Indivisibles, 

Ezra and Leah here again with the August edition of our monthly
newsletter! Can you feel that? Yes, it’s August, but we’re not talking
about the heat. It’s hot and humid and terrible outside (at least where we
are in D.C.). But there’s this other feeling in the air. It’s hard to
pinpoint exactly what it is -- but it almost feels like...hope? November
is coming. It’s suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, shockingly close. Big
things are afoot, and we’re going to get into them here. As always, we
welcome your outreach to us directly on Twitter if you want to check in on
anything: [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin and [ [link removed] ]@leahgreenb. Let’s get to it.

What we’re reading

Trump has said a lot of dangerous, inane things since we last wrote, and
for the time being he’s still president, so we’ve paid attention. Two
weeks ago, he was asked if he would accept the results of the election,
and he responded “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say
no, and I didn’t last time either” ([ [link removed] ]source). Then this week, he
suggested we should delay the election entirely ([ [link removed] ]source), and then
doubled down the idea even after bipartisan pushback. Even the 40-year
Republican and co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society called
this “fascistic” and worthy of impeachment ([ [link removed] ]source). But when asked
about the comment by the press, he doubled down to say that the election
may very well need to be delayed ([ [link removed] ]source).

Was Trump just trying to distract from his most recent failures? The fact
that Federal troops withdrew in disgrace from Portland ([ [link removed] ]source)? The
fact that the U.S. hit 150,000 deaths from the pandemic that Trump has
criminally mismanaged ([ [link removed] ]source)? The catastrophic, historic,
record-shattering 32.9% drop in economic activity in the 2nd quarter of
this year ([ [link removed] ]source)?

Maybe that’s part of it -- Trump is indeed very talented at changing the
conversation when he doesn’t like where it’s headed.

But we think it’s more than that. This wasn’t just a day or two
narrative-shifting statements. Trump has been actively seeking to
undermine the results of the election for literally months. We took a look
back since Covid hit and his poll numbers plummeted, and saw how Trump has
relentlessly attacked vote by mail and cast doubt on the upcoming
elections:

 

 

This isn’t even close to an exhaustive list of Trump’s statements on the
issue since Covid -- it’s just a sample of some of his tweets. This effort
to cast doubt on the election is taking up quite a bit of what little
headspace Trump has. 

And these attacks are more than bluster -- they’ve had a real impact. More
than 2 months ago the Democrats in the House passed the Heroes Act to
fully fund, among other things, election security, vote by mail, and the
U.S. Postal Service. Then last week -- after doing diddly-squat for two
months -- the Senate Republicans proposed their own Covid response package
-- which includes nearly $700 million for new fighter jets, nearly $2
billion for a new FBI building new Trump’s hotel, and precisely $0 (nada,
nothing, zilch) for election security, vote by mail, and the U.S. Postal
Service ([ [link removed] ]source).

So it sure seems like there’s a concerted strategy by both Trump and the
Senate GOP to cast doubt upon the election, make it more difficult for
people to vote, and lay the groundwork to contest the results. That’s an
extreme thing to write -- a couple of adjectives short of what you might
call planning for a coup. But if this sounds too
tinfoil-hat-conspiracy-theory to you, we suggest you read or listen to
this NPR story from last week on the Transition Integrity Project
([ [link removed] ]source). The project is made up of academics, military leaders,
national security leaders, media, and former elected officials and
political figures from both parties -- and it’s been convening for months
to game out what a Trump-backed coup might look like. Needless to say,
there is no similar group planning for a potential Biden-backed coup
because it would never even occur to anyone to convene such a group.

One answer to these truly disquieting signals coming from Trump and the
Senate GOP is to prepare to protect the results of the election. And
indeed, Indivisible launched a large coalition called Protect the Results
to do precisely that -- prepare for a mass mobilization immediately after
the election in the event that Trump moves to contest the results
([ [link removed] ]more details on that campaign here).

But that is not the only tool in our toolbelt -- and in fact, our best
opportunity to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power after election day
takes place long before Election Day. The best defense is a great offense:
we have to absolutely crush Trump in the election. That means not just
winning the key battleground states by 50%+1 votes -- but in landslides.
It means not just getting 270 votes in the electoral college votes, but
300 or more. It means building up such an enormous tsunami of turnout that
the election is impossible for Trump to steal and the results are
impossible for him to contest.

This is our plan, and the work is happening right now. This week we
launched our Windivisible campaign (get it, to win?). In 2018, to build
the Blue Wave, we reached out to more than 10 million voters in key states
to get them to the polls. This year we’re doubling that to 20 million. And
by “we” -- we mean you, us, and all of our friends. This is a
volunteer-led effort. That’s how we reach these voters. That’s how we
build turnout. That’s how we win(divisible). 

And we’ve got good news: you can be part of this right now. Here’s an
invite for ya: this Saturday, August 8th, at 8pm EST, we’re holding our
first virtual Windivisible Bootcamp. Whether you’re a pro or you’ve never
texted, called, or mailed a letter to a voter, that’s OK! We’ve got you
covered, and we need you in this with us to do this work. [ [link removed] ]More details
and registration info here -- try to register soon-ish because space may
fill up for this one. The bootcamp is free of course -- just bring
yourself, your energy, maybe a friend or two, and your commitment to help
save our democracy.

OK, whew, that was a lot. Let’s talk real quick about last month’s
conversation starter.

D.C. statehood and our post-Trump democracy

Last week, Vice President Biden sent Indivisible a congrats video message
for our Windivisible campaign kickoff (how cool is that? [ [link removed] ]You can watch
the video here). He ended with this:

"I'm counting on you to join me in the fight for economic justice,
racial justice, environmental justice, immigration justice, and for a
sweeping expansion of democratic rights that finally elevate the people
of D.C. to equal place in our democracy."

Also last week, President Obama gave a eulogy for civil rights hero and
former Congressman John Lewis. And he ended with a call that sounded
somewhat similar ([ [link removed] ]source):

"Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we should keep marching
to make it even better...By guaranteeing that every American citizen has
equal representation in our government, including the American citizens
who live in Washington, D.C. and in Puerto Rico…And if all this takes
eliminating the filibuster — another Jim Crow relic — in order to secure
the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do."

We didn’t time it this way on purpose, but this happens to line right up
with last month’s newsletter. In that letter, we started a conversation
with you all about democracy reform and D.C. statehood. Specifically, we
asked you 3 simple questions:

 1. Should D.C. be a state?
 2. Would democracy reform legislation be incomplete without D.C.
statehood?
 3. Should D.C. statehood be a first-100-days priority for a President
Biden?

Short version: we’ll release full results on Monday, but y’all responded
with a resounding “yes” to all three questions, though at different
levels. We read through the hundreds upon hundreds of written responses
too to get a bit more texture on Indivisibles’ thinking here. 

Many, many of you raised the point that it’s not just D.C.! As Margaret
from HoCo Indivisible in Maryland wrote, “No taxation without
representation, and that includes Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.” The
taxation argument was popular -- dozens like Adina from Sante Fe
Indivisible included it in their messages. And it’s no accident that the
places that do not have representation, from D.C. to Puerto Rico to Guam,
are places where people of color make up the majority of the population.

Puerto Rico especially came up a lot in the responses. Ellen in
Indivisible Sacramento, Cynthia in Olympia, and many others made the point
that Congress should defer to Puerto Rico on the statehood question - if
they choose it, great, but it’s first up to Puerto Rico. 

These are all really important points -- and one key principle that we
hold in our own advocacy is that every territory of the United States
should have the right to determine its own future. The people of Puerto
Rico deserve self-determination, which could involve choosing to become a
state or choosing to become independent. It should be up to them -- and
Congress should respect their decision.

There were also a few who wrote that D.C. statehood was a priority, but
maybe only after Biden cleans up some of Trump’s messes -- e.g. from
Desert Progressives Indivisible in Arizona. And we got a couple proposals
to give D.C. to Maryland or Virginia or both instead of making it its own
state (and it’s important to be clear on that point that neither D.C., MD,
nor VA wants this to happen). 

All in all, Indivisibles seem to be pretty darn aligned on this issue
Biden, Obama, and each other on D.C. statehood. Now all we have to do is
elect Biden, flip the Senate, hold the house, and build the mandate for
this democracy agenda to become law. Easy peasy.

Our question for you this month

We loved reading through your responses on last month’s discussion topic!
For this month, we want to lean into that with something a little more
free form. Here’s the question: let’s say a family member, friend,
colleague, or someone socially distanced on the street tells you: “Hey,
I’m worried Trump or this GOP senator is going to win re-election and I
don’t know what to do about it.” What is your advice? What do you
recommend they do over the course of the next 93 days? 

For us of course one immediate thing we recommend is the Windivisible
Bootcamp next Saturday ([ [link removed] ]here!), but we want to get a sense of how
folks in the Indivisible movement are answering this question
themselves. [ [link removed] ]Tell us how you’re answering this question here, and we’ll
report back next month and share the good ideas.

That’s all for this month -- stay cool, stay focused, stay committed, and
stay Indivisible. 

In it to win it,
Ezra and Leah
Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Indivisible 

 

P.S. Tomorrow is the start of the 3rd trimester for Leah! All’s going
well, and the bump app says it’s now as big as an eggplant. Oddly it
always gives the size relative to some sort of fruit or vegetable. We
graduated from head of lettuce last week. Looking forward to cantaloupe.

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