Here is (roughly) the text of the letter I just posted to AlterNet and Truthdig. But rather than simply wait and hope for Obama to do this, we should organize his campaign - quickly, before it disperses - to demand this of him!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Dear President Obama:

Millions of us shared in your triumph and marveled in amazement that despite all the threats and dangers we were actually seeing you standing before the nation accepting the Presidency of the United States!

There are many things to talk about now, but the first order of business has to be what to do with the extraordinary, unprecedented mass movement your campaign has become. My appeal to you in this moment is to call on that campaign to stay together, to incorporate ourselves as a permanent ongoing mass movement with sections and chapters and branches, in order to defend and promote your program for change and to organize and represent the interests of the common people. You are going to need this, need us, if you are to succeed where so many others have failed.

As an organizer and a student of history you know the value and potential of such a movement. You’ve seen enough of Washington and how the centers of power work to know what extraordinary and unrelenting pressures you will be under from the corporations, the rich and powerful and the “permanent government”. And you must know the long sad history of people who went to Washington to bring about change - only to get swallowed up by it!

As you well know, in American campaign-based politics the people get involved for the duration of the campaign and then after the election disperse and leave their successful candidate to join that “permanent government. And you’ve lived through enough campaigns to know the perennial dream of the campaigners that the campaigns could continue as a movement.

Mr. President, the organizers and stalwarts of your campaign are ready and waiting for your call to transform ourselves into an ongoing movement, and we believe you will call on us to do so! The times, the dangers and challenges we face are extraordinary, and you need our power and our protection behind you - and our pressure on you - in the months and years ahead.

This is potentially a transformational moment for the Democratic Party, a moment for it to be reborn as a genuine “party of the people”, the party that we need it to be - and that you need it to be. Seize the moment, and call us to our greatness again!
....................................
Chris Horton
Worcester, MA
chrisahorton@yahoo.com