To Stop Trump, Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party.
'Today is the first day of the 115th United States Congress. In less than three weeks, this Congress will join with President-elect Donald J. Trump to claim a mandate they do not have for policies that most Americans do not support. Together, they will seek to enact a bigoted and anti-democratic agenda, threatening our values and endangering us all.
But Americans have the power to resist this dangerous turn. We know because weve seen it before.
We served as congressional staff members during the early years of the Obama administration. It was an exhilarating time to be a progressive in Washington: An inspirational new president was taking office, accompanied by a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate. But by February 2009, something had begun to change. Small protests calling themselves tea parties were popping up all over the country. In April, their Tax Day demonstrations dominated the news.
In August, routine hometown events got unexpectedly rough for members of Congress. At a neighborhood event at Randalls, a grocery store in Austin, Tex., Congressman Lloyd Doggett came face to face with a group of tea party patriots, carrying signs that said No Socialized Health Care. In Austin and in congressional districts across the country the tea partyers chanted what became their battle cry: Just say no!
Their tactics werent fancy: They just showed up on their own home turf, and they just said no.
Heres the crazy thing: It worked. . .
The Tea Partys success was a disaster for President Obamas agenda and for our country, but that success should give us hope today. It proved the power that local, defensive organizing can have.
With this in mind, we coordinated a group of former congressional staffers and advocates to develop Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda. It takes a few pages from the Tea Party playbook, focusing on its strategic choices and tactics, while dispensing with its viciousness. Its the Tea Party inverted: locally driven advocacy built on inclusion, fairness and respect. Its playing defense, not to obstruct, but to protect.'>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/opinion/to-stop-trump-democrats-can-learn-from-the-tea-party.html?
riversedge
(70,242 posts)elleng
(130,973 posts)decided to xpost.
badhair77
(4,218 posts)Good for Rachel for getting the word out. This needs to be discussed more. I was not much of an activist but I was on the phone on Tues morning about the OCE. I will have to put him on speed dial because I know I'll need to call about something else that's offensive. It's inevitable.
mtngirl47
(989 posts)Or misspell our signs!
Find out where you can join a rally on Sunday 1/15/17 to rally for Health Care or a day of resistance.
Show up, make calls, write letters to the editor.
RussBLib
(9,019 posts)...to shake people from their lethargy. It is shaking mine and I'm pondering creation of a local group to pester our Rep Ted Poe (R-TX) and our two Republicans Senators, Ted Cruz (retch) and John Cornyn.
The guide is in the Commons, or public domain, or whatever you call it
Heres the quick and dirty summary of this document. While this page summarizes toplevel
takeaways, the full document describes how to actually carry out these activities.
CHAPTER 1
How grassroots advocacy worked to stop President Obama. We examine lessons from the
Tea Partys rise and recommend two key strategic components:
1. A local strategy targeting individual Members of Congress (MoCs).
2. A defensive approach purely focused on stopping Trump from implementing an
agenda built on racism, authoritarianism, and corruption.
CHAPTER 2
How your MoC thinks reelection, reelection, reelection and how to use that to save
democracy. MoCs want their constituents to think well of them and they want good, local
press. They hate surprises, wasted time, and most of all, bad press that makes them look
weak, unlikable, and vulnerable. You will use these interests to make them listen and act.
CHAPTER 3
Identify or organize your local group. Is there an existing local group or network you can
join? Or do you need to start your own? We suggest steps to help mobilize your fellow
constituents locally and start organizing for action.
CHAPTER 4
Four local advocacy tactics that actually work. Most of you have three MoCs two
Senators and one Representative. Whether you like it or not, they are your voices in
Washington. Your job is to make sure they are, in fact, speaking for you. Weve identified four
key opportunity areas that just a handful of local constituents can use to great effect. Always
record encounters on video, prepare questions ahead of time, coordinate with your group,
and report back to local media:
1. Town halls. MoCs regularly hold public in-district events to show that they are
listening to constituents. Make them listen to you, and report out when they dont.
2. Non-town hall events. MoCs love cutting ribbons and kissing babies back home.
Dont let them get photo-ops without questions about racism, authoritarianism,
and corruption.
3. District office sit-ins/meetings. Every MoC has one or several district offices.
Go there. Demand a meeting with the MoC. Report to the world if they refuse
to listen.
4. Coordinated calls. Calls are a light lift but can have an impact. Organize your local
group to barrage your MoCs at an opportune moment about and on a specific
issue.
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda is licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.
A Partial List of Contributors to the Indivisible Guide:
Angel Padilla, Billy Fleming, Caroline Kavit, Ezra Levin, Indivar Dutta-Gupta,
Jennay Ghowrwal, Jeremy Haile, Leah Greenberg, Matt Traldi, Sara Clough, and
Sarah Dohl.
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
treestar
(82,383 posts)We treated it like it depended on Mr. Obama.