How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Now that the initial shock of Trump actually being president has faded, and it's attendant compulsion to take immediate action, any action, to try to stop him, let's take stock and take a look at the best ways we can take action given that we are in a deep blue district in a deep blue state.
The default action plan at the moment, The Indivisible Guide, calls for lobbying our Members of Congress (MoC) even if they are in a safely blue district or state. While that is not going to hurt, in our case, it's really doubtful if that's going to be the most effective use of your time and/or money.
Regarding contacting MoCs from other states or districts, the Indivisible Guide says "Do NOT switch to targeting other MoCs who don’t represent you. They don’t represent you, and they don’t care what you have to say. Stick with your own local MoCs."
OK, so what else to do??
Here are my top picks on how we can be effective. I hope you'll chime in with what you think is best.
The key challenge is how can we project our values and concerns beyond our district.
There are two resources we have to work with: Time & Money.
TIME
Since we're in this sorry state of affairs because we lost lots of elections, I think the most strategic use of our time to start working to win elections! Here are 3 organizations that are focused on winning elections in remote (not our) districts. These are all just getting started, so it's a good time to plug in!
Flippable - "We focus on state races, which play a huge role in national elections but are often overlooked. Information about these races is hard to find, and busy people don’t have the time to sift through it."
Swing Left - focused on US House of Representatives.
Sister District - "In 2017, your Sister Race will be a down-ballot race that is critical to helping Democrats defend or take back control of the states and bring fairness back to redistricting. As 2018 approaches, you will be matched with a swing congressional district, or other strategically important race, so that we can take back the House of Representatives and the State Legislatures."
I think any of these is a great choice. Arguably, working for a state district could be the most effective since they are smaller. We already have one victory in a state election, Stephanie Hansen in Deleware! Winning back more state houses is critical so we can have more say in the 2020 redistricting.
Sister District seems to be more established than Flippable out here. There is a large Sister District group that came together in San Anselmo recently, with lots of people from Petaluma also attending. There was talk about holding meetings in Petaluma and perhaps Sebastopol as well. I believe they will be targeting a Washington State race located outside of Seattle.
Swing Left has targeted the weekend of March 4-5 to organize lots of house parties to introduce people to Swing Left and get them involved. There is one set up for this Sunday, March 5th, in San Rafael. More info is here. Even better, sign up to host a house party! They supply everything you need.
I've decided to focus my energies through Swing Left. There happens to be a nearby Republican-controlled swing district, CA-10, which includes Modesto. This feels better to me because it is closer ( 2-hour drive) and it is a US House race, so the issues are both local and national, as opposed to state race outside of California, which will focus on exclusively local issues.
I think we can flip CA-10 it in 2018! I've already been out there to canvas with a https://www.WaccoBB.net/forums/wacco...7_17-53-47.pnggroup and met a very diverse set of voters. It was a great experience!
The notion of working for an election in a remote district is newish and it's is still being figured out, from what I can tell. But you can certainly help with research, graphics and social media support, phone banking, canvassing, and eventually driving voters to the polls!.
It would be a HUGE WIN if we can flip the house in 2018! If we win, we can investigate the Trump administration, and impeach Trump! (I think it would be better to hobble Trump and use him to bring down the entire Republican Party, rather than impeach him, but that is a subject for another thread).
There's also writing & calling other MoC's (calling is more effective, but you often get a busy signal). Again, Indivisible says they don't care what you think, since they don't represent you. Also, most phone campaigns seem to be focused on votes that are just about to happen. I think that often that is too late to sway a vote, but still it is easy and can't hurt and, at a minimum, it might help you feel better! 5 Calls seems to be the leader is this field.
The Women's March continues to be active, including calling for a Day without a Woman for March 8th. And after you take the day off, come join Mrs. Wacco and I at the Fairfax Community Church 6:30 to 9pm to write some postcard to Trump for the Ides of Trump focused postcard event for March 15 ("Beware of the Ides of March!). We'll have postcards, stamps, music, tea & desserts!
What else are you guys doing and what groups are you working with???
MONEY
Donating money is the easiest way to project you "voice" outside our district. You can, of course, donate to any of the campaigns supported by the organizations above, and there are countless other organizations to support.
Whereas supporting our candidates is playing offense, I see organizations as a great way to play defense, particularly using the power of the courts. So I'm contributing to Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the ACLU are also on the top of the list.
There's also MoveOn.org. From what I can tell, they are most effective when they producing issue videos, but I wonder if they are just preaching to the choir. They do countless petitions, which I consider to be just click bait to get your email address and ask you for a contribution, rather than have any effect.
Got any other favorite organizations that you contribute to?
What advice (or questions) do you have for people looking to be effective in stopping Trump and taking back our country?!?
Taking EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump and advance the people's agenda
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
...What advice (or questions) do you have for people looking to be effective in stopping Trump and taking back our country?!?
We need a long-range strategy. We need a vision of a path to the power to not only stop Trump and his allies, but to stop wars of empire altogether and redirect our national resources to benefit people and planet. We can do this!
This excellent op-ed from TruthOut by George Lakey offers a framework for developing that kind of strategic vision. I hope this will be a national conversation, and will bring many of the single-issue organizations into a grand alliance, a movement of movements.
https://www.WaccoBB.net/forums/wacco...8_15-18-10.png
It's Time to Claim Our Highest Vision: Let's Embrace the Great Turning
Barton Stone
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
...
I've decided to focus my energies through Swing Left. There happens to be a nearby Republican-controlled swing district,
CA-10, which includes Modesto. This feels better to me because it is closer ( 2-hour drive) and it is a US House race, so the issues are both local and national, as opposed to state race outside of California, which will focus on exclusively local issues. ...
Here's what a Feb 23 SF Examiner said about the CA-10 House seat:
Jeff Denham – CA-10
Three-term incumbent Jeff Denham represents the area of the Central Valley surrounding Modesto. He comes from a truly split district, which also voted for the Democratic candidate in each of the last five presidential elections, including Clinton.
Denham has consistently voted to repeal Obamacare, including on Jan. 13 this year, sparking an outcry and protests in his district. Commercial beekeeper Michael Eggman ran against him in 2014 and 2016, and almost beat him last year, coming within 8,201 votes — 3.4 percent of the ballots counted. Eggman hasn’t announced whether he’s running in 2018, but both the DCCC and swingleft.org have targeted his seat.
I think we can flip that seat!
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
The key is to get everyone who we think will vote democrat or independent as the case may be to the polls in 2018. People are very complacent when it comes to voting and many just don't do it. Mabye give them greater incentive.
The idea I have been batting around in my head is to have large and small parties and concerts election night. You show you voted you are in. See if you can get top bands to perform, in districts where we could pick up a seat. Many performing artists hate what Trump is doing. So you show you voted you get in the Green Day concert. Make a party out of taking back this country. Everyone loves a party. You can't tell someone who to vote for but most people who want to go to a midnight Metalica concert are going to vote on the left side of the isle. Get another 20,000 young people voting in Issa's district he is gone.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Goat Rock Ukulele:
...The idea I have been batting around in my head is to have large and small parties and concerts election night. ....
That's a fine idea, GRU, but how are you going to help make that happen? What action are you (meaning everybody reading this) , taking or going to take to help change the country's direction??
How can we effect change besides petitioning our members of congress who are already onboard?? :waccosun:
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Get over it. If you feel our President is so bad let him fail. But he won't and these actions are counterproductive.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
I have a few thoughts to express and a couple of ideas for a strategy to get the voter turnout to increase... ...Or at least have all who can 'legally' vote who want to vote at least have their ballots given to them and also be counted.
Such as: Instead of spending so much energy and focusing so much on donating money (which many of us, (myself anyway), do not have enough $$ to donate to local candidates, never mind out of State candidates)... ...Instead of limiting the money that does come, (we are at a historic juncture. Competing with billionaires (some of whom the top 10% of already have over 75% of all 'liquid assets" in the country!)... ... ...They already have enough money to overwhelm any amount of money the whole of the rest of us could come up with for donating to candidates and political parties that the rest of us do, (1/4... ...and we, the 90% with that ¼ 'of the countries 'liquid assets' do not even all agree with each other!!)...
...They (the Billionaire 2%'rs) already have enough money to overwhelm the amount of money that 'we' have for donating to candidates and political parties the rest of us do. To add insult to injury, they would still have plenty to be in financial 'comfort' several times over!... ...whereas we, in order to compete, many of us who are not already in 'poverty', would all too likely become poverty-stricken in doing so, and most likely risk homelessness if we spend even 1/2 of our combined 'liquid assets' for what would be just another 'election' to those 10%'rs who are so financially well-off.
Throwing money at this problem; like the democrat party and such flooding my email box with 'small' donation requests, etc. does, is not going to fix it, no, it will just make us weaker in the politic-sphere in more ways than one...
...However some of that money 'we' would otherwise 'donate' to a 'candidate' can instead be used to; 1- make as many people as possible aware of the possibility that their voter registration may have been purged and, so, therefore, if, and/or when they go to the polls to cast their vote, they have a real chance they would be denied their vote!.. ...at no fault of their own; (very likely in some states and locations; so spend $$ and energy in those places first), ... ...Hence there must be mass voter registration and re-registering drives in most, if not all states.
2- The 'voter ID laws make it so many American citizens have a hard time even registering to vote because of the poor record-keeping that was done (or not) in some locations. There needs to be money available to help people to get the needed records and ID so they can register to vote and be certain that they will not be turned away at the polls, so their vote will be counted.
This next one (3) is a stretch but at least the other two are actually doable.
3- Have all States statewide be required to have in all districts paper ballots that can be counted manually if and/or when the vote counting machines are compromised.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Hotspring 44:
I have a few thoughts to express and a couple of ideas for a strategy to get the voter turnout to increase ...
Those are fine thoughts, Hotspring, but what I want to know is what are you (all who are reading this) doing to take political action yourself?? Or what ideas do you have of how we, locally/personally, can take effective action???
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Clearly, Dwight, you are unacquainted with how a democracy works. Peaceful demonstrations, civil disobedience, etc. are all a part of it and do not cease just because an election is over.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Dwight:
Get over it. If you feel our President is so bad let him fail. But he won't and these actions are counterproductive.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
The thread's 'question”:
“How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?”
is a generalized question which was not limited to how someone, locally, here in N Cal. Can:
take "effective action"... ...Then, later, you did post the question: “What action are you (meaning everybody reading this) , taking or going to take to help change the country's direction??”...
...Then you asked another question in a reply:
Quote:
Those are fine thoughts, Hotspring, but what I want to know is what are you (all who are reading this) doing to take political action yourself?? Or what ideas do you have of how we, locally/personally, can take effective action??? to what I said
:dunno:I am not sure I can come up with an answer to that one as in combination with the thread's initial, titled question.
I am not sure there is going to be an 'effective action' that could be done with the limitation of “locally/personally”... ...I think I do get the gist of what you are asking here.
:waccosun:What I am considering doing “locally/personally” is asking around to people I think are so motivated to actually act on it themselves, and trying to get them to do what I am considering and (consider) asking/suggesting/urging Jared Huffman and other members of congress etc., who represent their districts to make mention of what I said about educating people in States where the 'crosscheck' voter 'purges' occur, and to somehow create many voter registration and voter re-registration drives as I mentioned all across the country using some of the 'donated' funds' that do come in:vote:...
... There are other entities that flood my email box, asking for donations, most of which have a 'good cause' worthy of energy input ($$ too)... ...(maybe there already are too many 'entities' emailing for money to be 'effective' enough {?}).
...My 'hope' for effectual change and "stopping Trump" is that at least maybe by the 2018 election cycle, if enough people actually vote, the congress may be more representative of most peoples instead of the ones who are actually being 'represented' now; (hint; [corrupt] BIG BUSINESS 'INSIDERS' etc.).
As far as immediately 'stopping' Trump, (?); That is not likely with the congress's majority being so heavily republican as it is now... ...I, for one, won't be getting my hopes up for that any time soon.
How many of us here (“locally/personally”) sign online petitions?... ...I am guessing quite a bunch... ..Is that not “locally/personally” taking at least some kind of 'action”?... ...Who is to say, definitively if all, some, one, or none of those petitions will be 'effective'?:hmmm:
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
I'm involved in OFA - Organizing for Action - they are particularly focussed on actions to call known Dems in Red states to encourage them to call their reps, attend specific town halls etc. specifically related right now to Obamacare.
This has been very effective. I can forward you their last weekly newsletter with a report on recent actions, and current actions you can do.
Essentially, there are phone banks where people get together to call, and instructions for calling using your computer that you can do at home. This seems very concrete to me.
See their local events here.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Mark Goldes:
Nader? Really? Why should I listen to the pious platitudes of the dude who gave us Bush and Cheney (vote for Bush, you get Dick!), and by extension the Iraq War, the Great Recession, and probably Trump.
For this generation the question is what would the world be like if Gore had won? For my generation the question was what would the world look like if Bobby Kennedy had beaten Nixon. Same situation different time. Sirhan and Nader made history do a pivot. What if, indeed. Don't talk to me about Nader.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
In the vituperative days following the election I was most jarred by the demonization of one side against the other (and to a lesser degree but still true, in my opinion), vice versa. Wondering how to take action, I did about the only thing I'm even a tiny bit good at--proposed a group conversation. The idea was that liberals and conservatives would meet and re-humanize ourselves and others. We met at the Sonoma library, around 36 of us, for a pretty structured conversation--it was a heartening time of connection, story-telling and good listening. The only missing piece was--conservatives. There was one brave soul representing the Right. We'll do this again in late March, and are really pulling for people who want to come and be seen, heard and understood--and who support Trump.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Those are fine thoughts, Hotspring, but what I want to know is what are you (all who are reading this) doing to take political action yourself?? Or what ideas do you have of how we, locally/personally, can take effective action???
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Re:
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by jbox:
Nader? Really? Why should I listen to the pious platitudes of the dude who gave us Bush and Cheney (vote for Bush, you get Dick!), and by extension the Iraq War, the Great Recession, and probably Trump.
I am not buying that one.
“According to exit polling, those who voted for Nader were disproportionately under 30, independent, first time voters, formerly Perot voters, and of no organized religion. In other words, many of his voters did not naturally belong to the Democratic party. In fact, half as many Republicans as Democrats voted for Nader. Six percent of independents and 7% of Perot voters supported Nader while only 2% of Democrats did.” Quoted from: https://prorev.com/green2000.htm
Further a study done by Michael C. Herron Jeffrey B. Lewis dated April 24, 2006 in part says:
“While it is often presumed that Nader spoiled the 2000 election for Gore by siphoning away votes that would have been cast for him in the absence of a Nader candidacy, we show that this presumption is rather misleading.
While Nader voters in 2000 were somewhat pro-Democrat and Buchanan voters correspondingly pro-Republican, both types of voters were surprisingly close to being partisan centrists.
Indeed, we show that at least 40% of Nader voters in the key state of Florida would have voted for Bush, as opposed to Gore, had they turned out in a Nader-less election.
The other 60% did indeed spoil the 2000 presidential election for Gore but only because of highly idiosyncratic circumstances, namely, Florida’s extreme
closeness.
Our results are based on studying over 46 million vote choices cast on approximately
three million ballots from across Florida in 2000. More generally, the results demonstrate how ballot studies are capable of illuminating aspects of third party presidential voters that are otherwise beyond scrutiny.”...
“...Nader and Buchanan voters were not strong Democratic or Republican partisans, respectively.
Only approximately 60%of Nader voters would have supported
Al Gore in a Nader-less election.
This percentage is much closer to 50% than it is to 100%. One might have conjectured, that is, that Nader voters were solid Democrats who in 2000 supported a candidate politically left of the actual Democratic candidate.
This conjecture, we have shown, is wrong: Nader voters, what participating in non-presidential contests that were part of the 2000 general election, often voted for Republican candidates.
Correspondingly, Buchanan voters voted for down-ballot Democratic candidates. Thus, the notion that a left-leaning (right-leaning) third party presidential candidate by necessity steals votes from Democratic (Republican) candidates does not hold.”
So, jbox and others, believe what you will, but scapegoating the candidacy of Ralph Nader in 2000 is:
1- myth perpetuated by the establishment wing of the democrat party, is based on incorrectly processed, so-called 'data' which is founded in large part on bias in the first place, 2- in the context of this thread, is, strategically speaking, ineffectual at best, and can at times be divisive.
Re:
Quote:
For this generation the question is what would the world be like if Gore had won? For my generation the question was what would the world look like if Bobby Kennedy had beaten Nixon. Same situation different time. Sirhan and Nader made history do a pivot. What if, indeed. Don't talk to me about Nader.
Not talking to you about Nader seems to me to be irrelevant and not at all an 'effective action' to "stop Trump".
What ifs are non-starters (as being) 'effective' actions, IMHO'; they are imaginary and in another context may be necessary, but, 'effective action' (?)... ...Not...
...I could just as easily ask (or state) "Don't talk to me about" Nader's candidacy being responsible for Al Gore's loss of the election in 2000; but, either way, what effectiveness towards the stated goal the question that the title this thread poses, would, could, or does it have?:hmmm:... ...:hmmm:
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
I have been using the app "5 Calls" that was mentioned in a Michael Moore article that someone on this site posted. It's great. You select the issue you are interested in, and it provides information about it. Then you click on your representative and it gives you talking points and just click on the phone number to call the reps.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Barry:
Those are fine thoughts, Hotspring, but what I want to know is what are you (all who are reading this) doing to take political action yourself?? Or what ideas do you have of how we, locally/personally, can take effective action???
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quite right, Hotspring. And besides, Gore won the popular vote and still lost the election(s). The problem lies within the system.
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Hotspring 44:
I am not buying that one....
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by smonday:
I'm involved in OFA -
Organizing for Action - they are particularly focussed on actions to call known Dems in
Red states to encourage them to call
their reps, attend specific town halls etc. specifically related right now to Obamacare....
See their local events here.
Here is OFA's basic strategy
(OFA was previously Organizing for America, a community organizing project of the DNC particularly around health care reform. It played a role in the midterm elections of 2010, later becoming the grassroots arm of Obama for America)
Since we are a blue district we are supporting purple and red states where a Senator is up for re-election in 2018 or Congressional districts in a purple or red area. The criteria for making these selections is:
- Republican Member of the House narrowly won re-election in 2016 or Republican Senator up for re-election in 2018
- A large number of constituents in their district benefit from the Affordable Care Act
- Hillary Clinton won the district/state in 2016
On the Senate side, we have identified 5 vulnerable Senators
1. Susan Collins - Maine
2. Jeff Flake - AZ
3. Dean Heller - NV
4. Bob Corker / Lamar Alexander - TN
5. Lisa Mulkowski - AK
We call into these states and ask folks to call their MOC local offices, share their ACA story, and attend events.
This week we had a phone bank in Petaluma calling into Nevada using paper lists
We also have a Virtual Phone Bank system you can use to call into AZ and Tennessee 7 days a week
On the House side
We are calling into 9 districts in CA where there are vulnerable Republicans. Map showing CA Republican districts we will be working to mobilize voters. https://infograph.venngage.com/p/214397/aca-stories-priority-districts
We will work in any of these districts, however we have been concentrating on Darrell Issa's area. We made 1500 calls into Darrell Issa's district over the past few weeks. His town hall drew 2300 and was covered on the Rachel Maddow show.
We can use paper lists or a virtual phone bank system to work with voters in a R district in CA .
Time is of the essence - if you are going to help us do it quickly.
Here is our latest update:
From colleagues who were meeting with reliable sources on the Hill late today:
There will be a bill released on Monday that will then go to markup in both Ways and Means and E&C on Wednesday/Thursday. It will more or less be what we saw in the earlier draft, with a few modifications for the worse. It will not be scored and there will probably not be amendments.
Presuming passage, it will go to the Budget Committee the following week and then to Rules on 3/20 or earlier--with the goal to have it to the Floor of the House on 3/23, which is the 7th anniversary of the passage of the ACA.
McConnell has committed to put the bill on the floor immediately, with no changes, following a Bryd bath, meaning it will be voted on before the Easter recess (4/7).
This is far more accelerated timeline than any of us were thinking, and we were assuming we would have process in the Senate (meaning it would go through Senate Committees however that is not the plan). We need to get as much done in the next 2 1/2 weeks as possible.
If you wish to volunteer with OFA, simply send an email to [email protected]
(707 843 6110 ) and Linda Hemenway, the Sonoma County Chapter Lead, will put you on the mailing list. You will then receive our weekly newsletter with current actions and you can attend a phone bank, offer to host one, or begin virtual calling.
When you send an email we will offer and recommend that you meet with our volunteer coordinator one to one or in a small group to get you oriented. It really helps to get a richer picture of what’s being done, and of the ways your particular skills can fit in. We try to match up everyone’s skills with needed jobs. Not required, but very helpful.
Re: How to take EFFECTIVE ACTION to stop Trump?
The latest development in the campaign to Impeach Donald Trump. In a unanimous vote, the City Council of Richmond, California, approved our resolution to become the first city to call on Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump.
Last night, two more communities just approved our resolution. The citizens of Alameda, California brought our resolution before their city council, which unanimously supported it. And in Charlotte, Vermont, Town Meeting members voted for our resolution. The momentum is growing, and we are counting on people like you to jumpstart this movement at the local level.
After we announced Richmond’s win, many of you emailed us asking for ways to bring this resolution to your city and state. To get you started, we added a new page to our website with resources and materials to pass a model resolution in your community.
Here’s a quick overview of what we posted to download and share:
We also shared materials provided by our allies working in Alameda, California. As this campaign continues to grow, we will add new tools for you to use in your own organizing. We are frequently updating our “News & Updates” section and our “Resources” page, so be sure to check back in. Please reach out to us with your progress and any questions you may have.
Here are some suggestions for next-steps you can take on your own:
- Look up your representative, decide if it makes the most sense to reach out to your state or local officials. Remember, it’s ok to start small.
- Don’t be shy! Connect in person with your friends, neighbors, co-workers, students, religious leaders, family members. Find a meeting place, and start talking.
- Follow-Up! Find a way to keep in touch with everyone. Gather email addresses and phone numbers. Create an online group with tools like Facebook, Slack.com, Patch.com, Google Groups, and Yahoo Groups.
- Keep us in the know! Email us your questions and updates via: [email protected]
You are so critical to this campaign! If we work together, we can build further pressure on our Representatives to introduce this resolution before Congress.
We’re on our way! Let’s keep it up!
All of us at Impeach Donald Trump Now.
