One of the most exciting and positive things happening in the political world is “Indivisible,” the new progressive opposition initiative. Last December, after the election of Donald Trump, four former congressional staffers put a document on-line to help mobilize citizens to resist Trump’s agenda of racism, authoritarianism, and corruption.
Just as importantly the document provided advice on how to put pressure on Members of Congress who support Trump and the Republican right-wing agenda. Soon the paper developed into Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda. And it went viral. By June, there were almost 6,000 Indivisible groups across the country, including at least two in each congressional district. The operating assumption is that if progressives are going to stop this radically conservative shift in our government, we must stand indivisibly opposed to Trump and the Members of Congress who support him.
Our group is the New River Valley Indivisible. It started in January and by June had 500 members. We have a range of issue committees: civil rights, education, economy, ethics and corruption, health care, immigration, and (the pressure our Tea Party Congressman) Morgan Griffiths group.
The Indivisible Guide discusses four different tactics to use on local Members of Congress: (1) town halls, (2) other local public events, (3) district office visits, and (4) coordinated calls. We have used each of these tactics.
Each week we make calls to Congressman Griffith and our two senators, lobbying on several issues, but always the Republican health care bill. We have visited his office 4-5 times, and we have met with him twice. At our meetings with the Congressman, we lobbied against the Republicans’ health care bill, and we requested a town hall meeting so that he could face people in his district and answer questions. He said no to each appeal; however, we had the town hall event without him. An overflow crowd of 250 people attended, and many of us talked. He was represented by his picture on a cardboard cutout.
We have also held two demonstrations against Representative Griffith’s local office. Our most important other local public event occurred on Sunday—our “Chain-Chain-Chain” event. At a local park, over 200 people came and participated in completing a paper chain of 62,000 links, each link representing an individual in our congressional district who would lose health insurance coverage if the Republican bill passes.
The paper chain was long enough to stretch over three miles. Several media covered the event, but the big deal was that our favorite television program, The Rachel Maddow Show, featured our event on Monday night.
Today, Wednesday, bags of thousands of these paper chains were delivered to the local office of Congressman Griffith.
Indivisible is providing a means for everyone to get involved. It includes many people who have never been active before. For example, a mild-mannered librarian in our pressure Morgan Griffiths group says that before last November she did not pay much attention to politics, “but never again!”