The Tea Party movement, which rose up in the early years of the Obama presidency to oppose pretty much everything he stood for, was a reactionary, often-embarrassing political spectacle.
But as reactionary, often-embarrassing political spectacles go, it was a pretty effective one. Tea Partiers may have had trouble spelling their slogans correctly, but they managed to block a lot of Obama’s progressive agenda.
Now a group of former congressional staffers with years of experience fighting against the Tea Party are urging fellow progressives to adopt some of that group’s most effective tactics to thwart the incoming Trump regime. In an already much-discussed document called Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, these activists urge Trump opponents to
stand indivisibly opposed to Trump and the members of Congress (MoCs) who would do his bidding. Together, we have the power to resist — and we have the power to win.
We know this because we’ve seen it before. The authors of this guide are former congressional staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party. We saw these activists take on a popular president with a mandate for change and a supermajority in Congress. We saw them organize locally and convince their own MoCs to reject President Obama’s agenda. Their ideas were wrong, cruel, and tinged with racism— and they won.
We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting a similar resistance to the Trump agenda — but a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. Trump is not popular. He does not have a mandate. He does not have large congressional majorities. If a small minority in the Tea Party can stop President Obama, then we the majority can stop a petty tyrant named Trump.
One of the great strengths of the Tea Party, the Indivisible authors note, is that it offered unified opposition to virtually everything Obama and his allies stood for — and punished those Republicans who wavered in the anti-Obama crusade.
The Tea Party focused on saying NO to Members of Congress (MoCs) on their home turf. While the Tea Party activists were united by a core set of shared beliefs, they actively avoided developing their own policy agenda. Instead, they had an extraordinary clarity of purpose, united in opposition to President Obama. They didn’t accept concessions and treated weak Republicans as traitors.
Local Tea Party groups focused their attention on their local representatives in Congress, and made life uncomfortable for those Republicans who weren’t willing to be “their voice of opposition on Capitol Hill.” In doing so, they garnered political influence out of proportion to their relatively small numbers.
By adopting a similar strategy, Indivisible argues, the anti-Trump movement could
Stall the Trump agenda by forcing [MoCs] to redirect energy away from their priorities. Congressional offices have limited time and limited people. A day that they spend worrying about you is a day that they’re not ending Medicare, privatizing public schools, or preparing a Muslim registry.
Sap Representatives’ will to support or drive reactionary change. If you do this right, you will have an outsized impact. Every time your MoC signs on to a bill, takes a position, or makes a statement, a little part of his or her mind will be thinking: “How am I going to explain this to the angry constituents who keep showing up at my events and demanding answers?”
Reaffirm the illegitimacy of the Trump agenda. The hard truth is that Trump, McConnell, and Ryan will have the votes to cause some damage. But by objecting as loudly and powerfully as possible, and by centering the voices of those who are most affected by their agenda, you can ensure that people understand exactly how bad these laws are from the very start – priming the ground for the 2018 midterms and their repeal when Democrats retake power.
Indivisible runs through these lessons from the Tea Party fairly quickly, and follows them up with a good deal of very practical advice on how to best get the attention of local MoC’s — from organized phone calling to office sit-ins.
The guide is free. I think it will prove invaluable to anti-Trump activists over the next several years.
Are you for real Michael?
I want to emphasize that all of this means laying pressure on Democrats. Republicans will just shrug us off as cranks who will never vote for them anyway. Anyone who has been angry at how Democrats have become Republican-lite over the past ~2 or 3 decades needs to channel that anger in a productive direction. Demand that Democrats be progressive and block any legislation that doesn’t pass the purity test, and the rest will handle itself. There has to be a purity test, and real progressives have to hold the line on it, and not accept half a loaf, or a quarter of a loaf, or whatever crumbs the Republicans are willing to drop in front of us in the process of fucking over the country. Republicans will never be willing to offer more than a slice or so of bread anyway and we’d be lucky to get that much, so just holding the line on a purity test will accomplish obstruction by default.
Democrats need to be as terrified of primary challenges as Republicans have become. They won’t be if progressives are willing to shrug and walk away, appeased by crumbs.
@POM, I totally agree that you guys have to put the pressure on your Democrats, but I don’t think that just writing off Republicans will work. People in areas with Republican representatives still have an important job to do, in my opinion. They might write you all off as cranks when you call, but if it’s a huge number of voices, and they’re constant, calling them can have a large impact.
Make them fear their phones, give them a bit of that telephone-anxiety. It won’t change their minds – I have zero illusions about that – but it will make their support staff frazzled and hopefully quit; it’ll hopefully put cracks into their organization, making them less capable of getting things done. It might even make them hesitant to speak up or provide vocal support for things they’re doing, out of fear of the phone lines. I think that’s a valid tactic, and a valuable one.
I’m quite willing to be shown wrong on that, mind you! I just think that the psychological pressure of being exposed to constant anger from a phone that you aren’t allowed to ignore is a significant tool to use.
Also, @Pol, really? Teasing the author for being American, in a blog post about a uniquely American issue?
“Outsized” isn’t some stupid non-word. It’s been around since the 1880’s. Pick something else to feel superior about.
Apologies for my irritability. It’s a little outsized right now.
Hi Scildfreja. It’s nice to meet your acquaintance. What author are you talking about here? Mr. David Futrelle is the author and I am certainly not mocking that fine man.
And how is this only an American issue? Haven’t you seen anything in world affairs over the last seventy years. Oh yes, America, just a quaint little hovel that nobody knows about…
Oh and by the way, if you simply focus on the word “outsized”, then you really have failed to read what I said with a full mind to even some intermediate comprehension, haven’t you?
… Yes, Pol. I am real. I’m not even using a pseudonym, this is my actual, legal name that I go by every day. You can probably Google me. I’m not the Irish race car driver, but there is a picture of me on the first page of a Google Image search. Not sure why you’re specifically questioning my veracity, though.
@ Pol
If you want people to understand your point, don’t just dash off a couple of unclear one-liners.
Pol, if you want people to comprehend your argument, you might try actually making one.
Ninja’d!
Oh yes, how silly of me Michael! Thank you my good person. For a second there I though that you were suggesting that you were imitating some quite well known and much appreciated political commentator! All good then ?
And oh Lindsay and weirwood, I thought much better of you than to accuse me if such a thing. I mean… you DID see what I was saying, didn’t you? Please tell me so for goodness sake.
Hey there! Long-time reader, occasional poster. I just wanted to chip in my two cents.
I’m not sure how many of you Mammotheers out there listen to The Professional Left podcast with Driftglass and Bluegal, but their language and insight into politics is matched only by a few (I’m thinking namely of Sam Seder). They have many a wonderful turn of phrase for right-wingers in America and I think it’s important for any path forward to consider a few key points.
Start local. – I’m of the opinion that any progressive resurgence has to start at the ground up. You only build a lasting dynasty by nurturing your prospects, so encouraging young people in particular to run for local office will help build that deep bench of potential nominees in 10-20 years. Grassroots movements like Moral Mondays also have the capacity to get your message out there in a way that people in the community take notice.
The Republican Party must be blown up. – Playing nice with Republicans and believing them to be honest actors has been Barack Obama’s fatal flaw that cost him a lot in his first term. America can’t go forward unless the Republican Party is soundly defeated electorally and not allowed to recover. Don’t give them anything, because they have never acted in good faith. Don’t trust them, don’t take their word for anything. They have to have a boot heel put firmly on their throat and kept there until the extremism either dies off or is cast out.
Ex-pat conservatives go to the back of the line. – Your David Frums and Andrew Sullivans who only recently realized how dreadful modern American conservatism is are the last people you consult for tactics. They have built their careers being wrong and all common sense should have them atoning by never going on another Sunday show again. Yet there they are.
Understand the mainstream media will never act as a referee. – As long as major press outlets play the “both sides do it” game, progressives will be handicapped in trying to get any positive exposure. Sitting idly by and expecting CNN or MSNBC to come out and say “oh shit, the Republican Party really is a bunch of racist bigoted extremists and the plutocrats that enable them!” As long as their ratings depend on access, assholes like Trump are their meal ticket. We need to come to grips with that and plan accordingly.
The die-hards are a lost cause. – Human nature tells us to always hold out hope for the decency in people, but if 40 years of Republican politics have taught us anything, it’s that right-wingers will cut off their own noses to spite “the other” so long as that other is being hurt worse. People that malicious and spiteful are not worth your time and energy to try to appeal to their better angels because they killed those angels the moment they started listening to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, or shitposting on 4chan or Reddit. Just like General Sherman knew in 1864, they must be proverbially and electorally marched to the sea, then made as comfortable as possible until they shuffle off to their graves. A grim notion, but one that will save a lot of wasted effort.
Republicans are fundamentally incompetent. – They’re masters at gumming up the works, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of actually governing, that goes against their core brand proposition, which is that government is evil. That and they tend to be the stupidest people in the country. The incompetence of the Bush administration cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, sadly, but it did get to the point where Anderson Cooper actually called them out on their bullshit from a drowned American city. I can only pray that America manages to avoid any major catastrophe during Trump’s term, but if a Katrina or a financial meltdown happens on his watch, him and his incompetent administration will be floundering so hard that even CNN might have no choice but to take him to task (but don’t rely on it).
Don’t let them wriggle out of responsibility. – This is always the first instinct of a cornered conservative. Individual responsibility is typically cast aside with the refrain “but the XXXX” (Democrats, feminists, SJWs, take your pick). Shut that shit down immediately. More broadly speaking, conservatives as a group will pretend they had nothing to do with the incompetent moron they proudly voted for. Republicans fled from Bush by putting on funny hats and calling themselves the Tea Party or proclaiming they were “independents”. When Trump fails, they will try to pull the same shit. Anticipate it and hold them to their vote. It will serve to discredit them in light of a disastrous Presidency.
I think that’s all I got for the time being. Beyond just be ready for a long fight. This is a war of attrition, not the Super Bowl. Good luck!
Oh good, /pol/ the /troll/ is pissing their pants in public again.
Fuck off, you barely-coherent waste of perfectly good eukaryotes. Nobody liked your dopey-ass “How do you do, fellow feminists” schtick and nobody likes your condescending-ass “Burst testicle that somehow learned to type” schtick.
Don’t I recall Pol as an on-again-off-again troll?
@Pol
Still not convinced you’re not a troll.
@Pendraeg
Axe already responded to this, but I thought I might chime in as well. In the off chance that the GOP agrees to a $15 minimum wage, it likely won’t be enough. Why? Because that’s what happened here and because the greedy bastards (Democrats, mostly, so don’t think I’m taking “sides” here) who were too deep in the pockets of big business weren’t given enough restrictions on how or when to put that into place, they turned it into a nightmare where sometime in 2030 or some bullshit we’ll finally have that $15 minimum. So if they do agree, it will likely be some kind of trick so that they can stretch it out much, much further than it should be and we won’t be able to get people the money they need to fucking survive soon enough.
@Policy of Madness
You recalled with perfect accuracy.
True enough. I’m pretty limited in what I can do by virtue of my federal position. I can donate, attend rallies as a spectator, and vote, but I’m explicitly not allowed to participate in campaigns in any active capacity, which includes calling representatives in any kind of organized effort. Sucks, but it’s the law.
Ha ha ha, the trash talkin’ SFHC! Love it! And where DO you get those phrases from exactly ?
But I do admit Policy of M, I know that I can be seen as an on-again off-again troll but my intentions are decent and I think that the future will vindicate me. Well, eventually.
Because we’ll get the secret decoder ring that will allow us to decipher your posts?
Citation needed.
eta: Jesus, Michael, what did you do to piss off the mammoth this time? This is the second page of comments where it’s your post doing the drift thing.
@Pol
I dgaf what your intentions are.
Ishh, tell me about it Brew. The Law is an ass. Well OK, mostly but not always.
Yo, PoM, I’m just researching a role for Fast and Furious: Mammotheer Drift.
@Michael
Gotcha, carry on.
“Because we’ll get the secret decoder ring that will allow us to decipher your posts?”
Yes Lindsay.I! Just cut around the dotted line and send the coupon too… well I am still trying to wrangle a decent P.O. box. Don’t worry it’s comin’ though.
I think Pol started the new years drinking a little early.
I think Pol thinks they’re being funny.