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.
Dude, Descent was my favourite video game, don’t let the TP have it.
@pendraeg
And what if they give you that $15 minimum wage
Lol. Why the interest in debating hypothetical situations in an alternate reality where a higher minimum wage of any kind would be in offer from the Republicans?
How about we talk about strategies for dealing with the Republicans that exist in this reality we happen to exist in?
Hi Pol, just so you know… “Pleased to meet your acquaintance” doesn’t improve the politeness of your speech, nor convince me you’re not a troll. Your first 2 comments were basically “Oh, how American” (said as if that was an insult), and “Michael are you for real” (ad hominem), so you hit “I’m probably a troll” in your first 2 steps.
Then the usual off-topic weirdness involving secret decoder rings, etc… Come on, you can actually try and convince us of things if you want, but at this point you’ve convinced me that you’re just another incoherent troll who thinks it’s fun to get responses to nonsense.
Hi @Pol. I’ll answer in detail.
You were mocking the person who used the term “Outsized.” People, properly. You know, the ones that are the subject of the article? The “group of former congressional staffers with years of experience fighting against the Tea Party” – those people?
Yeah, they’re the ones you’re mocking, by mocking their choice of words. How very on topic of you.
Did I say that it affects only America? No. It is, however, an American issue. Because it’s happening in America, United States of. Perhaps it’s my use of uniquely that’s confusing you? Maybe it’d clarify things to say that Trump is an American politician and, despite the effects that America has on the world, he isn’t in fact President of the World? Does that make it more clear?
Yes, please. Get arrogant about linguistics. Shall we break this down?
You had posted two lines. The first line was just quoting the phrase containing the word ‘outsized’; meaning that you only posted a single original sentence. I’ll recreate it in full for you here: “Oh really now, can we get anymore American?”
That’s composed of two phrases. “Oh really now” is the first and is content-free, but does set an emotional frame. It indicates that the subject of discussion (The first, quoted sentence) is not worthy of consideration and is wrong in some way. It’s also used to mock or ridicule. (“Oh really now” and other, similar phrases are incredibly complex little knots of meaning-modification. That’s the short form.)
The second phrase, “can we get anymore American” contains a spelling error (“anymore” when joined in that fashion is used specifically in reference to a timeframe and not a volume) but that’s beside the point. “Can we get any more American” is a specifier for the first phrase, indicating that the mockery should be directed towards American grammar and word selection.
Would you like me to diagram this? I could also write it as a Fuseki rule set if you’d like. Perhaps that might be proof of my intermediate understanding of what you’ve said?
You wrote a single sentence, almost entirely devoid of content, and you want to mock me for poor comprehension?
lol
You seem to have the unfortunately common ailment of believing that other people can read your mind. I could pull that apart too, but I don’t imagine it’s worth it. It’s called the mind projection fallacy, or typical mind fallacy, for anyone interested.
Don’t mock Americans for talking like Americans.
Don’t mock people for talking in the way their culture speaks.
Certainly don’t mock people’s word choice when the actual topic of their speech is so much more important than whether they use a word you find silly.
In this manner is truth pursued.
Fluttershy is still best pony. <3
@WWTH
To be fair, I did too.
@Pol
I guess we ain’t the same kinda drunk though. I mean, “let’s go troll a feminist blog without actually making a point” ain’t exactly the first thing come to my mind when I’ve had a few. And believe me, a lot of stupid things come to my mind when I’ve had a few.
Like, right now, I’m building a catapult, and I ain’t even shitting ya.
That’s a funny way to spell Rarity.
When to the wall you find your back…
Michael Brew, an Irish race car driver?
That’s the kind of name Family Guy would use for a cutaway gag involving NASCAR and car crashes, jesus.
A little late to the party, but:
@Pendraeg
Saying that we can’t engage in the same actions as the Tea Party is a largely useless statement unless you understand why we disagree with the Tea Party’s actions. It’s especially useless to say that an action is bad because it was done by the Tea Party. The Tea Party breathes. So do I. This is not a slippery slope.
You’re talking about top level “ethics” while ignoring the context. Context is important. There’s a reason we distinguish between the system of racism perpetuated by white people and individual instances of minorities discriminating against whites. Context.
The Tea Party aren’t fascist because they are obstructionist. The Tea Party is fascist because they support fascism. You’re effectively pulling the same “what if the genders were reversed??” shtick that MRAs are so fond of. The genders aren’t reversed. The shoe is not on the other foot. Because if it was, everything else would be different. Context is important.
@guest
Descent came with the first Windows computer my family bought. My brother and I played it and played it, but I could never get past the first big fight, what, on Mars? Where there’s no maze, just a big circular arena.
Anyways, Descents 1-3 are available at GOG and I just learned about this beauty.
@Falconer Oh, very nice 🙂 I had Descent on my office computer and while the receptionist kicked my boss’s ass in Castle Wolfenstein I used to just fly around–I was never much into shooting things, but got to be a pretty good 3D pilot (our IT guy was an ubergeek and installed games for us for free).
Some recommended reading for Pendraeg and others–same set of questions, wider screen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endgame_(Derrick_Jensen_books)
Jensen mentions someone quoting Audre Lorde to him–‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.’ ‘I’m guessing that Audre Lord, for all of her wonderful capabilities as a writer, thinker, activist, and human being never in her entire life dismantled a house. Had she done that, she could never have made up this metaphor, because you sure as hell can use the master’s tools to dismantle his house.’
@Michael Brew
In case you didn’t know, Scildfreja frequently uses Fluttershy gifs when posting, so my post was more about how awesome her takedown was than anything to do with MLP. I’ve only actually watched one episode of Friendship is Magic, so I don’t personally have a favorite pony. 🙂
Seconding kupo. I’ve never watched MLP, but Fluttershy is best pony.
I just don’t know how everyone keeps misspelling Rarity.
Wow. While I agree with the sentiment relayed from this Jensen guy, the list of premises reminds me a bit starkly of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, albeit with the opposite point of view when it comes to whether rich people or poor people are to blame and the value of nature vs. industry.
Um, well.
Rarity is a very nice pony!
http://pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8054-Argue.gif
Did we already post this Michael Moore interview on one of the #ResistTrump threads? *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbaqst_B498
Number 5 is downright depressing. However, the idea of your own personal small “Ready Response Team” looks like a goer for a good many people. Half a dozen people – friends, family, neighbours, workmates – all lined up for relevant/ newsworthy days. You don’t have to go on protest marches or any specific thing, you can choose which political issue/s will be your priority. You simply have to be part of your own (tiny) telephone tree to spread the word when emails, fact checking, letters, petitions, visits have to be organised.
*Sorry I haven’t searched myself. I’m itchy and tired and itchy and irritable and itchy and I’ve had about 2 hours sleep overnight and I have to ring the doctor. Anything more and I’ll be in tears and/or ripping my own skin off my own legs.
Why is it always Fluttershy or Rarity? Why never Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie?
I love Rainbow Dash and Twily and Rarity and all of them, but I don’t want to lay claim to the whole group of them you know! That’d just be greedy.
Not to beat a dead horse… Ok, scratch that, I’m totally beating a dead horse. Fuck being respectful to republicans (that ship sailed a long time ago). Fuck being respectful to the putrid orange xenophobe (I will give him the respect that Republicans gave Obama). And most of all FUCK FALSE EQUIVALENCY. It pisses me off how the republican party can get away with literal treason, yet if liberals even hint at being slightly uncooperative then suddenly we’re just as bad. No, we’re not.
Seriously, “this is why Trump won” needs to be on a fucking bingo card.
@Handsome Jack
Rainbow Dash is awesome. I always have a fondness for characters that exhibit traits or do activities that are stereotypically considered “the other gender”; it’s refreshing and helps break down oppressive societal assumptions about gender. She’s fierce, competitive and extremely determined.
And it’s funny that you mention her in the same breath as Pinkie Pie because my favorite pony is Pinkie Pie, probably because I relate to her the most. I love that her live goal is just to put a smile on everyone’s face, and that episode with her and the perpetually scowling old guy is probably one of my favorites (though I haven’t watched seasons 3 and onward).
Like Pinkie Pie, if I’m happy and excited I’m full of energy and practically bouncing off the walls. But deep down I’m terrified that people just find me annoying and actually hate me (despite evidence to the contrary). That episode where she freaks out, thinking her friends want to get rid of her, I’ve been there! I’ve legitimately sat at my phone like “I just texted them… and they haven’t answered…. OMG, they clearly hate me!”
Hiya gang,
I was super sad to see pendraeg’s initial response. Putting ideology over people is heart breaking. It’s never taking the high road if it’s putting vulnerable people at risk.
So thank you all for taking them to task.
As far as best ponies, Apple Bloom will always be the princess of my heart.
Amen.
I get your feelings, @Pendraeg. I really do. But I think you’re missing something. You’ve explained your position to use numerous times, in numerous ways. You aren’t miscommunicating. But we still don’t agree. That’s an indication that you’re missing something. (Alternatively, that we all are missing something that you have, but I can’t yet see it. If you can point out what we’re missing that’d help, but otherwise it’s best to consider that errors are internal.)
Twilight is probably the most like me. Rarity is still probably my favorite though. Partially for the opposite reason that Moocow likes Rainbow Dash. A lot of times female characters are praised and admired for having masculine coded traits. That’s often the only time it’s socially acceptable for men to like a female character that isn’t there to be a sex object. I like that Rarity has a lot of female coded traits but isn’t treated like a bimbo or a bitch.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a tomboy!
My favourite points tend to be interactions between Fluttershy and Rarity. I love the way they interact with each other.
(And yes I adore Rarity. She’s great.)
wwth: I definitely get where you are coming from! I like Rarity because she and Applejack are the most put together ponies. They both run businesses, and are successful at them.
While she’s not my favourite, you bring an excellent point about femme characters and the allowable responses. More female characters doing female-coded things that are celebrated as being awesome, please!
I think ‘Art of the Dress’ is my favourite song, because it is totally about the clients and how did they not get that??? Also I really relate to Rarity in that song. “JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WAAAANT”