creating accessible entry points for voters who the campaign may not easily or as effectively activate through phone banking and door-to-door canvassing.
This directly influences how impact organizers approach recruitment and the types of events they host. Examples of impact events may include:
• Service events, such as food drives and mutual aid.
• Trainings, such as Know Your Rights, policy, or legal aid trainings.
• Weekly community gatherings, such as community dinners a t the office that any voter can attend.” — Page 18
Under the heading of “Black Community Cohort Learnings”
“Historical and Personal: Black communities carry generations of organizing knowledge passed down from abolitionist movements through Civil Rights to contemporary mutual aid networks. This history shapes how people understand their role in collective action today.” — Page 29
“From the Field : Several organizers described hosting mutual aid events, such as food distribution and neighborhood cleanups, as a way to be visible and show up to earn trust from the Latino community.” — Page 34
“Broaden the Scope: Build issue-based infrastructure that outlasts any single candidate or cycle. “Buckeyes for [Candidate]” is narrow, and disappears after the election. “Buckeyes for Progress” is broadly appealing, and stays across cycles. Offer the “[X] for Progress” model particularly in areas that lack trust in the Democratic brand.
* Remember mutual aid is organizing. Organize rapid-response actions around politically salient moments and host community service events to connect with voters we may otherwise not reach.” — Page 46
This one seemed like it was from The Onion:
“Every decade, the US Census is conducted to count every person living in the country. The results inform how federal funding is allocated and how legislative districts are drawn. In the lead-up to the 2020 Census, the API Council of San Francisco - a coalition of over 50 local community groups - faced a major
challenge: how to reach low-income AANHPI residents who were hesitant to interact with strangers during COVID-19. Many of these residents often also faced language barriers when completing the census. To address this, this coalition paired mutual aid with census assistance by distributing bags of rice — a
culturally resonant staple food — while providing translation support and helping residents complete their forms in real time.” — Page 61
Today I learned that Asian American Hawaii and Pacific Islanders think rice is “culturally resonant”. Unlike every Latin American culture, for example. This thing reeks of the smartest kid in the poli sci class being given an assignment to incorporate “mutual aid” as a tactic, because it seems to be working for some campaigns.
Look, it may sound corny, but at some point you need to have some fucking soul, and you need to feel what you believe, to convince people to vote for you. It’s what some — I’m sure misguided fools — call “authenticity”. In her Morning Joe interview, Kat Abughazaleh said she “couldn’t” shut down her mutual aid hub because people rely on it. Maybe I’m a sucker, but I believe her. It’s inhuman for someone who raised a shit-ton of money and didn’t spend it all to shut down a place where kids can get winter coats, women can get period products, and hungry people can get food. It’s inhuman to sock all that money away in a PAC that you use to build influence with other politicians. People can smell that kind of inhumanity. Dare I say that it’s “culturally resonant”?
Joe talks about the “circle of trust”. I understand that writing a generic organizing document is a difficult task, but the whole focus of what I read seemed to be backwards and manipulative. Organizing should be a human process, which means that sometimes it sucks, and sometimes it’s great, but above all it needs to be a genuine effort to be part of folks’ circle of trust.
