Hello everybody, I just now posted this as a comment to one of Mark Sumner’s front-page articles, but then I felt that I should probably post it as its own diary. I compiled the list below about a week ago when the Hold the Line Guide first came to my attention.
Below is my roundup of election results defense (aka anti-coup) efforts. There’s the Hold the Line document that you can read, two organizational web sites where you can sign up, and an upcoming early-October training by George Lakey, who literally co-wrote the first manual for the civil rights movement.
Daily Kos is a coalition member of the Protect the Results initiative. I recommend that everyone sign up at their site.
I strongly recommend that all of us set our expectations that this election will continue beyond November 3. We all need to stay engaged with a combination of nonviolent protest actions, phoning, social media, and organizing all the way through to inauguration day in January. Coups can and have been defeated, but we need to get ready, get trained, and have a plan.
- Bruce Hahne
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Election Results Defense Initiatives, Documents, and Upcoming Trainings
(Originally written for email use on Sept. 21, 2020 by Bruce Hahne)
There is a need for election results defense, or what we should really call "anti-coup efforts". There's increasing belief from a large number of reputable organizations that the GOP will attempt an aggressive replay of Bush vs. Gore during the three months between election day and inauguration day. There's a need for organizations to prepare their members to actively and visibly defend the election results between November 4 and January 21.
Here are the election defense activities and programs that I'm aware of:
1. Protect the Results (protectTheResults.com) is a large coalition organization that includes Indivisible, MoveOn, Common Cause, National LGTBQ Task Force, SEIU, and many others. This is their self-description:
"In the event that Donald Trump loses the election and refuses to concede, the Protect the Results partner network will activate their members and take coordinated action to protect our democracy."
Right now they're just collecting signups on their web page.
2. A smaller organization, "Choose Democracy", recently launched and is trying to do the same thing. Their web page is choosedemocracy.us
"...we are committing now to choose democracy: by voting, making sure all the votes are counted, and preparing to take the streets in the case of a coup."
Choose Democracy is also organizing a two-session online training by nonviolence trainers George Lakey and Zein Nakhoda, on Oct. 1 and 6:
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https://choosedemocracy.us/training/
How to Beat an Election-Related Power Grab
A two-session national workshop led by George Lakey, with Zein Nakhoda
There’s a chance that a desperate Trump will respond to a narrow victory by Biden by declaring the election fraudulent, urging his base to support his continued Presidency. This training will share the most important things to know and practice in order to be ready for that possibility.
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3. The Hold The Line Guide is a 50-page manual, just released this month, authored by a combination of strategic/civil nonviolence experts and U.S.-based community organizers and activists. This guide recommends that its readers form election results defense groups, and that the groups prepare to use nonviolent pressure tactics to protect U.S. democracy in the 3 months after the November election. While I don't agree that forming NEW groups is necessarily the right approach, I strongly agree with the Guide's position that we will need highly visible, nonviolent actions starting November 4. The Guide is at HoldTheLineGuide.com
4. The publicity group associated with the Hold The Line Guide, which calls itself M+R, is hosting a one-hour Zoom roundtable on September 30 specifically for nonprofit leaders, to talk about election defense efforts. Here's an article that M+R published 3 days ago:
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https://www.mrss.com/lab/nonprofits-arent-ready-for-a-contested-election/
"Nonprofits aren’t ready for a contested election"
... When autocrats have disputed election results and refused to leave office, mass nonviolent action from people across economic and social backgrounds has consistently caused authoritarian takeovers to fail.
If this is our only way to save our democracy (and it very well might be), nonprofit leaders have a big role to play. Nonprofits are conduits for ordinary people to change the world and alleviate suffering. People listen to us, give money to us, and in the massive effort that WILL be needed to protect our democracy, nonprofits must not only show up but LEAD...
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The signup for their 9/30 Zoom roundtable is here:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5bfWaFemR7exVIzr3OrJcQ
"We’ll discuss broad possible scenarios that might result from a contested election with an eye toward how nonprofits can respond."
This is everything that I'm aware of at the moment specifically related to US election results defense.
- Bruce