Interested in these emails?
Do us a favor and click on one of the links (any one will do). That’ll tell us you’d like to keep getting updates.

Indivisible,

I’m excited for this monthly newsletter and would love to hear your
thoughts - feel free to reach out directly on Twitter at [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin. If
you’d rather watch than read, check out this [ [link removed] ]short video I recorded
while walking the woods this morning summarizing more or less what I write
about below. As always, welcome any and all feedback. Let’s get to it!

Wrapping our arms around it

The sheer enormity of the challenges facing our democracy can be so
overwhelming that it produces inaction. I want us to work through that
though because inaction means ceding the field to those who keep busy -
and Trump's authoritarian movement is very busy right now.

So let’s acknowledge briefly what we all know: things are not fine. 

In short, the GOP is a fully anti-democracy party wielding its power to
weaken representation and democratic institutions at the local, state, and
federal level. Pro-democracy Democrats represent the vast majority of
Americans but lack the national political power necessary to overcome GOP
opposition. An immense rightwing propaganda operation continuously spews
toxic garbage into the body politic. And the media ecosystem is so
fractured and polarized that Americans can’t even agree on what reality
is. 

None of this is fine, and the Trump-aligned forces don’t seem to be
slowing down. There are countless longform pieces of reporting on this.
The most recent ones that come to mind for me are Martin Gellman’s piece,
[ [link removed] ]Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun, and Zach Beauchamp’s, [ [link removed] ]How Does
it End?, pondering the scary places where this Trump-fueled lurch toward
authoritarianism will ultimately wind up - dysfunction, constitutional
crises, and rightwing political violence.

It’s hard to wrap our arms around how not-fine all of this is. So what do
we do?

One foot in front of the other

Faced with all this, we have two options: we can become discouraged and
give up, or we can put one foot in front of the other. 

From the beginning of Indivisible, we’ve been
one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kinds of folks. The original Indivisible
Guide was titled “A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.”
Practical. We don’t put on rose-colored glasses, and we also don’t throw
our hands up in defeat. We look the problem square in the face, figure out
what we can actually do to move the ball down the field a few feet, and
get to work together making it happen.

Since Sinema and Manchin sided with McConnell and against our democracy
last month, I’ve talked to Indivisible leaders from all over the country
about the loss. From New Mexico to Minnesota to Mississippi to Colorado to
California I’ve heard the same thing: this sucks, and here’s what we’re
planning to do next. Practical.

This is all we can do. And what Indivisible National can do is to help
support this work and highlight some practical steps we all can take. So
in that spirit, here are three reasonable steps to fight for our democracy
during this time of growing authoritarianism: 

 1. Replace this bad Democrat with a pro-democracy Democrat. Sinema’s
primary isn’t until 2024 (Arizona Indivisibles are committed to
primarying her!), but that’s a ways off. The good news is we don’t
have to wait two years to start cleaning house. Representative Henry
Cuellar - “Trump’s favorite Democrat” who is also under investigation
by the FBI (more on that [ [link removed] ]here) - is facing a tough primary
challenge in less than three weeks. His challenger, Jessica Cisneros,
came within 3000 votes of beating him last time, and local
Indivisibles and Indivisible National have endorsed her this time.
Leah and I are going to canvass for her next weekend in San Antonio,
and if you want to pitch in with effort or money, [ [link removed] ]check out her
campaign here.
 2. Use your own network to fight right-wing disinformation. We’re not
going to be able to convince hardcore Trump supporters to question
their savior, but we can work to ensure that their propaganda doesn’t
spread further than their fringe groups. To that end, Indivisible runs
the Truth Brigade, which identifies sources of disinformation
circulating within the rightwing ecosystem and mobilizes Indivisible
volunteers to directly combat it using tested methods to spread truth
and defuse lies. The Truth Brigade holds regular meetings nationally
and can train up anybody interested in participating in spreading
truth to overcome lies. If interested, you can sign up to get trained
and start helping with this effort [ [link removed] ]here. 
 3. Build power in rural areas. I grew up in rural Texas and am well
acquainted with the feeling of being shut out from political power in
your own community. Fear not - you’ve got co-conspirators who can
scheme within Indivisible groups across the country. Indivisible’s
second annual rural summit is just around the corner on February 26th.
The “Winning Rural Hearts and Minds” summit will focus on messaging,
disinformation, and outreach to our rural friends and neighbors. It’s
a free all-day virtual event focused on community and training, and
the first 250 to register for the Summit will be mailed a sweet
surprise, so hop on this! [ [link removed] ]Registration and more info here.

This is not an exhaustive list! Over just the last couple weeks, I’ve
chatted with Indivisible leaders in red, blue, and purple states who are
planning voter contact programs to expand the House or Senate majority,
setting up a statewide Indivisible coordinating structure (28 states have
them!), running state or local advocacy campaigns to expand voting rights
or defend against voter suppression, launching voter registration
programs, and preparing to take over their local Democratic clubs. 

These activities are mutually reinforcing - they all grow our power and
strengthen the movement as we confront the forces that aim to undermine
our democracy. There is one single path here: informed, strategic, local
action. That path branches out in many wonderful ways, winding through all
of our communities. It’s up to us to stay on that path and put one foot in
front of the other. That we can do.

Oh would you look at that-  it’s almost Valentine's Day

With Valentine’s Day coming up tomorrow, I was thinking of that nugget of
wisdom from Cornel West: “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Our
work - the work of all of the Indivisible movement - is rooted in the
pursuit of justice; in a love for our neighbors, our communities, our
country, our democracy. That’s why Leah and I are spending this weekend
rallying for a dynamite progressive congressional candidate, Greg Casar
(more info on his [ [link removed] ]campaign here), and next weekend we’ll be canvassing
to replace the Trump-friendly Cuellar with the democracy-friendly
Cisneros. And as we walk to the rally and go door to door talking to
voters, we’ll be doing what Indivisibles throughout the country have been
doing for the last half decade: putting one foot in front of the other.

In solidarity,

Ezra

Co-Founder, Indivisible 

PS: Y’all know I can’t resist adding a picture of Zeke to these
newsletters. This increasingly-large guy is 16 months old and running
around town. His current obsession is recycling cans - lifting lids,
putting things in them, and taking things out.

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Facebook

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Twitter

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Instagram



You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time:
[link removed]