I just ran across an excellent guide that I wanted to share here:
Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda - Former Congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen
It’s written by a group of staffers who worked in Congress during the rise of the Tea Party. They witnessed strategies first-hand that were used to obstruct President Obama. Their premise is that “If a small minority in the Tea Party can stop President Barack Obama, then we the majority can stop a petty tyrant named Trump”.
The guide is a long read, but it’s full of hard-earned wisdom and practical strategies that are accessible to all of us, should we choose to use them. I don’t want to quote big sections of the guide, but here’s the authors’ summary of the contents:
Ch. 1: How grassroots advocacy worked to stop Obama. We examine lessons from the Tea Party’s rise and recommend two key strategic components:
A local strategy targeting individual Members of Congress (MoCs).
A defensive approach purely focused on stopping Trump from implementing an agenda built on racism, authoritarianism, and corruption.
Ch. 2: How your MoC thinks, and how to use that to save democracy. Reelection, reelection, reelection. MoCs want their constituents to think well of them and they want good, local press. They hate surprises, wasted time, and most of all, bad press that makes them look weak, unlikable, and vulnerable. You will use these interests to make them listen and act.
Ch. 3: Identify or organize your local group. Is there an existing local group or network you can join? Or do you need to start your own? We suggest steps to help mobilize your fellow constituents locally and start organizing for action.
Ch. 4: Four local advocacy tactics that actually work. Most of you have 3 MoCs--two Senators and one Representative. Whether you like it or not, they are your voice in Washington. Your job is to make sure they are, in fact, speaking for you. We’ve identified four key opportunity areas to pressure MoCs that just a handful of local constituents can use to great effect. For each of these always record encounters on video, prepare questions ahead of time, coordinate with your group, and report back to local media:
Townhalls: MoCs regularly hold public in-district events to show that they are listening to constituents. Make them listen to you, and report out when they don’t.
Non-townhall events. MoCs love cutting ribbons and kissing babies back home. Don’t let them get photo-ops without questions about racism, authoritarianism, and corruption.
District office sit-ins/meetings. Every MoC has one or several district offices. Go there. Demand a meeting with the MoC. Report to the world if they refuse to listen.
Coordinated calls. Calls are a light lift but can have impact. Organize your local group to barrage your MoCs at an opportune moment and on a specific issue.
Whether you’re experienced and savvy about this sort of activity or if it’s the election that finally pushed you to decide that you have to take action to protect the institutions and people you value, I think you’ll find useful information in this guide. Please pass it along.
We can win.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” -President Barack Obama