Thurs April 10 Indivisible's "What's The Plan": A Summary

I've been doing this as a note but it should just be a post at this point.

Hello! It's Thursday, which means the Indivisible "What's the Plan?" meeting ended a bit ago. If you were there, I hope you got a lot out of it, there was some really good info. If not, or if you were distracted, that's okay. I have your summary. There are about 8 sections today. That should make this short, but I can never tell, in advance how long I'll wax poetic on any given subject.

I'll try to keep this short, but I can't guarantee I'll succeed

Anyway, here's the summary.

1. Their intro

   There are about 10 new Indivisibles forming EVERY SINGLE DAY. If there's not one in your area today, check again tomorrow. And you're not in an area too red for a group. The reddest district in AL has their first meeting tonight.

   If your local group started last time and went defunct, that might not be the case anymore. Many Indivisibles that went dormant are reactivating, so don't just write off your local group if they haven't posted in a while. Bring it back!

2. Hands Off

   1. They said it was the largest day of protest in America in recent years. We succeeded in sending a message to MAGA that they are vulnerable, to Dems that aren't fighting that they need to start, to Dems that are fighting that we have their back, and to all those who disagree with that's happening that we are in this together and we're not backing down.

   2. We also sent a loud message to those who are bowing down that the current world order is only temporary. They called it "shifting people's time horizon." Those giving in were seeing a world where DT will always be in power. That they must give in to survive. But we sent a very loud reminder that they shouldn't just be worried about what the current admin done, but rather who they want to be in the future pro Democracy era. That era isn't as far off as they think and they need to stand up now or risk being made obsolete indefinitely in the coming years.

   3. There was no MSM coverage beforehand, partially because even we were surprised by the turnout. There were between 5-6x as many people as even Indivisible expected.

   4. Host of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman says "Democratic media is the oxygen of democracy." It's necessary to get attention for applying pressure and for advertising, so we can't just write off those who did talk about it by saying "oh, MSM sucks."

   5. We still have a handful of journalists in MSM that did amplify the story, before and after, and we need to amplify them. Sarah Wire at USA Today and Rachel Maddow at MSNBC were named directly, but they aren't the only ones, so be on the lookout for those who are.

   6. That said, the media ecosystem is not what it used to be, it's far more fractured and it's really important to legitimize and invest in the independent sources

      (I feel a bit weird saying this next part, cause it's kinda a donation ask for myself, but oh well.)

      The media is in flux, so we have to support the independent sources doing the work with our dollars. There are people who are trying new good things and committed to telling the truth about what's happening. It's our job to make them reputable and give them the tools to grow.

3. SAVE Act

   1. If your Dem rep voted for the bill (Golden, Case, Cuellar, Glusenkamp Perez) let them know how you feel.

   2. If you live in their district, and you want to primary one of the four, talk to your local Dem party or Indivisible. The national groups can't help with this. But first consider if you honestly think you can get someone better elected. The answer might not be yes, don't let your anger for what these reps did cloud your ability to answer that question honestly.

   3. The goal in the House was to turn this into a partisan issue. Make it clear that if you're a Dem it is completely unacceptable to vote for it, and we had 4 do the wrong thing, but 4/212 is pretty damn good. That is thanks to all of your and your calls to your reps. If we lose the same ratio in the senate that would be 1-2 Senators, which we can afford if it comes to that. So take a deep breath, the chance of this passing is so slim, but keep calling your Senators anyway. Make it clear how much of a red line this is.

4. We did Hands Off, now what?

   1. There are doing to be a cocophany of actions that are all different in different places. April 19th being one of them. That is a day of local actions that are going to mean different things in different areas. It's okay if it isn't as big as April 5. It's important to show up in every single way we possibly can and that's not always a huge collective day of rallies.

   2. The next House In District Work Period (Recess) starts Friday evening when the House closes.

      This means what it has for the last two. Showing up at scheduled town halls and scheduling empty chair town halls if you rep refuses to show up. This means finding out where they are having events that consituents can show up to, and if you're rep kinda sucks, protesting outside events that you can't. It's time againt to get creative.

   3. We also have Earth Day and May Day coming up so those are aboslutely days of action your local groups can use as jumping off points.

   4. There's the idea that we need central demands. The only central demand against creeping autoritarianism is NO. Once we take pack power we can start talking about specific policy demands, but right now it's just NO. No to everything all the time. And because that is the demand, we are able to be a geographically, ideologically and demographically diverse coalition, which is required right now. We must form short term aliances with people who do not agree with us on everything.

      In fact that's the only way we can do this, so we HAVE TO STOP with the circular firing squad. We can't focus on a platform until we can stop theirs.

   5. That said, we do have a central story. 1. They are out of control and drunk on power. 2. They are wrecking the things that keep us alive and help us survive. 3. They are doing all this to strengthen themselves. And we need to be driving that home every day all time to everyone who will listen.

5. Insurrection Act

   On Jan 20 DT gave DHS 90 days to put together a report on if the insurrection act should be invoked in regards to the border crisis or not. 90 days is up on Apr 20.

   1. IF it does get implimented, it will mostl likely be about immigrants and deportations, so the best thing you can do is get in touch with your local immigration groups NOW and ask what they need.

   2. We need to demontrate and protest as much as possible about everything. The more we can show that "demonstrating is as American as apple pie" the harder time they'll have stopping it.

   3. Indivisible is going to start coming up with asks for Blue states, meaning states with Dems controlling all three branches of government for how best to protect those states from the admin. This obviously won't help everyone, but we have 15 states and we have to use them.

   4. Finally, just don't give in. Don't give the authoritarians power they don't have. Do not preaccept that DT has to power to terrorize the population or that he's all powerful or that our elected Dems at all levels of government are powerless. We have control over what we do. And, here's a resource from Indivisible with a bit more info (https://indivisible.org/resource/could-trump-invoke-insurrection-act-what-know-and-how-prepare)

6. What can Dems do about the budget blueprint that just passed?

   1. It's important to read that again, this was a blueprint. This was not the final step. The best thing at the moment is Dem unity, and Jeffries gets a lot of support because he managed to unify every single Dem against it. That's going to need to keep happening.

   2. this whole process is called reconsiliation. This is how the Senate gets around the filibuster. This is the same process that was used when the ACA was saved in 2017. At that point it passed the House but we saved it in the Senate with some Republicans crossing the aisle. Most notibly, McCain, but it's also worth noting, so did Collins, and Ezra suspects that's the only reason she got reelected.

   3. Our best hope in defeating this mess is to drag it out as long as possible. The longer we drag it out, the more likely the amount of people who hear about it and are angry about it will grow. The angrier people are, especially in purple districts, and states, the more those Reps and Sens wil realize they have no choice.

7. How can we get more Dems to take action and speak out?

   1. Since April 5 there have been additional holds put on DT noms, more Dems, especially Senators showing up at town halls (there was a huge joint one with around a dozen Sens yesterday). If your Dem isn't showing up tell them they aren't powerless and use these examples.

   2. When you see electeds now fighting back who weren't before, CELEBRATE THEM! Blumenthal, Schiff, Booker and Rep Dexter are just a few names that come to mind. We want a unified opposition party, but that won't happen if we're still shitting on those who are leading, no matter when they started doing so.

8. Deportations and disappearances

   1. the vast majority of these folks are 100% innocent. We can't stop driving home that message.

   2. We haven't had the whole scale societal pushback we need. We need a wholehearted defense of dem norms.

   3. We need to drive home that if the government feels they can do this at all, that means it could be any of us. This isn't happening to THEM, it's happening to US.

   4. Our Dems need to understand that this is a freedom and civil liberties issue. we don't care if it's the top poling issue or not, this is one of our top priorities regardless.

   5. John Roberts is not susceptible to public pressure, but the large protests might make him realize that a post DT era is coming soon. We have to create conditions that for their own legitimacy the court has to uphold the laws.

      f. That said our elected officials are, they don't have lifetime appointments, so they are your target audience.

      g. What is your reach? Are you an alum of one of the schools where students are being taken? or do you have a friend that is? Can ou put pressure on these schools

9. Their final thoughts

   1. They don't know much about what the DNC is doing. They don't know the People's Town Halls are through the DNC. They don't know much about the People's Cabinet, and they didn't know about the War Room at all. We gotta amplify these messages so taht no one can ignore them.

   2. If you're waiting for leaders, we lose. Every single of us has the power to change the world right now, don't lose that power because you're waiting for instructions.

   3. These are not attacks on DEI they're attacks on history, civil rights, etc. We can't stop saying this. Stop using anti-DEI, and call it what it is, anti civil rights or anti-history or just white supremacy

   4. give people the space to try new thing and possibly fail. You can't land on waht works without trying a bunch of things that don't.

   5. This is all bad and we need to talk about it constantly, from now TILL the midterms. Keep in mind the short attention spans.

   6. We aren't fearless. We have fear and we are choosing courage.

If you made it this far...wow, this was a long one. Comment with 💪🏼 cause we are strong and we are powerful and we are allowed and we will get through this.

Our voices are superpower, but only when we use them!