Spilling Tea with Organizer Memes

If you work in Democratic politics, you probably know Organizer Memes. If you don’t… well you probably don’t spend too much time on Twitter.

Organizer Memes is one part voice of the people, one part movement psychologist, one part anonymous messaging board, one part influencer and one big old part expert meme artist extraordinaire.

Memes, as they refer to themselves, is always spot on with the perfect meme for whatever is going on at the moment in the political world… and beyond.

But follow them on Twitter and you are equally likely to find some fire meme as you are to see a sensitive question asked anonymously from some staffer, intern or activist looking to get involved in the movement.

There is truly no other account on the internet like Memes.

We checked in with Memes and had a beast of a conversation.

Throughout our time, we covered: 

• How this project came to be — it’s “a Spartacus type of thing” — “we are all Memes”
• What the popularity and success of the account means for the field — “it’s a condemnation of the industry we work in” — and the role they play in holding bad actors accountable — “people need to know there are consequences for their actions…”
• They’re working philosophy of who they’ll hit and how hard —"it’s okay to attack democrats, but never equate them with Republicans"
• Their fascinating — and early — role in the Senator Menendez story 👀
• What we in the movement can learn from the far fight
• Where they would have the party invest moving forward, if they were in charge — there were a lot of answers here, but the biggest one to emerge was, without a doubt, Twitch (!!!). TikTok and influencers would also both play significantly larger roles
• Why this account took off the way it did (beyond just killer memes of course) — “People come to me because I’m sad when they’re sad and I’m happy when they’re happy. We go through the same thing together at the same time. And there’s power in that solidarity. That is why it works.”
• The excitement of seeing Biden truly invest in digital and take their digital program so seriously
• The power — and importance — of hope!
• What a digital-first campaign looks like and why the party should be heading in that direction 
• Their frustration with the party’s inability to invest in digital — “We can’t invest in digital until it’s tested, but we can’t test it until we invest in it.”
• How memes (the format, not the account) have changed for the party — they went from unacceptable to constant
• How to incorporate memes into your campaign organization in order to create endless viral moments
• The importance of being fast — “The early meme catches the worm”
• How they make their memes
• And sooooo much more

My biggest takeaway from our conversation was that, while this account seems fun and funny on the surface (and it’s obviously both of those things!), it also comes from a place of mission, frustration and passion to improve not just the world, but also the Democratic Party.

Memes is using the account to fix the broken power dynamic between the folks at the top of the industry and those with less power — giving voice to the voiceless.

“It all boils down to: people’s voices need to be heard.”

Or to put it another way: come for the memes - stay for the tea.

———

Throughout the conversation, Memes also offered a ton of shoutouts for other people doing great work in the movement. 

Here are a few notable mentions: 

• Taylor Lorenz 
• Campaign Sick 
• Jeff Jackson
• Ed Markey
• Jon Ossoff
• AOC
• MrBeast
• Bradley Whitford
• Annie Wu 
• Dear White Staffers
• Anderson Clayton 
• Beto O’Rourke 
• DSA
• Hasan Abi
• GAIN Power

Listen today at HelloMergeTag.com or wherever you stream podcasts.