What Comes Next
...and how we win
I attended the national Indivisible call last night, along with about 8,000 other people. While it was obvious that people were hurting, there was a sense that we are going to stand together, and this situation won’t last past the midterms, because the MAGA voters are not going to like what they bought. A TON of buyer’s remorse, and these folks will need to hear other options. And we will provide them.
Here are some things that they covered last night:
Those exit polls that “know” who voted how? They are very small snapshots: we will NOT know true, complete details until next year once all the information is legitimately tabulated off the full data set, and not several hundred voters.
Even so, we do know that there was an average 6-point shift right. What that means is that nationwide, the number of tallied votes indicates that there was a shift towards the GOP. For example, in NJ, which is a historically blue state, Kamala Harris beat Don the Con 51% to 46%. This compares to 2020 where the split was 57%/41%, so the movement was 6% less of a win.
HOWEVER, the shift in the 7 swing states averaged 3%. This can be attributed 100% to the work that we all did: the door knocks, phone calls, texts and postcards. Think about it — the WORK halved the shift. THE WORK MATTERS! Remember that. It will matter even more moving forward.
We need to fight isolation. There is going to be a call tonight with Indivisible and other organizations. They’re expecting a ton of people. You can sign up here. I know I’ll be there. In addition, a lot of local Indivisible groups are planning get togethers, at first, just to be together, and later on to plan the work. More about Indivisible later in this post.
Just because Don the Con says he’s going to do something, it doesn’t mean it will take. The example they gave was the hue and cry against the family separations. While it took too long (there should NEVER have been even ONE separation) it was public horror and action that made it stop.
So - take something simple like removing fluoride from the water. Worm brain wants to do it, but if there is blowback from millions of constituents saying, “I want my kids to grow up with teeth”, even the right-wing wackos in Congress will help enable legislation preventing fluoride removal.
And MOST IMPORTANTLY - I posted this last week:
It’s even more important now. Because the Convicted Felon says something DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. You can read the full text of On Tyranny here. Cliff Notes version: there are things we can do as individuals to avoid things that give power to a tyrant.
A few other things I know:
People are going to be playing “The Blame Game”. Don’t engage. It’s counterproductive.
The Democratic Party, from the upper echelons to the precinct level, are going to be arguing. This will be related to who gets power.
It will start with who is “in charge” of the party. Ignore it. They’ll make a decision and so it will go.
At the local levels, there will be a battle royale between the “progressive left” and the “left of center moderates”. These groups will be fighting over messaging, tactics, and alignment of regular people (like you and me). Each side believes that they hold the key to winning future elections at the local, state, and Federal levels, and that the other side needs to be vanquished.
As we move forward, you will be asked by each side to “pick one”, or be punished.
I have A LOT of thoughts on this. Back in late 2016, our local Indivisible group was formed. If you don’t know Indivisible, it was a group formed shortly after the 2016 election by Congressional aides who leveraged their knowledge of how government works to organize and lead the resistance. Many groups formed around the country. Our local group had about 3,000 members in our county. We held meetings, had die-ins, marched, organized, provided structure, and worked with other local Indivisible groups to affect change. Other groups sprang up and they, too, took action. Many of these groups are still active today or are “re-activating” in light of Tuesday.
Our group successfully worked both with “the establishment” and the other groups. For example, we held, and live-streamed, events where candidates spoke to our members, and more general audiences, since these were open-to-all events. On the other hand, we held joint events with other local groups for members of all those groups.
I found out this summer that the calculus has changed. I was asked to give a talk on Block Captains1 by a local group. This is as grassroots as you can get: you talk to your neighbors. I spoke to about 100 people, and several dozen signed up for Block Captain training. Afterwards, I received phone calls from party regulars saying that I should never have done that. It was unacceptable because of some of the people involved in the sponsoring organization. I was warned that if I engaged with “them” again, I would be ostracized from the party.
Here is my position: I am NOT a progressive and I am NOT a party regular. I am a card-carrying JFK Liberal2. I will work with ANYONE who wants to save democracy, protect marginalized people, defeat MAGA and the Orange Menace. I will never align with anything violent. Saying “ours is the only way” is counterproductive to the overall goals.
Your mileage may vary. You will need to decide for yourself.
Sorry for the rant.
Anyway - consider joining the call tonight. See if there is an Indivisible group near you, and if not, START ONE! If you live in Chester County, PA, consider this your personal invitation to join our group. We are planning an in-person gathering in the near future.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. Last week was the Hindu holiday Diwali. It is a holiday that celebrates light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. If I could BE a holiday, that is the one I would be. WE are the light in the darkness. WE will triumph over evil. WE will educate.
Block Captains are people who organize the people on their street, or in their development, or their apartment building: to know when elections are, who is running, what the issues of the day are, and these are on-going relationships that drive engagement and voting. Indivisible has a “neighbor-to-neighbor” program for certain districts, restricted just to elections.
“If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.” From the address of John F. Kennedy upon Accepting the Liberal Party Nomination for President, New York, New York, September 14, 1960.
And here is my card:
I'm with you. The more I look at the totals, I have come to believe that the GOP did little better, if at all, at the polls than they have done in past Presidential election years but the vote for Democrats was substantially lower than in the past. In short that all too many voters ordinarily voting for Democrats never showed up at the polls. Considering the extraordinary effort to turn out the vote for Harris, et al, this is something that will be a subject for thorough evaluation when final tallies are completed.
I’ll see you on the call!