Welcome to (a Piece of) the Resistance

It may feel like as individuals there is not much we can do to stop the impending tides of hate and fascism. Not true. I put this together to help you get started. Share widely. It’s my hope that this will empower you to make your powerful voice heard, in whatever time you have to spare.

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

- Mother Teresa

Today’s Daily Action

“Call Republican members of the Judiciary Committee and warn then against covering up Donald Trump's conflicts of interest and ties to Russia. Tell them to put country above party and remind them that if they vote against this Resolution of Inquiry, they risk being blamed for bring part of the “cover up”. More

Feeling Fired Up?

Stop Bannon

Call your Senators and Congressperson to demand that they publicly and legislatively oppose Trump’s appointment of Steven Bannon to the NSC. Main switchboard: 202-224-3121.

Through an executive order that he may not have actually read, Trump removed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of National Intelligence from the National Security Council and replaced them with Steve Bannon.

One of the jobs of the NSC is to oversee a secret panel that authorizes the assassination of “enemies of the United States Government” – including American citizens. These targeted killings are fully authorized by law under the Congressional military authorization act following 9/11. There is no trial, no due process, and no public record of the decision or the assassination itself.

Just to recap the absurdity: the President of the United States has appointed a known propagandist, nationalist, and white supremacist to replace the highest military advisor in the country on a council that authorizes secret, legal, targeted killings of American citizens (and others) without due process.

Find the Link Between Russia and Trump

From Noah Newman of 'Three One-Minute Calls', who recommends dialing until you speak to a human being.


"The focus is on getting as many House Representatives as possible to co-sponsor H.B. 540 - the Presidential Tax Disclosure Act of 2017. Verify if he or she is a cosponsor.

For the Senate, see if you can get a statement or find out their official position on our sanctions on Russia - specifically in regards to their annexation of Crimea and their meddling in our election. If your Senator is on the Foreign Relations Committee, find out if they are going to co-sponsor the Russian Review Act which would grant the committee veto power over the President if he were to remove these sanctions.
We want to see an independent investigation with subpoena power. Plain and simple. Sample scripts below:

House: "Hi, my name is ____ and I am a voter living in zip code ____. I'm calling today to see if Congressperson ____ is going to co-sponsor H.B. 540 - the Presidential Tax Disclosure Act of 2017. I'm really disturbed about the conflicts of interest that the President has and the fact that he lied about removing himself from his businesses makes me believe that he is probably hiding something. His relationship with Russia seems to be connected to this and I really want the Congressperson to be a co-sponsor of this bill."

Senate:
"Hi, my name is ____ and I'm a voter living in zip code ____. I'm calling today about Russia." See if they are pushing for any investigations into their meddling in our election and/or where they stand on sanctions. Remember, if they say they are for an investigation into the election, push them for an "independent investigation with subpoena power".** If your Senator is on the Foreign Relations Committee (Democrat or Republican), please ask them to support McCain, Graham and Rubio on the Russia Review Act.”

Overwhelmed and Don’t Have Free Time?

Here are three strategies:

  1. Sign up for Daily Action (I copy paste it above daily so you can quickly see and act) and let acting on its texts be your daily 5-minute contribution. Or make 5 minutes of calls through 5 Calls. Both are reactive and effective. Or:

  1. Pick an action marked with 30 sec or high impact whenever you have a spare moment. Walking to the bus, waiting in line, at the DMV, on the toilet! Or:

  1. Focus. If the magnitude of the assault on our democracy is too much to grapple with, choose 1–2 causes you care most about, and donate or volunteer for them (e.g. escort women to an abortion clinic).

It’s normal to yoyo between feeling energized to feeling exhausted and in despair. Take a break when you need to, take core of yourself, and come back stronger and more invigorated. You may not see it right away, but collectively all of this will make a difference.

Act

  • Add 202-224-3121 to your phone as a contact (Members of Congress - MOC). Call to connect to your congressional office whenever you need to make your voice heard. Calling them is much more effective than petitions and emails. 30 sec high impact
  • Sign up for Daily Action (mentioned before). You receive a text everyday, call the number, a recording explains the issue, and you enter your ZIP code if you want to take action, at which point they connect you to your corresponding Representative. 30 sec high impact
  • Sign up for this Weekly Action Checklist. Having a concrete set of well-researched actions to take each week can be powerful and help you cover a lot of ground. 30 sec high impact
  • Sign up to make 5 Calls (1 minute per call) a day. 30 sec, high impact
  • Join the Injustice Boycott for daily targeted actions centered around how to combat police brutality, racial violence and systemic injustice. 30 sec
  • Join Code Blue to get blue butts in seats.30 sec, high impact
  • Sign up for Flippable on Facebook to actively flip red seats blue. 30 sec
  • Sign up at Issue Voter to receive alerts before Congress votes, directly send your opinion to representatives, and track your representative’s votes and bill outcomes. 30 sec
  • Attend local protests against each and every affront to 1) human rights, 2) the environment, and 3) checks and balances.

Hit ‘Em Where it Hurts (high impact)

  • Use your buying power against Trump by boycotting businesses that support him or carry his family's products.

Educate Yourself and Others

All of these actions take 30 seconds or less:

Cull your Facebook feed and expose yourself to diverse and legitimate news sources.

Read as many of these as you can:

  • The Indivisible Guide. Send the Indivisible Guide to people in red districts. high impact
    Among other things, it advocates for making your voice heard by going to town hall meetings, in-district meetings, and your district office to meet your representatives, and thanking your representatives when they support a cause you agree with. Taking a page from the Tea Party handbook, it encourages organizing small at a local level with a clear focus and agenda.

  • ‘A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed and What the Majority Can Do’ by linguist George Lakoff
    Understand that people make decisions unconsciously, not after careful rational thought. So, don't try appealing to others through rationale and facts, but by thinking from their ‘strict father’ worldview: authority, strength, etc and encouraging empathy for their immediate in-groups.

Stop the Brainwashing

  • Recognize the power of words and begin speaking in your own terms, not those of the other side. Refuse to use their terms (tax affliction, radical Islamist Muslim, alt right). Call their actions out for exactly what they are, no sugarcoating. Spend some time thinking about powerful words to wield in the name of the majority's values.
  • If you have friends in the media, share the George Lakoff article with them and encourage them to choose their words thoughtfully and for the maximum effect. high impact

Support 

  • Spread love and empathy, smile at people on the street, and step in to help strangers under attack. Whatever you do, don't sit by and be complicit.
  • Report hate incidents to the Southern Poverty Law Center. 30 sec
  • Spread the word about successful efforts to make people feel safe from hate crimes.
  • Donate to organizations committed to protecting civil rights, women's rights, and the environment. If you have time, volunteer. 30 sec
  • Civil rights
  • Jewish civil rights
  • Environment
  • LGBTQ (Suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth)
  • Media/Journalism
  • Racial justice (legal fight for racial justice)
  • Refugees (legal and human rights assistance for refugees)
  • Reproductive and women’s rights

Why Bother?

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people,” he wrote.

- Dr Martin Luther King

“First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.”

  • Martin Niemöller

The events of the 2016 election shocked me out of the sidelines. I’m not fighting because my political party lost, but because of the alarming assault on our democracy. I’m fighting because globally a pattern is forming where countries are becoming more insular, nationalistic, and selfish. I’m fighting because Russia has just successfully waged cyberwarfare on America and left us with a dimPOTUS who is so morally unrestrained that every day he and his party launch a new attack on our liberties. I’m fighting because I want love and empathy to prevail, not hate, greed, and fear. I’m fighting to protect good people I don’t know and to keep America great for our kids. I’m fighting because if I don’t, I won’t be able to live with myself, and I won’t be able to tell my kids that I did everything I could to stop the monsters who took their childhood away from them.