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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 -- @leahgreenb and @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 (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 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 here, and check out her podcast for a continuing conversation on the topic of progressive messaging that works: 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: 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 Rachel Maddow here and you can join up 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. 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:
- How important do you think the Supreme Court will be during a Biden presidency?
- Would you support term limits for Supreme Court justices?
- Would you support Biden expanding the court to restore ideological balance?
We wrote a long section about court reform in the Indivisible book, but if you want a quick “Court Reform 101” check out Ganesh Sitaraman, current law professor and recent senior advisor to Senator Warren. He has a short educational twitter thread on court reform here.
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: 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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