A triad of former Democratic congressional staffers published a great piece in the New York Times Tuesday urging progressives to do exactly as conservatives had done at the beginning of President Obama's term in 2009—leverage the power of local opposition by organizing at the district level. Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg, and Angel Padilla write:
It was an exhilarating time to be a progressive in Washington: An inspirational new president was taking office, accompanied by a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate. But by February 2009, something had begun to change. Small protests calling themselves “tea parties” were popping up all over the country. In April, their Tax Day demonstrations dominated the news. [...]
The Tea Party’s ideas were wrong, and their often racist rhetoric and physical threats were unacceptable. But they understood how to wield political power and made two critical strategic decisions. First, they organized locally, focusing on their own members of Congress. Second, they played defense, sticking together to aggressively resist anything with President Obama’s support. With this playbook, they rattled our elected officials, targeting Democrats and Republicans alike.
Politics is the art of the possible, and the Tea Party changed what was possible. They waged a relentless campaign to force Republicans away from compromise and tank Democratic legislative priorities like immigration reform and campaign finance transparency. Their members ensured that legislation that did pass, like the Affordable Care Act, was unpopular from the start. They hijacked the national narrative and created the impression of broad discontent with President Obama.
As they noted, the tea party drove a stake through the heart of much of Obama's progressive agenda even though Democrats controlled the federal government, including a Senate supermajority for at least part of Obama's first couple years. As depressing as it is retrospectively, it's a fact that should bolster progressives now. In hopes that local organizers can broadly benefit from their insights as former staffers, they assembled and published “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.”
Congressional Democrats are going to need a backbone. Sen. Chuck Schumer's remarks as Congress opened for business Tuesday were noncommittal about his strategy at best. His "accountability Congress" is still just a well-placed group in search of a mission.
Local organizers and regular folks who have cared enough to show up at protests and rallies for weeks on end since the November election are going to have to provide that backbone. Now, we literally have a playbook from which to work. That's a start.
Gather your friends over Martin Luther King weekend. Join an existing local group or start your own. Find your members of Congress and start following their work. Show up at their local offices and let them know you’re watching. Remind them that they represent you, not Donald Trump. Together, we can resist.