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good news though: dog pic! 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: @ezralevin and @leahgreenb.
What we’re reading
One of the statistics that we just can’t get out of our minds was 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: “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 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, 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 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:
- Indivisible pledge. First, we encouraged ALL candidates to sign the 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!)
- 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.
- 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. Take some time to watch the interviews here:
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:
- What’s your proudest Indivisible accomplishment in 2019?
- What are your biggest hopes for Indivisible in 2020?
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 @ezralevin & @leahgreenb.
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