We Really Need to Get Out of This Mess
A To Do List
My Brain on Donald Trump
I’ve been a loyal foot soldier since that dark night when both my friends watching the 2017 election results with me got up at the same time, ill, needing to rush home. That was the first pandemic: It arrived when Trump rode down the elevator. Four years sick from his first administration, four years in recovery, now this. Relapse. A dangerous one.
Yes, we need politicians with spines. We need good leadership. More than that, we need to be organized on a mass scale, while at the same time staying true to how we identify and what it is we are fighting for.
We are under assault with no nuance. He is not normal. He will never be normal. Normal is archaic. A victim of the 21st century. While we attempt to do what we can, we can’t succeed “pod” by “pod.” (Remember those?) It’s too big.
We require a guide and a to-do list.
I get the Indivisible newsletter and it came today. I am reasonably sure that Ezra Levin and the Indivisible team won’t mind if I lift the following weeky to-do list. I copied and pasted it. The links to key meetings, rallies, how to contact the folks in power, et al, work.
But first, the next national get-together.
July 17 Good Trouble Lives On National Day of Action.
Your weekly to-dos
Prepare to march this Thursday at a Good Trouble Lives On Day of Action near you. Each day brings new attacks on our rights as the Trump regime chips away at our democracy. But in the tradition of the late John Lewis, Americans across the country will rise up this Thursday in a mass, nonviolent demonstration for freedom and justice.
Learn the tools of strategic non-cooperation to fight authoritarianism at our One Million Rising training series beginning this Wednesday. There’s no escaping it; Trump and his enablers are becoming bolder and our slide toward authoritarianism is accelerating. With institutions failing to meet the challenge, it falls to us -- the pro-democracy majority -- to defeat fascism. Join this training to help lead the fight within your networks and pass on these skills to others.
Contact state and local Dems to demand action against masked ICE abductions. If you live in a blue city or state with a Democratic trifecta, your Democratic governor, mayor, and lawmakers have the power to stop secret police tactics like abductions by masked ICE agents. Our Blue State Defiance toolkit helps identify who to contact and what to call for.
Join our “Fight Back with Friends” training on Tuesday, July 22 for new tools to help get your friends and family off the sidelines! We all know someone who wants to join our fight but isn’t sure where to start; Fight Back with Friends is a new program designed to break down that barrier. Each call details ways to get your friends involved in specific, impactful tactics to defend our rights, our safety, and our democracy. Tuesday’s will focus on our upcoming One Million Rising campaign (more info below).
Join our “What’s the Plan?” call on Thursday as Indivisible’s cofounders break down the latest news and take questions from the movement. Every Thursday at 3pm ET (12pm PT), Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin go live to take questions from Indivisible activists. This week they’ll be joined by a special guest — Professor Erica Chenoweth (the scholar behind the 3.5% rule) — to dig into the strategic logic of our One Million Rising campaign (more info below).
Check out Truth Brigade tools for pushing back on the regime’s efforts to silence dissent. Americans care deeply about free speech, so enemies of the First Amendment have to justify their attacks on constitutionally-protected speech with lies and fearmongering. This month, our disinformation-fighting Truth Brigade team has some expertly-crafted messaging you can share to help expose these authoritarian tactics.