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Indivisibles,

Just last year, the Biden administration passed a monumental plan to
create a healthier, brighter future for us all: the Inflation Reduction
Act, or IRA. This historic legislation provides so many benefits,
including millions of new jobs, reliable renewable energy, and a tax break
for anyone who buys energy efficient appliances -- AND it puts in place
new ways to finally hold big corporations accountable by requiring them to
pay their fair share of taxes. The IRA provides tangible, real-life
benefits for folks across the country -- but too many Americans haven’t
heard about this powerful legislation, or have heard the disinformation
being spread by some Republicans in Congress who want to politicize it. 

That’s why Indivisible Civics launched our Powering Progress pilot program
in April to create a campaign that celebrates the IRA, pushes back on the
divide-and-conquer politics that are undermining its success, and shows
how an active and inclusive government can work for everyone. And after a
successful pilot period with Indivisible groups, we are ready to take
Powering Progress nationwide!

We have a LOT more to say in this email about the campaign, the work so
far, and our plans ahead, but if you’re ready to jump in, [ [link removed] ]please
register now to join us for our Powering Progress launch call on Zoom
Thursday, July 13 at 8pm Eastern Time/5pm Pacific Time. If you’re up for
all the details, including key information from our strategy brief, read
on!

The IRA is a BIG Deal

The Inflation Reduction Act sits at the intersection of so many priority
issues for our movement. Take a look at some of the celebration-worthy
benefits:

* Millions of good jobs in clean energy, including solar and wind
projects, battery factories (aka gigafactories), and electric vehicle
manufacturing plants
* Savings for everyday people due to lower prescription drug costs under
Medicare
* $400 billion to improve energy efficiency in buildings, homes, and
schools.  
* Caps the cost of insulin at $35 per month for people on Medicare and
holds drug companies accountable for price gouging
* Lowers insurance premiums by an average of $800 for people who buy
insurance on their own, thanks to an extension of the Affordable Care
Act subsidies
* Increased funding for the IRS to go after wealthy check tax cheats and
enforce the tax code

The IRA is so transformative that it has come under attack by some
politicians who want to roll back the critical advancements it provides.
One of the most successful, and therefore dangerous, strategies by the
right in recent years has been a set of racialized divide and conquer
appeals. Some politicians have told a false story about government
handouts for some in order to cover up a true agenda of seizing control of
our politics and our economy for the wealthy few. And it’s been
devastatingly effective.

We have a plan

We’re sharing below a section from “Powering Progress: Building support
for an active + inclusive government”, which is the strategy brief we
developed on the data and insight we're using to develop a winning plan
for this campaign (and if at any point during your reading you think to
yourself, this is my kind of campaign, [ [link removed] ]make sure to sign up for our
July 13 call!):

Our focus

In 2023, our hypothesis for how to build support for an active and
inclusive government is through celebrating the individual and
community-level investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, a
generational achievement that was signed into law last Congress. 

There are a few strategic reasons to focus on the Inflation Reduction
Act:

* Public awareness of the details of the Inflation Reduction Act
remains very low. If people don’t know what’s in the IRA, don’t know
how it benefits, them and/or don’t credit the right sources
(government rather than the private companies some of the
investments move through), we’ll lose out on a huge opportunity to
increase support for the legislation and for an active and inclusive
government more generally. 
* The IRA is vulnerable to being defined by its opponents, especially
by racialized divide-and-conquer messaging. We’ve seen extremists
win the messaging war on other significant pieces of legislation
that improved people’s lives, like the Affordable Care Act, and we
don’t want to let that happen again.

The good news is that many components of the bill are wildly popular
when the public learns about them. But overcoming that knowledge gap,
particularly in the time period between when investments are announced
and when they’re fully implemented and tangible in communities, is
extremely hard. With more projects breaking ground and being implemented
over the coming months, we're excited to see this dynamic shift.

Guided by data (see below!), we’re particularly focused on the Clean
Energy Plan (especially the billions of dollars improving our grid and
bringing jobs to communities) and lowering healthcare costs (especially
the caps on insulin under Medicare). 

Our Messaging

Strategic messaging is a core component of Powering Progress. The
campaign has three messaging pillars: 

Race-class messaging. Our messaging has a race-class orientation to
proactively counter bad faith attempts to seed racist narratives or
other divide-and-conquer frames about who benefits from government
action. We will draw from [ [link removed] ]WMTF/ASO’s guidance and ongoing
consultations to emphasize how the Clean Energy Plan benefits all of us,
no matter your race or place. One of the guiding ideas for this work is
to universalize threats and opportunities wherever we can, so that as
much as possible, we're asking folks to fight for themselves and other
people. This doesn't prevent us from acknowledging who is
disproportionately impacted, but our best chance of moving persuadable
people comes when we lead with a universalized frame. 

Data driven. We will follow robust polling from partner organizations
(like [ [link removed] ]Climate Power/LCV’s recent research) that help us assess what
components are most popular, and the most effective frames to use and
benefits to uplift. For example, that means talking about the energy
components of the IRA as the “Clean Energy Plan” and consistently
highlighting the health, affordability, and energy independence benefits
-- core concerns that consistently rise to the top when polling
persuadables. It also means emphasizing new jobs and an upgraded grid,
which are the most popular benefits of the Clean Energy Plan. 

Make it simple. Make it personal. We will follow communications best
practices, using simple language -- not technical or legalistic -- and
considering our audience. We’ll also make the benefits as tangible,
specific, and personal as possible --  emphasizing local wins folks can
see/feel, as well as individual stories of the value folks will receive,
specific jobs gained, energy bills decreased, etc. 

 

Here’s where you come in

So to recap: We have the vision, the data, and the messaging. Now we just
need the people power to make it all happen. 💪

August 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the IRA being signed into law,
so this is a unique opportunity to organize public celebrations across the
country as part of a national Powering Progress Week of Action. We learned
a lot from the experiments run by local groups during our pilot phase, and
we’re applying all of these lessons to shape our nationwide launch this
summer ([ [link removed] ]which we’ll discuss in more detail on our July 13 launch call).
This call is your chance to get creative and dig into the message
guidance, and we’re already lining up event-in-a-box resource packages
with everything you need for some of our most strategic event ideas:

👋 Tabling in high-traffic areas, with the goal of having as many real
back-and-forth conversations with persuadables as possible. Potential
options within this include: a table at local fairs with goodies like
solar-powered fans, a “make-your-own-event” by inviting food trucks and
flyering around them, and flyering at a senior center about health
benefits.

🎤 Host an event with your Member of Congress, with the goal of getting
local earned media to increase awareness about the local benefits.
Potential options include: a town hall, a walking tour of local businesses
investing in clean energy, or an action planned around an existing MOC
event (For example, arranging a presser or a rally in support of the event
outside the venue with a Happy Anniversary cake!)

We are so excited to launch Powering Progress, and we hope you’ll help
build this campaign with us and your fellow Indivisibles across the
network by joining our campaign kickoff on July 13. Invite friends,
family, and neighbors to register as well, and be a part of creating this
campaign with us to ensure a cleaner, healthier future for all.

[ [link removed] ]RSVP Now >>

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team 

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