Cracks are developing, serious cracks, so do not despair DeVos being approved. This post includes mounting evidence that our resistance is working and one action you can take right now that could be huge. Also included, another Olbermann video & info on International Last Stand NoDAPL TODAY.
Action for Today: We need to keep up the pressure. Call two friends and email ten other friends in states with GOP Senators and/or House Reps. Click here for the strategy and why it will work. It will take fifteen minutes.
Every post from now on will include one or two actions for you to take daily. We are wasting our time if people are not taking seriously the challenge we face and how we can play a meaningful role in meeting that challenge. Yesterday’s post pointed to the critical importance of getting out of your comfort zone. So let’s do it. We are also introducing a concept for expanding the impact of what you do: the aerobic activist workout. The workout involves two steps: Act – Share.
ACT for Today: Call 2 friends and email ten friends in states with GOP Senators and House Reps and ask that they begin sending post cards and making calls. Click here for the strategy and why it will work.
SHARE for Today: If you’re on Facebook, copy and paste this into a post: “Today I urged ten friends in Red states to get active. Join me! Please share this post. Go to https://retakeourdemocracy.org/swingleft-your-best-tool-for-resisting-trump/.”
ANOTHER ACTION: In Santa Fe, there is a “Water, Wildlands, Wildlife” rally at the Roundhouse from 9am to 3pm, an event that has been planned for many months. Every environmental group will be there. In addition, because the Army Corps just approved the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, there is now an International Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock: The Last Stand. Show up at the Roundhouse at 11 a.m. TODAY with signs of solidarity. Click here and Spread the word! Very important: the Water, Wildlands, Wildlife Rally has been planned for months. It is THEIR event and it likely has specific goals that are important to them and to us. It is not OK for the Last Stand event to usurp, disrupt, or interfere with their work. Let’s do this in alliance and solidarity and support their work, not undermine it.
Announcement: Retake Our Democracy has been given a Moral Monday of its own, Feb 20 at noon at the Roundhouse and it is on (Not Our) President’s Day, so most folks will have the day off. We want a huge turnout for this and we have big plans to link the policies of Trump and Gov. Martinez very explicitly. We have great speakers and music lined up. Click here for details.
Click here to look over the Events and Opportunities page, updated throughout the day with newly announced Roundhouse Hearings and other events.
Continue to Put Your Foot Down.They Are Feeling the Pressure.
Support for Trump’s Regime Is Unraveling. We lost one yesterday and our public education system will be under siege for years because of this. But as I often do, I turn to Reverend William Barber for advice: “Do not measure the success of a movement on the basis of a single issue, action, or defeat. Gauge success by the evidence of the movement’s strength.” There is mounting evidence that cracks are beginning to form in the Trump Regime:
- Click here for an article describing the reaction of scores of major corporations who have filed briefs in opposition to Trumps refugee ban—the GOP is not accustomed to being opposed in court by the Corporatocracy;
- Click here for an article about the mass exit of advertisers on Breitbart.
- Click here for a summary provided by a Mennonite Pastor reporting on his visit to GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, PA, who shares that Toomey is clearly rattled and has never seen the kind of onslaught of opposition to what is going on in Washington;
- Click here for an article about how GOP Congressional Reps are under intense pressure to hold Town Halls when they return over the (Not Our) President’s Weekend, Feb 17-20. The article details many examples of Congressional representatives feeling the pressure.
Trump has been in office less than a month and the groundswell continues to mount. So do not despair over the DeVos nomination. No dispute, she is a horrible person to be running our public education system, but this movement is building and with so many organizations like Retake Our Democracy helping to focus efforts, we will prevail. We will bring the justice we have thirsted for.
Categories: Actions, Boycotts, Indigenous Rights, Standing Rock
And yesterday progressives swept school board races statewide in NM!
Can you send me a link on this?
http://progressnownm.org
How funny you sent it. I got it from someone else about 15 seconds earlier. Will put it in tomorrow’s blog. Always need good news.
Thanks
Is there more information or a news account on this? Thanks!
There were three links to news reports in the post and if you google: “GOP feeling pressure from constituents,” you will find dozens.
Paul, An event worth listing on upcoming events.. A circling of the Round House Morning before the 1 million rising event at 2 . Might get some as yet uninvited persons out. Could by a flyer distribution opportunity maybe. Promoted by Carol Miller. John Otter
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The event is listed in our Events & Opportunities page. Will feature it a bit in a post as we get closer to the day. thanks
SB 182 WITHDRAWN by Senator Papen citing the thousand or so comments she had!!
Yahoo. You just made my day.
Sorry, but I don’t understand why defeating early childhood education funding would be a good thing given our lamentable educational outcomes. Paul can you write about this?
SB 182 wasn’t really about early childhood education. It was a scam from the start to allow the state to sell off public land to the fossil fuel industry. Papen was so barraged with email and calls, she withdrew the bill yesterday. There is a far more fiscally and environmentally sound bill to fund early childhood HJR1 that we are endorsing enthusiastically. Thanks for the comment.
1. Don’t use his name; When you post or talk about him, don’t assign his actions to him, assign them to “The Republican Administration,” or “The Republicans.” This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him or stand up for what some of them don’t like; he will not get the focus of attention he craves; Republican representatives will become very concerned about their re-elections
2. Remember this is a regime and he’s not acting alone;
3. Focus on his policies, not his orange-ness and mental state;
4. Keep your message positive; they want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow;
5. No more helpless/hopeless talk;
6. Support artists and the arts;
7. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it;
8. Take care of yourselves; and
9. Resist!
Keep demonstrations peaceful. In the words of John Lennon, “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight! Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.”
More sage advice. It is coming in from everywhere today, in comments here and in emails to me. I agree with most all of that and like the Republican Administration reference, precisely for the reason you gave, but in truth, if I say: Come to the Town Hall to Resist the Republican Administration, I will get little response, if I say resist the Trump Regime. Big response. Interesting dilemma. thanks for the comment.