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The IRA is a BFD. Help us celebrate it across the country >> 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, 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, 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 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 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.
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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 (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.
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team
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