www.uvidaho.org

​

Idaho’s only multi-issue, progressive network and advocacy organization since 1997

UNITEDVISIONPROJECT.ORG

ARC - Reaching Across Difference to Build a Pro-Democracy Movement

​

Adrienne Evans, Executive Director

Email: adrienne@uvidaho.org

​

Bri Xandrick, Associate Director

Email: bri@uvidaho.org

​

ADRIENNE EVANS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

UNITED VISION FOR IDAHO

​

GROUNDING

Thirty years of organizing in one of the most conservative parts of the state and building a network of rural organizing stretched across the country has prepared us for this moment. Once home of the Aryan nations, the wheels of power have increasingly been surrendered to a growing to anti-democratic extremist actors. As these leaders proclaim Idaho will become the new Aryan nation state, we must remember that Idaho is every rural state facing the same hurdles. To truly meet this moment of reckoning, we need a rural strategy and that takes authentic organizing! This project was built by United Vision for Idaho to coalesce organizations in a united struggle, pull back the curtain on the realities that place the rural experience at the foot of every American today and change the paradigm of how movements prioritize organizing, bridge the divide of rural versus suburban and urban, and perhaps most importantly learn from the areas most impacted to direct strategies and tactics for our collective well being and a democracy that can hold while we reorient in a new spirit of collaboration to build together on an ideal that never manifested for most of us. This program is an invitation to join to do the work required of us to achieve our ambitions and unite our country.

UVI launched the state’s largest rural organizing campaign. Asking residents in areas of growing Anti-democratic extremism about their issues and concerns they had in their lives. One question, “What hurts? What would make a difference in your life, that of your family, and community? From these responses, the Idaho people's platform was created, which read wildly liberal divorced from political party.

Community based candidate questionnaires were issued though our sister organization, United Action for Idaho. Those endorsed agreed to co-governance and endorsed candidates who began running as RiseUp, Idaho! Candidates leading to huge voting shifts in 2018 resulting in the election of 6 of the endorsed candidates; Marking a dramatic shift in one of the most conservative parts of the state.

PEOPLE'S PLATFORM

2016

ELECTORAL GAINS

How It Started

2018

Throughout 2019 UVI delivered resources, led thousands of trainings as part of a statewide strategy to build sustainable organizing efforts in the places experiencing a rise in authoritarian extremism and deepening polarization.

With the onset of COVID, developed a digital program that reached 1.2 million Idahoans, resulting in 489K conversations and radically expanded our outreach. Over nine months time less than 1 percent of people opted out. Conversations lasted days and led to 62K people taking deeper action. This was game changing for how digital tools could be used in authentic organizing at a scale never imaginable before.

INVESTING IN RURAL ORGANIZING

2019

2020

MOVING THE CONVERSATION ONLINE

This is an expansion of the training and outreach to allow larger numbers of people to benefit from these skills, expand our outreach, invest in communities underserved and under resourced and pivotal to building a pro-democracy movement

2020

2023

6

THE UNITED VISION NATIONAL TRAINING HUB

With rising anti-democratic, extremist movements and the deepening polarization gripping the US. We launched an effort to reach out to people in areas of increasing radicalization with one question, “Our country may be more divided than ever before what do you think is causing this?” to understand first-hand the underlying motivators and use that learning to more effectively organize.

THE UNITED VISION PROJECT

POLARIZATION

Pew Research Center study suggests the highest value gap in history

13

When polarization develops to toxic levels, democracy is typically dismantled. Extreme levels of polarization have detrimental effects on the democratic foundations of society. When polarization becomes toxic, different camps typically start questioning the moral legitimacy of other groups, viewing opposition as existential threats to a way of life or a nation.

[Source: The Horizon Project https://v-dem.net/media/publications/dr_2022.pdf]

POLARIZATION

POLARIZATION

54% say other Americans pose the biggest threat to our country. (CBS News)

​

66% say when discussing issues with those with whom they disagree, people are “quick to attack them.” Only 24% say people are “quick to listen.” (Listen First Project).

​

Americans rate “division in the country” as the most important issue facing them personally. (Georgetown University)

THREAT TO DEMOCRACY

71% believe American democracy is now threatened. (CBS News)

​

70% agree with the statement that America has become so polarized that it can no longer solve the major issues facing the country — and that those differences will only continue to grow. (NBC News)

​

66% of partisans see the opposing party as “a serious threat to the United States and its people.” (Kalmoe and Mason)

​

In 1958, 33% of Democrats wanted their daughters to marry a Democrat, and 25% of Republicans wanted their daughters to marry a Republican. But by 2016, 60% of Democrats and 63% of Republicans felt that way. (New York Times)

IDENTITY POLITICS

Rather than dividing over classic markers of identity such as race, Americans are increasingly sorting themselves on the basis of political attitudes with regard to race, with folks who identify with Donald Trump’s racial attitudes forming one team and those who reject it forming the other. The intensity of ill will between the two heralds an era of ongoing political instability in the US.

Source: The Revenge of Power, Moises Naim, p 75

We Don’t Know Those We Hate

• 77% have few or no (41%) friends from the other side. (Pew)

​

• 71% say they have avoided talking about politics with someone whose political views are opposed to their own in the last twelve months. (Ipsos)

​

• 85% say those who voted for the other presidential candidate don’t understand people like them. (Pew)

A typical response in our outreach - No one from your side has ever asked me what I think or feel before.

61% would be interested in talking across political differences if they “would be listened to respectfully.”

(Making Caring Common Project)

79% say that creating more opportunities for people to talk and interact with those who have different values and views would be effective in reducing divisiveness and destructive disagreement.

(Public Agenda)

58% of Americans believe that creating well-organized opportunities for people to get together and discuss ideas for addressing problems in their communities would help bring the country together.

(Public Agenda)

THE PROGRAM & OUR COLLECTIVE WORK

ARC & ARO

ARO

ARC

AUTHENTIC

RELATIONAL

ORGANIZING

​

THE APPROACH OF DEVELOPING AND UTILIZING AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE AND CREATE AN INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY.

AUTHENTIC

RELATIONAL

CONVERSATIONS

​

THE PRACTICE OF ENGAGING IN EMPATHETIC CONVERSATION WITH PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS TO HEAL DIVIDES AND BUILD COMMUNITY.

Highlights of the Program

• Unprecedented Training & Outreach
• Bottom-Up Approach to Discovery and Learnings
• A Model & Toolkit for Authentic Relational Organizing
• Strategic Narrative Development and Organizing Practice
• Graduated practice from virtual to place-based community organizing
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research, Analysis, Synthesis, Published Findings and Strategic & Tactical Implementation
• Platform for additional pro-democracy content delivery

Recommendations to reposition organizing during this time

• A Centralized National Training Hub to reach and unite communities of people to build a pro-democracy electorate at scale.
• A Centralized Resource Library of restorative movement guides to organizing for democratic practice – an online searchable compilation of resources, information, best practices, new innovations, tools, and connectivity 

WHAT MAKES THIS OUTREACH UNIQUE

BOTTOM UP vs. TOP-DOWN ORGANIZING APPROACH

​

DIRECTED OUTREACH TO AUDIENCES RARELY REACHED

​

AREAS IDENTIFIED BASED ON COMMUNITY NEED BY ZIP CODE

​

DATA BASED ON SELF-DECLARED STATEMENTS vs. ASSUMPTION

​

LEARNING TO INFORM PRACTICE

TIME IS CRITICAL

The lack of a pro-democratic mobilization risks allowing autocratization to deepen unchallenged. The history of successful pro-democracy movements reveals that opening channels of communication and coordination between key pillars of society is a critical ingredient of their success.  Successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war.

​

[Source: The Horizon Project https://v-dem.net/media/publications/dr_2022.pdf]

​

Hear from some of our volunteers!

EACH MONTH UVI PROVIDES…

• Two-days of sequential participatory training
• 1:1 support
• Regular community engagement in our SLACK workspace
• Scheduled debriefs
• Journaling entries tracking participant experiences, reflections, etc.
• Volunteer community building opportunities
• Additional learning and content delivery w/ network partners & allied orgs

THE GUIDE

14

62-page searchable narrative guide for pivoting and deepening conversations

​

https://activi.sm/UV-ARC-GUIDE

TEXTING OUTREACH

This is a sophisticated program unlike anything else. We tailored technology to meet the practice of authentic relational conversations (ARC) and authentic relational organizing (ARO).

​

Our outreach texting platform hosted on Spoke Rewired significantly expands our reach and scales the work that is unmatched by any other organizing effort that reaches a significant portion of the electorate increasingly being organized by anti-democratic factions.

​

Offers essential training for organizations across the country to enhance their state and local organizing in pivotal areas of declining democracy.

TEXTING OUTREACH

In areas of increasing polarization and violence, particularly in places with open-carry and stand your ground laws that make door-to-door outreach dangerous, texting provides:

• Safety
• Daily practice with a community and system of support
• Time for pause and reflection before responding not possible otherwise
• Mastery of the skills for:
• Authentic Relational Organizing to build a pro-democracy movement at scale
• De-escalation skills building
• Ability to navigate a vast range of topics that meets people where they are
• Engaging in productive conversations across differences
• The ability to identify areas of commonality shift attitudes and beliefs

THE GUIDE

14

UVI’s 62-page searchable narrative guide for pivoting and deepening conversations

http://ppls.ac/uvpguide2

Volunteers began each text message with just one scripted text to frame the context for open ended questions and dialogue: �

“Hi [name] this is [volunteer], a real volunteer with the United Vision Project (reply stop to opt out). Our country may be more divided than ever before, what do you think is causing this?

​

Conversations typically range over 1-2 days, even weeks or longer, revealing on average 5 primary issue motivators, with over 20% of conversations identifying 8 or more and ranging up to over 50 in a conversation of primary issue motivators, expressed biases, and political and social beliefs. It often provides data on which sources of information are informing their views.

​

Each conversation is carefully examined by UVI’s review team, who then apply the appropriate tag to stated declarations related to over 200 specific data points capturing social and political identification, associations, perceived greatest risks and threats, pain points, trusted information and their sources.

​

Data collected from each state can be aggregated by various characteristics, most notably by ZIP code, for examination of regional similarities and differences and to inform organizing efforts in the state.

This alone makes this a unique set of discovery data. Typically, research relies on outdated data from a secondary source to approximate affiliations and demographic characteristics. Self-declared data is a primary source of information that strengthens the confidence and reliability of the data.

​

Self Declared Topics & Identities

Political Identities

Group Associations

Social & Individual Identities

Perceived Greatest Threats

Perceived Rights at Risk

Pain Points & Base-Level Motivators

Biases Towards Groups

Conspiracy & Disinformation Beliefs

Trusted Sources of Information

200 Data Points Applied to Self Declarations

Targeted Outreach

WHERE WE’VE BEEN

NEXT PROSPECTS [INCLUDING FLORIDA]

“This is unlike anything ever attempted, let alone accomplished,” Political Research Associate, Senior Researcher, Steven Gardiner stated, “nothing like this has ever been done, perhaps the last time was by Theodor Adorno (in 1939 studying the rise of authoritarianism after the Spanish Civil War.”

OUR DIVISION

14

OUR COUNTRY MAY BE MORE DIVIDED THAN IT'S EVER BEEN. WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE MAIN THINGS DIVIDING US?

HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND?

HOW DO YOU THINK OUR

CONTACTS RESPOND?

Conspiracy & Disinformation Beliefs

DEEP STATE

ANTIFA VIOLENCE

COVID IS A HOAX

GEORGE SOROS

NEW WORLD ORDER

CHINESE CREATED COVID

QANON

RACISM DOESN’T EXIST

CANCEL CULTURE OR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

LIBERAL MEDIA

LEFTIST INDOCTRINATION

STOLEN ELECTION

FAKE NEWS

BLM VIOLENCE

DEFUND THE POLICE

These communities are not monoliths, yet the tendency is to direct organizing efforts in a campaign style that is missing the mark on what people actually believe and what is driving their actions.

DEMOCRATS OR LIBERALS

BIASED NEWS MEDIA

IMMIGRATION OR WEAK BORDERS

GOVERNMENT- US FEDERAL

COMMUNISM OR SOCIALISM

DEPENDENCE ON GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

SOCIAL MEDIA

LEFTIST SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

DECLINE OF RELIGION

BIG GOVERNMENT

CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

INFLATION

GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

WEAK LAW ENFORCEMENT

FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS

DEFICIT

VOTER FRAUD

POOR PEOPLE

BIG CORPORATIONS

Perceived Greatest Threats

HEALTHCARE

RISING COSTS

JOB LOSS OR LOW WAGES

HOUSING INSECURITY

VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT

FOOD INSECURITY

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS

STUDENT DEBT

CHILD CARE AND MEDICAL LEAVE

Pain Points & Base-Level Motivators

Often the point of entry is policy oriented, but many are living in a post policy world where resentment and waning belief in a democratic society is their leading motivation surpassing issues that organizations typically focus on to move voters.

Declared Biases

This tracks with all international studies and revelations about how communities are segregated and pitted against one another. The lower levels, particularly Latinx communities represent low hanging fruit where extremist anti-democratic factions are organizing to further the divide and where much organizing is not a priority.

Showing Up for Racial Justice & United Vision for Idaho

2023

TARGETED NY OUTREACH

UVI’s United Vision Project identified New York State as an area with emerging and escalating anti-democratic and white supremacist activity.

Local chapters of our partners at SURJ provided ZIP codes to concentrate outreach in areas of New York State known to be targeted by white nationalist recruitment efforts.

Within these zip codes, UVI pulled a list of all registered voters who had a PredictWise Ethno-Nationalist Probability Score greater than or equal to 81 (possible scores ranged 0-100).

This resulted in a list of 115,424 people who were then texted between February and April of 2022.

[People who quickly expressed markers of being aligned with progressive causes (such as disliking Trump) were removed from the sample, given that the goal was to identify those most sympathetic to authoritarian white nationalist recruitment and disinformation.]

NEW YORK STATE

This report summarizes our full research methods and key findings. Respondents represent a sample of people more likely to hold ethno-nationalist ideologies.

Organizers and policymakers can use these findings to inform targeted interventions that decrease support for white nationalism and authoritarianism and help build widespread support for equitable distribution of resources and multiracial democracy.

CRITICAL LEARNING

• Visible support for white nationalist, Christian nationalist, and white supremacist ideologies has increased in the United States over the last 8 years. In many majority-white rural and small-town communities, there are very few progressive movement organizations with bases, campaigns, or communications networks at the scale needed to counter the anti-democratic, white supremacist narratives and institutions that recruit new members and expand cultural support for their ideas.

​

• We need to better understand where and what kinds of people are aligning with these ideologies in order to successfully organize against the harm these groups create. Doing so strengthens our ability to inoculate people from the messaging and appeal of white supremacist organizations, blocking them from deepening their reliance on these organizations for aid, support, and meaning making.

​

• When we better understand where support for white nationalist, Christian nationalist, and other anti-democratic ideologies are strongest, the information can inform strategic decisions about where progressive organizations should focus to block the far-right’s attempts to hold more political and cultural power.

These are the same three factors that psychologists have linked together in analyzing general predisposition to believe conspiracy theories (Sutton and Douglas, 2020). There is a clear relationship between distrust, political ideological extremity, and conspiracy beliefs. The implication is that those who hold these beliefs perceive that government institutions meant to provide checks and balances are either implicit or ineffective and are unlikely to respond to people’s demand for change. Such sentiments can lead to the conclusion that one must either withdraw from mainstream political processes altogether or take action through an alternative, non-normative form (Sutton and Douglas, 2020). It is this latter conclusion that aligns with white nationalist and authoritarian frames and indicate a plan is needed to intervene and reduce the likelihood that sentiments shift into actively taking action that harms other people.

IDEAS INFORM ACTIONS

These are the same three factors that psychologists have linked together in analyzing general predisposition to believe conspiracy theories (Sutton and Douglas, 2020). There is a clear relationship between distrust, political ideological extremity, and conspiracy beliefs. The implication is that those who hold these beliefs perceive that government institutions meant to provide checks and balances are either implicit or ineffective and are unlikely to respond to people’s demand for change. Such sentiments can lead to the conclusion that one must either withdraw from mainstream political processes altogether or take action through an alternative, non-normative form (Sutton and Douglas, 2020). It is this latter conclusion that aligns with white nationalist and authoritarian frames and indicate a plan is needed to intervene and reduce the likelihood that sentiments shift into actively taking action that harms other people.

IDEAS INFORM ACTIONS

• While many of the respondents share a disdain for Democrats, liberals, leftists, and socialists, there are differences in their approach to what they see is wrong in the country- some clearly veer toward conspiracy theories, linking what they see as a problem to global conspiracies or agendas; in many of these cases, America-first or Christian Nationalism is presented as the correct solution; in others, a rejection of national governance is implied or suggested. This creates opportunities for white- and Christian-nationalist organizations to recruit and organize people into increased allegiance and action.
• However, some respondents who view leftist and liberals negatively have a sense that the United States is a nation that’s part of a world where other nations are also valid and our reputation matters. Both these types of participants share a current common grievance- Democrats - but how they may be organized in response to this grievance will likely differ. The conversations in this study illustrate links between how people are thinking about the problems of our country and their possible actions within existing institutions.

CLUSTERS

• The clusters we identified - such as naming Democrats or Liberals as the source of problems paired with distrust of institutions - do not just illustrate when certain ideas correlated with other ideas, nor simply someone’s thoughts or feelings. These ideas, held together, can indicate the respondents or their family’s likely decision points about real interactions with institutions like schools, military, or the system of voting. The conversation above names a number of political tensions flamed by far-right media, such as anti “critical race theory” and disrespect for trans people in schools. But, beyond naming these as problems in our country, they inform how people participate in (or reject) foundational institutions.
• Many respondents named distrust and dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. But, they often repeat talking points of the MAGA and establishment right.

SOME TOPLINES

• This research reveals, even in the initial sample of people who are likely to support ethno-nationalism, that people with higher incomes are the broadest base of support for ethno-nationalist ideas, and members of the sample skew older than 60. So, this affirms our strategic decision to focus much of our organizing on poor and working-class white communities.

​

• This report highlights the need for experimentation and organizing in majority-white communities to undermine the strength of existing right-wing movements. We need to organize in the counties named in this report and Long Island and create visible push-back in places of high-activity of white supremacists and Christian nationalist recruitment and action. These counties do not yet have a strong infrastructure for organizing

​

• This is needed to counter the hold the right has already created by organizing white people in these areas into their worldview and associated actions, as evidenced by the respondents’ frequent repetition of right-wing narratives and the choice points they shared about how respondents in this sample do and will relate to existing institutions.

TOPLINES CONTINUED…

• The broad distrust of Democrats and Liberals highlights the limits of partisan organizing to create the long-term shifts needed to create communities that support well resourced community investment rooted in multiracial solidarity. There is a clear need for nonpartisan entry points

​

• This report shows some of the fault lines that local organizing or regional narrative campaigns could intervene into to inoculate groups of people from taking a next step on a ladder of action of ethno-nationalism.

QUALITATIVE STUDY OF NARRATIVE

Using software for sentiment analysis, we can study the nuances of the conversations both individually and collectively. Once a conversation is uploaded, we can detect the level of several emotions present in the conversation. Does this person feel angry, joyous, fearful? And to what level of each? Within that, each topic of conversation and major themes will also be given these emotional ratings. We can then see the emotions surrounding individual topics within different demographics. These sentiment breakdowns can be used and cross referenced with our initial findings to get a detailed look at the pulse of areas typically forgotten or misrepresented. In addition to these collective examinations, we will also be tracking the changing tonality in individual conversations. We will plot these emotions along the conversation and see if we are creating positive change in the emotion of the individual. This will allow for further examination of the conversations creating a positive tonal change, and with analysis of those conversations, we can pull patterns of successful language and approaches to tailor our conversational method for the greatest efficacy. Using tracked sentiment change, we can directly assess the best and worst narrative approaches for discussions with those who hold oppositional ideologies.

PROMISING INITIAL

EXAMINATION

Suggested edit: A preliminary test sample of 670 conversations in Idaho revealed that on a sentiment scale measuring from (-1) indicating a negative tone to (+1) indicating a positive tone with (0) being neutral, our respondents started at (-0.4) reflecting a greater degree of negativity. Typically, this sample consisted of 25 exchanges between texters and respondents. After the 15^th exchange, tone shifted positively from (-0.4) to neutral (0). Conversations that extended beyond 15 exchanges shifted tone to the positive side of the scale that did not return to the negative range.

​

A preliminary test sample of 670 conversations in Idaho revealed that on an sentiment scale measuring from (-1) indicating a negative tone, our respondents started at (-0.4) reflecting a greater degree of negativity. Typically, this sample consisted of 25 exchanges between texters and respondents. After the 15^th exchange, attitudinal shift moved from (-0.4) to 0 representing a neutral tone. Conversations that extended beyond 15 conversations resulted in positive shifts and did not return to a negative range.

Additional References & Context

Don't Give up Rural Idaho to White Supremacy, Anti-democratic Forces - Idaho Statesman

In the Struggle for Racial and Economic Justice, Don't Forget Rural America - Non-profit Quarterly

This Election Is About Who You Are - Medium 

We Could Win the Election but Lost the War If we Don't Orient Differently - Roddenberry Foundation 

Where Eagles Dare: Progressives have made a huge push into America's rural communities

Idaho Press – Boise Weekly 

Community Catalyst:

https://communitycatalyst.app.box.com/v/CC-Organizing-Guide

​