Working for a cause you believe in is always a rewarding experience, especially when working for said cause brings you to Washington, DC. For nine weeks this summer, I interned at the headquarters of No Labels, a political nonprofit promoting bipartisanship in Congress through process reforms.
Founded in a fittingly bipartisan way by alumni of the Bush and Clinton campaigns and administrations, No Labels attracted over 2,000 internship applicants from across the political spectrum and across the globe over the past year. Approximately 60 individuals—including four other Harvard students—made it through the application process and earned the opportunity to work in a one-of-a-kind office for the summer.
Operating like a political startup, No Labels has very few full-time paid employees and relies on interns and a nationwide network of volunteers in order to accomplish its goals. Like the leadership of any of the best startups, No Labels staffers were willing to take seriously proposals from interns and a number of intern-led ideas for viral advertising and special research projects were approved and brought to fruition. All the while, though, the eyes of the employees and staff were kept focused on the main event: a rally for a bipartisan group of lawmakers called the Problem Solvers on July 18th.
For the first few years since its inception, No Labels had contented itself with building a grassroots network and making recommendations like streamlining the executive nominee approval process and instituting a parliament-style Question Time for the Congress to publicly scrutinize the President.
At the end of the last debt ceiling crisis, however, a version of their No Budget No Pay proposal was signed into law, and the organization changed tack to become more directly involved in governing. The Problem Solvers caucus of cooperation-minded Democrats and Republicans was formed to that end, and by the end of the summer it had achieved a membership of 81 Congresspeople who met biweekly to discuss where they could find agreement. After months of discussions, the group finalized nine bills to significantly cut government waste, and the July 18th event was designed to introduce those bills to the public.
Running up against a hard deadline to create a political moment was reminiscent of electoral campaigns I had worked on in the past, but it was a campaign like none other. Students with laptops plastered in Obama and Romney stickers sat side-by-side, sharing ideas and cooperating to finish a wide variety of tasks in time for the next step in preparation. Never before had I seen such a politically disparate group of young people so eager to accomplish a shared political goal. My fellow interns, most of whom had grown disillusioned by the lack of progress and cooperation in American politics, finally felt like they could do something to fix it. Our work was having a positive, tangible impact: news outlets were reporting on our efforts, the bills we had watched develop were appearing on the docket, and each bill was earning new cosponsors outside the original Problem Solvers group.
With our time at No Labels over and Congress in recess, the progress of our bills is unclear, and the ultimate outcome of our efforts is uncertain. For one brief, shining moment however, we could see the political process improving with our own eyes. We had hope, and we had agency, and it was truly inspiring.