Hey Indivisibles,

It’s monthly newsletter time! This one is a little different: I’m going to keep this short, give you a little context, and then ask for your help with ideas for a project we’re working on: a practical guide to winning the election by focusing public attention on MAGA extremism. If you want to skip to that draft guide without bothering with my newsletter, you can here. If you want to tell me your ideas directly, you can reach me on twitter: @ezralevin. And if you want to see a new picture of our 22-month-old Zeke, you’ve got to make it all the way to the bottom. Let’s get to it.

We’re winning the debate over strategic messaging

This is very good news. Since Sinema, Manchin, and McConnell joined forces in January to kill our democracy bill, I’ve been writing these newsletters focused on one thing: MAGA extremism -- extremism on abortion, on book burning, on bloody coups. During this time I’ve had one-on-one chats and focus groups with Indivisible leaders across the country, frustrated with two things:

1. The MAGA Republicans are power-hungry ghouls.
2. Most people aren’t aware or aren’t paying attention to that fact.

I, too, have been frustrated with these two things, which is why Indivisible has been trying to convince the non-MAGA political world to make MAGA extremism the focus of this election season. We covered it in our national convention earlier this month with such guest speakers as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Raphael Warnock, and we hosted a briefing on ads and messaging just this week.

The short version is this: If we make this election a choice between MAGA extremism and our normal, popular majority, we’ve got a fighting chance in November.

While this might seem incredibly obvious to you and me, this strategic assessment met real resistance from some in Democratic Party leadership earlier this year. Some wanted to try to ignore the dangerous white nationalists on the other side, or downplay the focus on Dobbs and the attacks on abortion rights. There was serious disagreement about what message the broad pro-freedom, anti-MAGA coalition ought to use as we head into November.

But here’s the great news! In the last couple weeks, we have new reporting that the broader Democratic Party is coming over to our side: Democrats try to unify around a simple midterm message: Republicans are 'extremists'. The blowout rejection of an anti-abortion referendum in Kansas this week highlights the electoral power of focusing on MAGA’s unpopular agenda. Even in “red” states and districts, if the election is a referendum on MAGA and the threat it poses to our freedoms, we win.

Say it again with me: if the election is a referendum on MAGA, we win.

So what’s our role in this work?

When thinking about how Indivisible can have an impact in this moment, I start by thinking about what makes Indivisible unique.

Indivisible is not a big money operation. We’re not gonna run tens of millions of dollars of ads. We’re not gonna do expensive weekly polling. We’re not gonna run star-studded concerts. I’m happy for the big money groups to do that if it helps defeat MAGA. But we’re not going to try to do what we’re not built to do.

Indivisible is a people-powered movement of locally-led groups. Our unique contribution to the election season is all of us -- it’s the power and legitimacy we’ve built together. There are active, engaged, powerful Indivisible groups in every state, in urban, suburban, exurban, and rural communities; in red, blue, and purple states and districts. We’ve used this power to push our electeds to be better and get out the vote to protect or defeat our electeds. But that’s not all we can do.

We can shape local and national news coverage. We can drive public attention. We can push to make MAGA extremism front and center every single day from now until November 8.

This isn’t me dreaming of a world that might possibly be built some day. I’m describing the reality today. Do a Google news search any day of the week and you’ll see local Indivisible leaders quoted, local Indivisible actions covered, letters to the editor by Indivisible members. Indivisible are right now in this very moment influencing local media coverage. We have the tools at our disposal to focus public attention on MAGA -- we just have to use them.

Ok, so how do we do this work?

Now we’re getting to the fun part. How can local Indivisible groups drive news coverage of MAGA? There’s no turn-key, one-size-fits-all solution here. Repeatedly driving media coverage requires creative, tactical innovation -- there’s a reason it’s called “the news.” The news covers, well, new stuff.

But this is a solvable problem. We’ve been working on a new practical guide to driving media coverage of MAGA. We’ve got a lot of ideas for tactics here -- laughtivism, events, birddogging, spectacle, more. Our goal is to give a framework for Indivisibles nationwide to work up their own ideas for driving public attention on MAGA and what’s at stake for November.

The guide is still a draft, but we’re aiming to finish it up soon, release it, and start putting together trainings and other materials based on it. So what would be helpful now -- the favor I’m asking for -- is for you to read it, digest it, kick the tires, and provide edits, suggestions, critiques.

So with all that said:

1. Here’s the new draft guide
2. Here’s the form where you can provide input

Looking forward to building this out together. Let’s do this.

Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

PS: Here’s Zeke at 22 months enjoying the summer and his new sunglasses. In this photo he’s dancing to a Beatles record - see if you can guess which one.