I’m smiling. Cast your minds back to the dark early days of 2017. Traitor Tot was inaugurated, and most die hard Democrats were busy trying to figure out a way to end it all without leaving too much of a mess for the spouse to clean up. Humanity as we knew it was over.
And then along came a pocket miracle. A bunch of former Democratic House staffers who were as bummed as the rest of us, more so since they were out of work, decided to do something about it. They got together, ordered a couple of extra large sausage and mushroom pizzas with extra cheese, a 30 pack of brew skis, and Indivisible was born.
It was a masterpiece of nuts and bolts political activism. And the authors were honest enough to admit it wasn’t original. In 2009, following the election of Barack Obama as President, the AstroTurf Koch brothers Tea Party created a simple handbook for Tea Party cells to use to disrupt Democratic House town halls and live appearances, and make life a misery for Democrats. We’re all painfully aware of the results of the 2010 House election.
The online Indivisible handbook was directly taken from the Tea Party handbook. As such it was free from poli-sci philosophical bullshit. It was a nuts and bolts tutorial on how to make your GOP representatives life a living hell. And with a little helpful media push from Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC with live interviews, Indivisible went viral. In one month, there were more than 2000 registered Indivisible cells in all 50 states. I believe it topped at over 5000. I wrote a summary of the handbook at the time.
The most important thing to remember about Indivisible, and I believe the secret of its success is its autonomy. There is no national umbrella organization, nor are there any state chapters. The cells are all local, making it possible for the organizers to adapt the handbook to local conditions. And thanks at least in part to Indivisible, the Democrats steamrolled 40 seats in the House in 2018.
It was time to put the band back together. On The Rachel Maddow Show tonight, Rachel had an old friend, Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin on for a chat. And he unveiled that the group has come out with Indivisible 2.0. And it even has a catchy title, In divisible II, Defeating MAGA. And it’s another gem.
And again, the treatise is nuts and bolts specific. This time around, the handbook deals with 18 seats that the GOP won in 2020 in districts that Biden carried. And it’s specific. One of the districts it deals with is a GOP suburban rep in a district that Biden carried. It turns out that these fuckers are leading double lives. I can’t for the life of me remember his name, but it’s immaterial.
He ran as a moderate Republican, and yet simple research shows that he votes in lock step with MTH 94% of the time. The manual is full of helpful hints. Confront your representative and ask his opinion on divisive issues, and then express your displeasure. With this representative, Indivisible activists got him in a campaign situation with the media present, and got him to admit that he opposes any cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Now he’s on the record, and Indivisible can track and monitor his voting history.
And the beauty is that while the tutorial is designed for those 18 specific districts, let’s not forget one thing. In 2018 the Democrats flipped a plethora of districts that voted for Traitor Tot in 2016. The playbook is wonderfully flexible. Activists in those districts can use the same plan to hold their representatives feet to the fire. After all, the district went Democratic in 2018, they can do the same damn thing in 2024.
Take my word for it folks, this changes everything. The country is full of pissed off Democrats that want to do something, but they don’t know how. In 2018 Indivisible gave them a game plan, and they executed it flawlessly. And now in 2023, Indivisible is back with another roadmap, tailored to the MAGA crowd. If it ain’t broke, Don’t fix it! Soldier on.
You act like dems weren’t pissed off when the 2022 election took place. They were. They were pissed off and I thought scared shitless after seeing our democracy almost going up in flames on J6. That did not bring them to the polls in enough numbers quite obviously because dems lost seats in congress. I’m not sure how this is going to make much of a difference. They were getting the message hammered into their brains daily that abortion was the first civil right on the chopping block but the g.o.p. made gains. You can say it could have been worse but that doesn’t change the fact that the ‘pubes control the house.