Summary of “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda”
First, read page 4 of the document. It’s the summary provided by the document’s creators.
This document is a summary that provides a little more about some of the points on page 4 of the longer document and a little less about some other things, including tactics, which are important enough to read in their entirety. We have included page references to the longer document for items that should be read in their entirety.
Our summary:
A preamble sets forth the purpose of the document.
1. Use Tea Party tactics to affect policy, including taking a completely defensive position. The point is not to further a positive policy agenda but to obstruct, distract, and exhaust the opposition.
2. Use a local approach: use small (ish) groups.
— Reject Republicans’ agenda as well as Democrats’ concessions to the Trump agenda
— Target weak Democrats and Republicans
— Focus only on your Member of Congress (MoC); the others don’t care about you. Our MoCs (depending on where you live) are:
— — Senator Cory Gardner (a conservative to moderate and very important Republican),
— — Senator Michael Bennet (a somewhat conservative Democrat).
— — District 1: Diana Degette (D); District 6: Mike Coffman (R); and District 7: Ed Perlmutter (D)
3. The highest priority for an MoC is reelection; image is very important. MoCs care about:
— Their own constituents, especially *groups* of constituents, rather than individuals
— Publicity: the local and national press, editorials, and endorsements
— Targeted, verifiable requests (i.e., not abstractions or laundry lists)
— Avoiding bad outcomes, e.g. unhappy constituents, bad press, negative Facebook posts (see p. 10-11)
4. MoC’s Office Staff Responsibilities
Office staff are probably the most important group to target. They are the ones who read the bills, summarize them for the MoC, and make recommendations for votes and policies. The MoCs are dependent on staff to a huge degree. Staff are responsible for writing speeches, developing the MoC’s stances on issues, and writing bills, under general guidelines set by MoC. The staff typically reflect the intellectual capacity and approach of their bosses. These staff responsibilities are certainly true for the Washington staff and may also be true for the Denver staff. Other MoC locations may be focused mostly on constituent relations.
Staff’s additional responsibilities are:
— constituent services, including direct communications with constituents
— meet with constituents and MoC to determine local priorities and follow up on issues.
— arrange press coverage (important)
— host and attend events
These particular responsibilities are probably centered in the regional Colorado offices.
5. Organize a group
Detailed instructions on organizing a group are found on pp. 12-15. The group shouldn’t be too big and should be diverse. Members may have specific skills.
Advocacy can sway an MoC if there’s a lot of effort, including calls, personal letters and showing up. The most influential tactics are attending town halls and visiting MoCs’ offices to discuss issues with their staff. Personal letters and phone calls are next most influential, and email petitions or tweets are least effective.
In letters, calls, meetings, call for verifiable action (a vote, making a statement about the issue, etc.).
6. Local Advocacy Tactics (first gather intel p. 16). Chapter 4 gives detailed suggestions for each kind of advocacy.
— Town Halls/listening sessions (pp.17-19)
— Other local public events (p. 20)
— In-office visits (pp 21-22)
— Mass calls (pp. 23-24)
7. The document closes with a restatement of its purpose.