This piece by Indivisible Sonoma is an excellent piece an analysis and action. Read it then do it!
There’s a lot to do. And no one will do it for us.
Editor’s Note:
Here is a sampling of this week’s Calls to Make, Meetings to put on your calendar, and Actions you can take to change the direction of our country. More opportunities to get involved happen all the time — and we post them on our calendar. Stay current!
Calls To Make
by Tom Benthin
This past week there were reports that Congressional Democrats were “pissed” that they were getting so many calls from constituents asking them to fight back against the Trump/Musk assault on our government. That means your calls are starting to have an effect - and we need to increase the volume.
Democrats were complaining that, since they are in the minority, there is very little they can do. Nonsense. We understand that a minority party can’t keep a united majority from passing laws. They are excluded from the lawmaking process to a large degree. We get it - if you think your job is to legislate, being in the minority sucks. But that’s not their job description when facing a fascist takeover. Their job right now is not to legislate. It is to fight back. And there are a lot of things a minority party can do to fight back.
One of those things is working to control the narrative - to define what the public pays attention to and how they understand what is happening. This requires a willingness to create conflict (which grabs attention) and to attack the opposition. As an example, it’s been suggested that Democrats couldhold daily opposition briefings to tell the American people the truth about how Trump/Musk are are breaking the law, bypassing Congress, and shutting down most of the government citizens depend on. This is essential, because if they leave it up to the media and Trump, the public will be fed lies. And - absent a counter narrative - they will believe them.
Another thing is slowing down and disrupting Congress as Republicans work to pass their fascist agenda. There are a lot of procedural rules used in Congress to speed up cumbersome, time-consuming processes (such as taking a roll call for every vote). The same rules can be used to the opposite effect: they can slow work to a crawl, making it painful and frustrating. They can grind the other party down. In some cases, this can be done by one lone person. Remember that GOP senator Tommy Tuberville held up all military promotions for ten months all by himself, with the rest of the Senate powerless to stop him. Tuberville’s holds caused real damage to the military, which was a travesty. Causing real damage to a fascist takeover of your country, on the other hand, is what heroes do.
Think of your calls as a wake up. Right now their phones won’t stop ringing and too many congressional Dems would like to be able to roll over and stay in their familiar old job as legislator. Tough luck. When our democracy is burning, we expect much more. Let’s keep their phones ringing until they answer the call.
We Need YOU to Take Action
Our phone calls, as AOC said recently, are how members of Congress measure enthusiasm - how much people are mobilizing around a particular issue. And, she adds, the more our representatives see that mobilizing, the more careful they will be about not making people upset. So now is the time to let them know we are upset - they must start playing hardball.
Democrats Have Leverage. They MUST Use It.
Democrats are in the minority, which means they have little to no leverage over most legislation. However, there is one exception. Republicans will almost certainly need Democrats to help them raise the debt ceiling, which must happen before March 14th or the government will be in default. Democrats must not provide those votes for free. They must ask for something in return: for Trump & Musk to stop their illegal dismantling of our government, which includes stripping the power of Congress to allocate funds.
Democrats may be tempted to give away their votes for nothing, since allowing the government to go into default would cause financial mayhem. But if they do so, they are giving up their last scrap of power to keep Trump from neutering Congress. The people we elect to represent us will have given up the power we invest in them to a dictator. That is something they must not do.
HIGHEST PRIORITY: CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: USE YOUR DEBT-CEILING LEVERAGE
Congress must raise the debt ceiling by March 14th or the nation will go into default. Republicans will almost certainly need Democratic votes to raise the ceiling. Democrats MUST demand that Trump & Musk respect the power of Congress to pass budgets and allocate funds. They must stop their illegal dismantling of the federal government.
(To learn more about the debt ceiling, read about it here).
Please call your members of Congress and say:
I’m calling to ask the senator/congressman to make sure that EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT will refuse to vote for the debt ceiling increase until Trump/Musk respect Congress’s right to pass budgets and stop breaking the federal government.
“Procedural Hardball”
Democrats are in the minority, which means they have very little leverage in Congress to stop the fascist Republicans (there are occasional exceptions - see below). Yes, they can and should vote “no” on every Republican bill or appointment. But there’s more they and and must do. Democrats have many options for using procedural rules to make things slow and difficult for Republicans. This is something they can be doing every single day. In the Senate, for example, we are asking Democrats to:
1. Deny a quorum
2. Block unanimous consent
3. Max out debate time
4. Delay and disrupt
5. Keep a blanket opposition
6. No business as usual
7. No on all nominations
Republicans are turning America into a fascist, dictatorship. Democrats may not be able to stop them outright, but they must do everything in the power - including playing procedural hardball - to slow them down.
CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: OBSTRUCT EVERYTHING
Both the Senate and the House run on many fairly complicated rules. In an emergency, those rules can be used to slow or stop an opposition party by a minority. We watched Mitch McConnell do that for years, while Democrats tried to turn Republicans around by playing nice. It didn’t work. We need all Democrats to play “procedural hardball”. A few have begun. We need it from everybody.
(To learn more about what Senate Democrats must do, read about our asks to them here).
Please call your members of Congress and say:
I’m calling to ask the senator/congressman to delay and deny Trump’s agenda in Congress by playing procedural hardball. Trump and Musk are illegally dismantling our federal government. I’m asking you to fight for us. Oppose, oppose, oppose.
Saving Our Elections
Congressional Republicans are poised to introduce the SAVE Act, which is designed to make elections unwinnable for Democrats by stripping millions of people - predominantly women - of their right to vote. If they are successful, elections may no longer provide a route back to democracy. It is essential that every congressional Democrat oppose the SAVE Act vehemently.
Using the MAGA myth of “voter fraud”, the SAVE Act would create barriers to registration that could keep millions of Americans from being able to register to vote - including an estimated 21 million who would not be able to access the documents required by the bill to prove their identity. Among these would be women who changed their name when they wed, since the law would require their current name to match that on their birth certificate.
When you make your daily calls to your three members of Congress, please be sure to ask them to oppose the SAVE Act.
CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: OPPOSE THE SAVE ACT
The SAVE Act pretends to be a solution to the non-existent problem of “voter fraud”. Instead, it is a MAGA bill to keep Democrats from being able to vote by making it difficult or impossible for voters to register. We need every single Democrat to oppose it.
(To learn more about the SAVE Act, read about it here).
Please call your members of Congress and say:
I’m calling to ask the senator/congressman to oppose the SAVE Act, which is designed to keep Democrats from being able to vote.
Senator Alex Padilla
DC phone: 202-224-3553
SF phone: 415-981-9369
Senator Adam Schiff
DC phone: 202-224-3841
Congressman Jared Huffman
Phone: (San Rafael) 415-258-9657
or
Congressman Mike Thompson
Phone: (Santa Rosa) 707-542-7182
Stop all CA subsidies and tax breaks to Big Oil!
BACKGROUND: Oil and gas corporations have knowingly been fueling the climate crisis for years. Yet Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other fossil fuel companies continue to receive millions of dollars each year in taxpayer subsidies.
MESSAGE: In the aftermath of the fires in Southern California, let's stop giving away hundreds of million of dollars to fossil fuel corporations. I urge you to prioritize climate investments and eliminate all tax breaks and subsidies for Big Oil!
Assemblymember Chris Rogers https://a02.asmdc.org/contact
Tel: (916) 319-2002
Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry https://a04.asmdc.org/contact
Phone: (916) 319-2004
Assemblymember Damon Connolly https://a12.asmdc.org/contact
Phone: (916) 319-2012
Senator Mike McGuire https://sd02.senate.ca.gov/contact
Phone: (916) 651-4002
Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil https://sr04.senate.ca.gov/contact-me
Phone: (916) 651-4004
Governor Gavin Newsom https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/
Phone: (916) 445-2841
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