Election-centered organizing builds demobilization into successful activism

Evidence

A collateral effect, although not the main objective, would be the election of men and women at the state and local levels who aren’t about symbolism and celebrity, but who put forward a strategic vision for our communities. (When elections become the primary aim of grassroots mobilization, the conditions for demobilization are built into the very activity. If you succeed, you are often left twiddling your thumbs.) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 617

Categorization

• QUESTION: This causal claim about demobilization after electoral wins is worth testing against later movements like the 2017-18 wave.
• XREF: connects to: The activist-voter trade-off is endogenous and self-reinforcing, not fixed — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 695; Sometimes the right political action is to wait and organize instead of disrupt — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 908; Disengagement from elections benefits the right, not the left — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1780 (+2 more)