Indivisibles, 

It’s what you’ve been waiting for: our October newsletter. As a reminder,
we don’t ask you for money in these newsletters and we try not to tell you
stuff you’ve already heard from the Indivisible team in other venues. Our
goal of these emails is for us to get a chance to share with you what we
-- Leah and Ezra -- are thinking about, and to get some direct feedback
from you. We try to keep it real and start a conversation with fellow
Indivisibles. Of course feel free to ping us on Twitter if you want to
chat directly -- [ [link removed] ]@leahgreenb and [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin. 

How to not depress yourself or friends and family in this moment

Let’s just be clear: according to basically all the available evidence,
voters massively prefer Joe Biden to Donald Trump. Current forecasts have
Biden not just earning the necessary 270 electoral votes -- but more than
300. And this isn’t just “if the election were held today.” The election
is underway today -- more than 2 million Americans have already voted
early this year. And the clock is counting down fast. Donald Trump is
running out of time to turn this around.

So why do we feel incredibly freaked out about our chances for 2020? Well,
first, because none of us are ever going to totally get over 2016. If the
polls say we’re 10 points up, we’ll work our butts off like we’re 10
points down. But it’s not just potential polling errors causing our unease
this year. Evidence has been mounting for a long time that Trump isn’t
trying to win the election so much as he’s trying to cheat his way to
power. 

If you’re like us, you woke up the day after the first debate feeling
terrible. Spending 90 minutes watching Trump is bad under any
circumstances, but this debate was different from any we’ve seen before.
Trump all but endorsed white supremacist militias. And in his answers on
the Supreme Court and on election protection, he made clear that he will
mobilize his supporters, claim fraud, and try to challenge the results of
the election. 

That’s really disorienting! It probably makes you feel sick, scared, and
maybe like what you’re doing right now -- voting, calling and texting
voters, working for a campaign -- won’t really matter. And THAT is exactly
what Donald Trump WANTS YOU TO FEEL. He’s given up on trying to win people
over, and now he’s just trying to convince them that they’re powerless. He
doesn’t have to try to steal the election if he can convince enough people
that their votes don’t matter.

And while that may be what Trump wants, there’s no reason we should do his
work for him. That’s why it’s really important that we -- all of us --
approach this topic carefully. We need to recognize the real, scary, and
terrible things that are happening, from putting voter suppression into
hyper-drive to attacking the post office to essentially enlisting
right-wing militias to action. We need to be prepared to respond -- that’s
why we launched Protect the Results ([ [link removed] ]which you should sign up for right
now). 

But it’s also important to be clear: they haven’t stolen the election --
they’re trying to steal the election. They’re doing this from a place of
weakness, not strength. We have the power to win and we are going to win.

We’re not coming up with this ourselves, mind you -- we’re turning to the
experts. Anat Shenker-Osorio, a progressive communications research
expert, has dug deep into the questions of what messages motivate people
and what messages make them feel disempowered and check out. We’re drawing
heavily on her guidance here. 

So what does that mean for you? 

First, in moments when your stomach drops, remember we’ve got the power.
We are currently on track to kick Donald Trump out of our house with
historic margins, to sweep Senate races in places that weren’t even on the
map a year ago, to flip statehouses and local offices all over the
country. We’re part of a multi-racial, multi-faith, cross-class movement
that believes in an America where we all belong, and when we all join
together and vote, we will win. 

Second, don’t do Trump’s work for him. You’ve got friends and family who
are grappling with the same fears, and some of them might be the kinds of
people who just don’t bother to vote if they don’t think it matters. Think
about what you post on social media, and how you talk about this with your
circle. Don’t reinforce Trump’s messages, don’t post on Facebook about how
Trump has stolen the election -- that just teaches the algorithms to boost
more alarmist content. 

If we want to avoid helping Trump suppress the vote and demobilize his
detractors, we have to be clear when we talk about this: Trump has not
succeeded in rigging the election, and he hasn’t stolen it. No, what he’s
is up to is he is trying to cheat. He’s doing this from a place of
weakness, not strength. And he won’t get away with it.

Say it with us: Biden is winning. Every objective piece of information we
have says that Biden isn’t just winning this election -- he’s blowing
Trump out of the water. We’re not looking at a nail- biter election --
we’re looking at an utter rebuke of an utter failure of an incumbent
president. 

Say it with us: Trump is a loser. He’s doing what losers who are on their
way to losing do: he’s trying to cheat. But this loser will never win --
we won’t let him. It is entirely in our power to stop him. And that’s what
we’re going to do. We’re going to do it by driving the largest turnout in
U.S. history, and if we need to, we’re going to do it by mobilizing after
the election to ensure every single vote is counted.

Say it with us: We can and will count every vote. We’ve held elections
before, through crises and pandemics and wars. As Vanita Gupta, head of
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights puts it in a [ [link removed] ]great
op-ed on this, “We don’t expect Trump to welcome a fair contest. Trump is
nothing if not a bully — and he could give a master class on sore losing.
But the choice of who wins this year’s election is not his to make. It’s
ours.” If we vote and if we demand that our votes count, we will win. 

This is how we’re talking about the current state of things, but for more
on frames and words to use and to avoid, check out Anat’s work [ [link removed] ]here,
and check out her podcast for a continuing conversation on the topic of
progressive messaging that works: [ [link removed] ]Words to Win By. 

Third, take action when you feel worried. Indivisible got started
immediately after Trump’s election to resist his authoritarianism and
support democracy. For nearly the past four years, the defining feature of
Indivisible has not just been that we take these positions, but that we
take action to achieve our goals. There is nothing that feels worse right
now than scrolling Twitter and Facebook, and there’s nothing that feels
better than calling some actual voters and knowing that you’re doing your
part to blow these scoundrels out of the water in November. So tell your
friends and family to get off social media and start making calls with us.
They can sign up here: [ [link removed] ]2020.indivisible.org.

Checking in on court reform

As if everything else weren’t enough, we are also in the fight for a
Supreme Court seat at the same time we are in a fight for the soul of our
democracy. RBG’s dying wish was that she not be replaced until after the
next President is chosen. But of course, this president (and Mitch
McConnell) couldn’t care less. Indivisibles have jumped into the fight to
save this seat, from hosting spontaneous vigils to honor RBG to showing up
to Senate offices last week to demand no confirmation until inauguration.
Ezra talked about it with [ [link removed] ]Rachel Maddow here and you can join up
[ [link removed] ]here.

But for this newsletter, we want to look a bit further ahead. If McConnell
and Trump succeed in filling RBG’s seat before the next inauguration, that
would be Trump’s third pick, including one pick that was only possible
because Republicans refused to confirm Merrick Garland under President
Obama. It would mean 16 of the last 20 Supreme Court Justices will have
been appointed by Republicans -- the party that’s won the Presidential
popular vote only once in the last 30 years.

So let’s say Biden is then sworn into the presidency on January 20th, and
we’ve also succeeded in winning a Democratic Senate and an expanded
Democratic House. [ [link removed] ]What are your thoughts on the various options of
reforming the court to unpack it, depoliticize it, and make it a less
ideologically rigged institution?

Specifically, under this scenario:

 1. How important do you think the Supreme Court will be during a Biden
presidency?
 2. Would you support term limits for Supreme Court justices?
 3. Would you support Biden expanding the court to restore ideological
balance?

We wrote a long section about court reform [ [link removed] ]in the Indivisible book,
but if you want a quick “Court Reform 101” check out [ [link removed] ]Ganesh Sitaraman,
current law professor and recent senior advisor to Senator Warren. He has
a short educational twitter thread on court reform [ [link removed] ]here.

[ [link removed] ]Please take some time to share your thoughts -- it helps us
tremendously to know where the movement stands on important issues like
this. We’ll read through the results before the next newsletter and will
let you know what we hear from you and fellow Indivisibles! 

Until next month

Over the next month, we’re expecting two things: first, the election
season is going to get a lot more chaotic, confusing, and at times scary.
We originally wrote these words hours before Trump and Melania were
diagnosed with COVID. We foresee one October surprise after another.

And the second thing is, we’re actually expecting, as in, Leah’s having a
baby this month. Thanks to all for the well wishes! We’re excited, we’ve
got the nursery all set up, we’re feeling good, and we’re getting ready
for baby’s first phone bank (as a reminder, join us here:
[ [link removed] ]2020.indivisible.org). 

We’ll touch base again before Election Day. Until then, stay strong and
stay committed to this wild project to save democracy with us.

In solidarity,
Ezra and Leah
Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Indivisible 

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