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Indivisibles,
We started last week with twin goals: move congressional Democrats into unified opposition and fracture the GOP coalition of extremists and enablers. We have not achieved our goals yet, but we made some damn good progress. I’m gonna start with the bad news because I want to end with the good news.
While Senate Dems made good use of their time and everyone voted against Russell Vought, not a single Republican joined them. We launched our “Payback Project” accountability campaign for these complicit Republicans who are up for reelection next year. But frankly, that’s cold comfort -- the architect of Project 2025 now oversees the powerful Office of Management and Budget. He will wreak havoc.
On the House side, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to withhold Democratic votes in the coming budget fight in March. We need Democrats unified and fighting back, not divided and signaling surrender. Based on my intel from the inside, this CNN article accurately reflects the level of strategic disunity among congressional Democrats on how to use their leverage.
And amidst this all, President Musk and Kennedy Center Chairman Trump have not slowed down their unconstitutional attacks. They’ve gutted USAID, shuttered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and are rattling their sabers at the Department of Education, Department of Labor, and the Social Security Administration. None of this is constitutional, and yet they’re essentially saying, “So what? Who’s gonna stop us?”
That’s where we come in. So let me transition here to the good news.
- Last Sunday, more than 50,000 people joined the Zoom we co-hosted where we called for nationwide events at Senate offices.
- By the end of the week, we’d tracked nearly 300 events (!!) all over the country, covering every state other than Mississippi.
- We orchestrated a protest in front of the Treasury Building in DC where Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, and fellow House members tried to enter the building to conduct oversight. While 31 senators and House members spoke promising to fight, we sent a clear message with chants of “SHUT DOWN THE SENATE” and “DENY UNANIMOUS CONSENT.”
- On Thursday, senators started using all their time to slow down the Vought confirmation as much as they could.
- We are melting phone lines -- with even GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski admitting call volume to Congress is 40 times what they normally get.
All of this added up to a frankly ridiculous amount of press coverage. Journalists are knocking down our door trying to capture the full breadth of this organic public outrage. We pulled together everything we could find in this Google Doc -- if you need a pick-me-up peruse that for a few minutes.
This is, as they say, what democracy looks like.
I know it’s tempting to give into cynicism or despair right now. So let me tell you what keeps me going. We are in daily communication with Members of Congress and senior staff who want to see a unified opposition as well. They are fighting on the inside to build that opposition. And what they tell me is this: It’s the pressure we all are applying on the outside that is giving them a foothold on the inside. All those press hits above? Members of Congress are reading those too. This is the reason we see Senate Democrats start to use their power to slow the Senate to crawl; and the reason we see signs of opposition building on the House side.
We do not yet have a unified opposition party, but we are building one. The work we are doing is shifting the public positions of individual representatives and senators, and it is directly impacting strategy conversations happening behind closed doors. Our approach of praising good behavior when we see it, and criticizing bad behavior is working. We’re not done yet, but it’s working.
And with that, here come your weekly to-dos.
- Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible
Your weekly to-dos
- Tell your Members of Congress to take a stand against the Trump-Musk coup. Musk and Trump are usurping the legislative branch’s power by freezing funds allocated by Congress and attempting to shutter agencies that can only be terminated by legislation. All congresspeople -- regardless of party -- should be up and arms and fighting back. Our resource page has call scripts and email tools you can use to demand action from your elected officials.
- Tell your Republican senators to reject the nominations of RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel. If you’ve already completed our first to-do, you know that we are telling Dems to vote no on ALL Trump nominees until this constitutional crisis is over. But Democrats are in the Senate minority, so to stop Trump’s most heinous nominees, we need a few Republicans to vote NO too. Visit our Nix the Noms page for email tools and call scripts.
- Join our weekly discussion Zoom with Indivisible co-founders Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg (Thursday, 3pm ET/12pm PT). On the day of the inauguration, we sent an email with a paraphrased quote from one of our favorite shows on rebellion, Andor: “The pace of oppression outstrips our ability to understand it and that is the real trick of the imperial thought machine.” Applicable, right? When horrendous news comes at us as fast as it has the last few weeks, the only way to process it and stay grounded is to come together, in community, and discuss what’s happening. And, more importantly, to discuss how we fight back.
P.S. -- With social media companies bending the knee to Trump, Project 2025 purging the government of dissenters, and corporate media companies caving in the face of speech-chilling lawsuits, it’s never been more important to invest in organizations you believe in that are willing to speak out and defy autocracy. Please consider chipping in with a monthly or one-time donation to help us keep up the fight.
Nix the Noms:
Update on Key Confirmation Battles
This week, we could potentially see full Senate votes on two of Trump’s most dangerous and unqualified nominees. Here’s what we know:
- Tulsi Gabbard, a Putin apologist with no real intelligence experience, a person who was denied sensitive information while in Congress because colleagues feared she’d leak it to her pal and deposed war criminal Bashar al-Assad, has passed all committee hurdles. Tonight (potentially before you read this), the Senate will vote to end debate and a confirmation vote could come tomorrow or Wednesday.
Two Republicans originally considered possible no votes -- Senators Collins (ME) and Young (IN) -- have released statements saying they will support her. If they are your senators, this is a good time to call and tell them what you think of that decision.
Senators McConnell (KY) and Curtis (UT) are still potential ‘no’ votes. If they are your senators, you know what to do.
- RFK Jr., a man who buys into some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories imaginable, backs a national abortion ban, faces sexual assault allegations, and whose healthcare experience includes (or is limited to) exacerbating a deadly measles outbreak with his vaccine denialism, got the support of every Republican on the Senate Finance Committee last week. Then the Senate voted 52-47 to end debate on his nomination. The final step, a vote to confirm him as Health and Human Services Secretary, has not been scheduled. If you have a Republican senator, they should hear from you.
- Kash Patel, a MAGA-true believer who has salivated about prosecuting members of the media and helped produce a rendition of the "Star-Spangled Banner" sung by violent January 6th inmates (pre-pardon), is awaiting a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee convened to vote on his nomination last week, but Democrats took advantage of Senate procedure to delay his nomination -- exactly what we’ve been encouraging them to do! Now it appears the committee will vote this Thursday, with a full Senate vote TBD.
Scripts and email tools to oppose these nominees can be found here.
How to make sure you continue receiving (and seeing) our emails
People frequently ask about the banner at the top of many of our emails (including this one) requesting that you click a link. Here’s the deal:
Your email provider (Google/Outlook/Comcast/Yahoo etc) wants to protect you from spammy emails you don’t want, which is nice. But sometimes they are overzealous. If they see that you are getting emails you don’t open or click on, they will start shifting those out of your inbox without even asking you!
That means we have to regularly unsubscribe folks who aren’t engaging with our emails to keep your email provider happy. We can’t usually see if you are opening emails or not, but we CAN see who is clicking and who is not. In short: A click lets us AND your email provider know “this person wants to keep seeing these emails.” BTW, you don’t have to click every email, but it helps!
Some other tips:
- Replying to emails also helps us continue to reach you.
- If you use Gmail and your inbox is split into promotions/update/main tabs, you can click on our email and drag it into your main folder. Gmail will ask if you want to do that for all emails from us. If you want to make sure you see our emails, click Yes!
- Some email providers allow you to add us to your contacts. That’s a great way to make sure we can reach you (Not sure how? YouTube has some helpful videos).
Help combat disinformation with the Truth Brigade
With social media companies dispensing with fact-checking and some platform owners intentionally amplifying disinformation, we all have to step up to identify and combat propaganda and divisive lies.
Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30pm ET/3:30pm PT as we kick off a new year of critical work for the Truth Brigade, Indivisible Civics’ grassroots-powered network of activists dedicated to disrupting disinformation. Whether you’re new to the work or a disinfo-fighting expert looking to channel your passion, all are welcome.
IndivisiWin of the Week
Indivisibles in Wasilla, Alaska braved 12 degree temperatures to demand action from Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan against the Trump-Musk coup.
Follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a month. 
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