Hi all! Welcome to the December edition of the monthly newsletter from us
two, Ezra and Leah. November has been a wild month. Impeachment, book
tour, presidential candidate interviews - oh my. So let’s talk about it!
These newsletters are all about giving you a sense of what’s on our minds,
and giving us a chance to ask you some questions. As always, feel free to
reach out to us directly on Twitter: [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin and [ [link removed] ]@leahgreenb.

What we’re reading

One of the statistics that we just can’t get out of our minds was
[ [link removed] ]highlighted by political scientist Norm Ornstein last year. According
to Census demographic trends, in the next couple decades, half of
America’s population will live in just eight states. The half that is
whiter, older, more rural, and more conservative, will be spread across
the other 42 states. That’s 84 senators for them, and 16 senators for the
other half of America. In other words, without some sort of significant
reforms, the Senate is falling into permanent conservative control, and by
connection, so are the courts.

The reason we’re raising this now is because New York Times columnist
Jamelle Bouie had a great piece in November that hits on this very issue:
“[ [link removed] ]The Presidency is not enough.” He makes three major points: first,
progressives are facing an immediate crisis. Popular progressive
legislation stalls because an increasingly small conservative portion of
country wields outsized political power. Second, the next president won’t
be able to change that on their own. To actually enact any sort of agenda,
we need to take the House and Senate next year too. (For a good breakdown
of the Senate map, see Rolling Stones’ Tim Dickinson’s recent piece
[ [link removed] ]here). And third, the only long-term solution to this crisis is a
wide-ranging democracy agenda.

Obviously we loved this, because we discuss all of these points in the
Indivisible book, [ [link removed] ]We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After
Trump. In the last few weeks, we’ve been travelling all over on country
for our book tour: to D.C., New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle,
Dallas, and Boston. The basic message is simple: a healthy democracy would
have rejected Trump the same way a healthy body rejects a virus. That
didn’t happen. So, yes, we’ve got to build power to defeat Trump - but we
have to do more than that. We have to build a democracy that won’t allow
Trump-like imitators to win again. That means D.C. statehood, unpacking
the courts, tackling voter suppression, expanding voting rights and
revitalizing local and independent media. It means, as Bouie writes, a
real democracy agenda. 

So read Bouie’s piece, and read our book - and let us know what you
think! 

Presidential candidates want to talk to you

In the space of just three years, Indivisible has gone from an idea at a
kitchen table to a national political movement. You can tell how seriously
political players take this movement, because just this past month,
leading presidential candidates have been taking the time to sit down and
talk with Indivisible about their visions for a post-Trump America (you
can read a bit about it [ [link removed] ]here in the Washington Post).

How incredible is this!? It is such a real, visible testament to the power
Indivisibles have built. These candidates are not engaging with the
movement to be nice. They don’t have time for that. They are engaging with
Indivisible because they want Indivisible member support -  they’re
engaging with us because they need us.

Here’s how we invite candidates to sit down with us:

 1. Indivisible pledge. First, we encouraged ALL candidates to sign the
[ [link removed] ]Indivisible pledge, agreeing to engage in a constructive primary
and rally around whoever wins. All but two of the major candidates -
Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang - have signed the pledge. (And now that
Michael Bloomberg and Deval Patrick have hopped in the race, we’ll be
reaching out to ask them to sign - and you should too!)

 1. Questionnaire. Everyone who signed the pledge, and either made the
October debate or had at some point been rated positively by our
movement, got a lengthy questionnaire developed in consultation with
Indivisible group leaders and our national partners. Vice President
Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar declined to submit their
questionnaires, but all the other candidates did.

 1. Interviews. Everyone who completed a questionnaire was invited for a
live interview to go deeper on their plans for a post-Trump America.
Five of the candidates joined us for a live interview - Cory Booker,
Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, and Julián Castro.
Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders couldn’t get the timing to work with
their schedules. 

So what did we ask these candidates about when we got them in a room with
us? Democracy of course. We asked them about the courts, corruption, fake
news, appointments, immigration, and more. And Indivisibles submitted and
voted on questions about the candidates’ plans for building a winning
coalition, and their plans for making political appointments. [ [link removed] ]Take some
time to watch the interviews here:

* [ [link removed] ]Interview with Senator Cory Booker
* [ [link removed] ]Interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren
* [ [link removed] ]Interview with Tom Steyer
* [ [link removed] ]Interview with Mayor Pete Buttigieg
* [ [link removed] ]Interview with Secretary Julián Castro

We have two big takeaways from this whole process: first, we have several
strong candidates in this race! Any one of them could defeat Donald Trump
- and we’re going to make sure that one them does. Second, there are
significant differences between these candidates! Just as you would
expect, their plans on issues like reforming our democracy and rooting out
corruption vary significantly. This is a good thing - primaries are about
providing people choices, and these candidates offer different choices.

This entire months-long process will all lead to release of a candidate
scorecard next month. The whole goal with this process is to expose the
candidates to the Indivisible movement and the movement to the candidates.
We hope it’s been educational for you - it’s been amazing to be part of it
for us. 

Share your end-of-year thoughts with us

As you know, we like these newsletters to be a two-way street - we share
what we’re thinking, and we like to hear what’s on your mind too.

Now, we know it’s a dark time in our country. So what may be on top of
mind for you right now might not be the brightest and sunniest thoughts.
We get it - we really do. But as Secretary Castro said in our interview
last week, “There is life after Trump.” That life almost feels within
reach now. And so rather than focus on the darkness, we want to focus on
that light for a minute. 

So we have two questions for you this month: 

 1. What’s your proudest Indivisible accomplishment in 2019?
 2. What are your biggest hopes for Indivisible in 2020?

[ [link removed] ]Please send us your thoughts here.

To get your juices flowing, we’ll go first.

Our proudest moment this year was seeing the House move forward with
impeachment proceedings. None of this would have happened without winning
the House last year, and it also wouldn’t have happened if activists
across the country hadn’t spent the next nine months putting pressure on
House Democrats to use their power. It’s an incredible accomplishment that
we hope everyone in this movement is proud of. 

As we look forward to next year, our biggest hopes are simple: we want to
grow the House majority, take the Senate, make Trump and one-term
president, and prepare to hit the ground running with big democracy reform
in 2021. 

Until next time (in 2020)

This is the last of our newsletters until 2020. We hope you get some good
rest in the coming weeks. We all need to be charged up to be ready for
next year. And as much uncertainty as there is, we can’t help but feel
excited. We’ve spent the last month traveling the country meeting with
Indivisible groups, and talking to presidential candidates on behalf of
Indivisible groups. This movement is incredible, and its impact is
incredible, and there’s a lot more good to come from it in 2020. 

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

PS: Here’s a picture of our new dog Dolly. Our past pup Lola passed away
right after the 2018 election. We started fostering dogs again after we
finished writing We Are Indivisible. And we ended up keeping Dolly (who
got her name because Dolly Parton happened to be on a magazine cover the
month we got her). Dolly is part Dachshund and part Pug, which is known as
a “Daug.” Please send us your pet pics on Twitter! We’re [ [link removed] ]@ezralevin &
[ [link removed] ]@leahgreenb.

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