Hi David, I don't think that it was because the democratic ticket had a black woman candidate (although I think that was some of it). I think it was primarily because many Americans were sick of the US acceptance of transgender-ism, and generally speaking "woke"-ism. Personally, I wouldn't want my soccer playing teenage daughter knocked over by a boy, who thinks somewhere in his mind and emotional psyche, that he is a girl. Woke-ism is a much longer conversation.
Which, of course, happens all over America. How many transgendered people play against your daughter? Is your daughter unable to knock over other people? Which people does your daughter prefer to knock over? The woke? The comatose? And why can’t she speak for herself? So many questions!
We do what we can: support groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), or Protect Democracy that file lawsuits against the illegal and unconstitutional actions taken by Trump & Musk (links below); get with friends and write letters to news organizations; contact your elected representatives - we may think they don't pay attention but if you are a voter in their district, they will pay attention. Start small. The best way to deal with fear and anxiety and fear is action - just take small steps and each shall become bigger over time.
In addition to supporting legal actions of groups named by reader ASBermant, raise your voice to your elected representatives and officials, as noted by reader Rachel.
A real-time horror film. There have been frequent recommendations that we not give in to the ever present sense of hopelessness, but that’s a big and frankly peculiar ask given Musk’s power and the extent of his takeover. All the while the NYT and WaPo seem relatively bland and noncommittal.
NYT and WaPo are part of the MSM and complicit in the Fascist takeover of this democracy "Woke" was just a distraction for the Fascist oligarchs to destroy democracy.
Why is there no real pushback on Musk's coup? I honestly don't understand this. Where is the Democrat response, where is the justice system's response?
While Trump is in power, I suspect the justice system will act ONLY in response to lawsuits brought by groups outside the Federal government - e.g., individual states and groups like the ACLU. My thought is that such lawsuits are, for now, our best way to fight back.
Publiccitizen.org filed a lawsuit against Trump on January 20th regarding DOGE and the various ways it is breaking laws. I agree lawsuits are important.
The Democrats are complicit in all of this. They are voting to confirm all of these unqualified Secretary nominees. We need to stay on them not to vote yes to the rest. Even if the nominees still get through, it should be strictly because of the Republicans!
"[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941
This is the moment where leadership counts. I am hopeful that despite the cowardice of the main stream media, the collective action and opposition by millions of Americans will be the column of strength that will take back and strengthen our Democratic Republic.
It may take some time for Americans to feel the pain and realize what they've lost, but I have faith that, as Churchill said "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
U mean from Pam Bondy or the interim FBI director? Who else is there to lead at the highest level. Facebook newsfeed is the most dangerous weapon in the world right now.
I think the person who thought musk would have just read only authority over the government payment systems was amazingly naive. No way musk would be satisfied with read only access. Now I wonder what will happen to Social Security and Medicare, and how they will determine who the enemies are who are to be cut off from government financial payments.
Take your passport AND certified copy of birth certificate …and an immigration attorney/org contact info saved digitally & manually (written down)- especially if u are outspoken/public in your activism.
The colloquial admonition/invitation to "think outside the box" has taken on new and desperate meaning as we watch the entire federal government topple, at least in part, because of individual and collective lack of imagination. Well-intentioned public servants accustomed to doing rules-bound jobs cannot imagine that others who purport to be "joining" the work of the same functioning system are instead hell-bent on full and final destruction of it. They can't achieve a 30,000 foot perspective to see where disruption of their corner of the government portends destruction of the whole. The reason the Senate and the House seem to be simply going about the business of government as they know it, including the confirmation hearings, is not just cowardice. They can't get their heads outside their own familiar patterns enough to see that their jobs have changed -- that their leadership must be applied to a brave and untested course of action in the face of this Musk/Trump-led coup. So far they have let themselves become useless to the democracy that elected them. The courage to rise against this coup will likely come from unexpected places, if at all.
Perilous times, they will decide who the so-called enemies are. If you are not a white male you will be viewed as a potential enemy of the State. Therefore even if it is our Social Security they will decide if you are entitled.
Musk, Thiel, etc. intend to steal everything that's not nailed down. That's the goal! Trump is a figurehead, and is disposable. The old rules don't apply anymore. Until we accept this and act accordingly, we are lost.
Please address the tragedy that Trump as a psychopath needs to be contained through mental health laws such as the duty to warn as illustrated by Dr Bandy X Lee in her book Trump Contagion! Please interview her!
Musk has surrounded the planet with satellites that control the internet for entire countries, appropriated the most powerful social media platform and privatized it for himself, more or less owns the US space program, and now has control of the cash flow of the US government. It's a Bond movie come to life. Is there a hero who can stop this?
This is indeed a coup--a declaration of war on the Constitution. Merrick Garland failed to address the Jan 6 coup attempt. He treated it like a white-collar crime, not an assault on the country. So, Trump got away with it. That emboldened the MAGA movement and Musk and the other oligarchs, and communicated to the country that Jan 6 and the fake-elector plot was a matter of debate. And here we are, with 51% of the voting electorate buying into that framing and blind to Musk's takeover. Who can or will intervene now? Or do we just watch this unfold?
trump is no match for the Ketamine King. Musk is operating in a very trumpian fashion, but doesn’t seem to require the public accolades trump does. Therefore, he goes about his coup under the trumpian radar. If he blows a constant stream of smoke under trump’s diaper, he has free access to the fortunes (misfortunes?) of all of us. Ketamine has warped his senses, and he’s developed a god-complex as a result. We’re in for a showdown in DC.
How is it not a matter of national security that our intelligence community step-in to protect us from this individual and his associates? Garland should have instructed his DOJ to start at the top and grand jury all the corrupt organizations that were reported in 2013+, exceptions for Statute of limitations, (esp. when the American population is the most educated and connected, at any point in history- for as poorly as they want to talk about our higher education system- which used to be a top export!).
No way he was naive. We're talking about a financially and politically sophisticated person (who, of course would refuse to accept responsibility; just in case there is some pushback).
I believe t**** is disposable. Once Musk gets all of the keys he needs to take over our country, he will “dispose” of t****. Therein lies the threat of a true bloody coup.
The evil essence of Trump and Musk is that they'll do anything – and *everything* – they can get away with. After only two weeks, they've infected America with fascism. But how do we get our country back?
This cogent analysis would be lost on most Trumpists except those with an ounce of political or historical awareness. First, of course few if any of them will read it. And second, although I have never explored them, I’m certain there are all too many outlets who are working as hard and as successfully as usual to discredit Dr. Ben-Ghiat and those like her in the minds of any who do.
That does nothing to take away the great worth of her efforts to keep those of us who do value her thinking and her expertise (as well as that of the others she mentioned) fully informed and in the fight.
We must continue to resist, each of us in the ways we feel most appropriate to our skills, but with many others, my real immediate hope is that the current regime’s extremes will start to affect those who thought what they were going to get is very different from what they are about to get. The defeat of Trumpism must begin from within the MAGA ranks, or possibly when enough of the Republican ’stalwarts’ in the House and/or the Senate begin to realize that Trump’s attempted takeover of the Republic threatens them even more seriously that it does the rest of us. After all, hell hath no fury like a Trump scorned by those he thinks of as his own ‘people’. When and if enough of them grow spines, though, they might remember Ben Franklin’s reputedly apocryphal warning to the Founders - Either we all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.
A friend of mine shared on her Facebook Copied from someone else:
FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR despair INTO ACTION, here's some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator.
There are two things that we should be doing all the time right now. You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.
1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.
2) But those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.
YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.
The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).
Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code. She said that Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.
So, when you call:
A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).
Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.
C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by ——-," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.
D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter — even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.
E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity.
F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.
From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
**If you want to share this, please copy and paste.
Pretty much the approach that I and others have taken - but others need notes, guidelines, scripts - and I and others need other ideas, talking points.
We have to row this boat together < my approach to this.
This exact post was shared on Facebook today by my local Indivisible group. It is textbook individual small-d democratic political activism, good advice. But, it is also clearly a post from pre-2019, as that is when Claire McCaskill and Betsy DeVos were still in office (see post). Is six-year-old advice to make "6 calls a day", on topics unspecified, all that we need to do right now, while our constitution is being shredded before our eyes? Please help me understand - how best can we use democratic activism to unseat a dictator and an oligarchy. I am no politics expert, just an ordinary (somewhat informed) citizen. Does the situation we are in - a coup - call for additional strategies beyond calling elected representatives? Maybe all the "what should we do" questions are coming from a place of never having experienced an actual successful coup by forces hostile to democracy. Who among us knows what to do to stop coup plotters from stealing our freedoms, our government and our taxpayer dollars? Yes we should be asking our Senators and Congresspeople to step up to the plate and defend democracy. But what else can we do, and how can we do it in a coordinated and powerful fashion?
Since both Musk & Thiel are South African, I wonder if there’s any similarities between this coup and the S.A. apartheid regime ?
This article provides some context
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
Thanks!
Such a difficult decision—white robes or spiffy uniform & jackboots
How sad … and petty … that the misogynists are moving so rapidly in their coup after fear of a black woman president.
Hi David, I don't think that it was because the democratic ticket had a black woman candidate (although I think that was some of it). I think it was primarily because many Americans were sick of the US acceptance of transgender-ism, and generally speaking "woke"-ism. Personally, I wouldn't want my soccer playing teenage daughter knocked over by a boy, who thinks somewhere in his mind and emotional psyche, that he is a girl. Woke-ism is a much longer conversation.
Which, of course, happens all over America. How many transgendered people play against your daughter? Is your daughter unable to knock over other people? Which people does your daughter prefer to knock over? The woke? The comatose? And why can’t she speak for herself? So many questions!
Hi David, I erred in not including the subject of "the right to choose" and abortions.
This is a core issue for both of the current political parties.
So, what does your daughter think about all this?
Oh please
What do WE do now? Seems most of our government was not prepared to be invaded by Musk.
We do what we can: support groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), or Protect Democracy that file lawsuits against the illegal and unconstitutional actions taken by Trump & Musk (links below); get with friends and write letters to news organizations; contact your elected representatives - we may think they don't pay attention but if you are a voter in their district, they will pay attention. Start small. The best way to deal with fear and anxiety and fear is action - just take small steps and each shall become bigger over time.
https://www.citizensforethics.org
https://protectdemocracy.org
In addition to supporting legal actions of groups named by reader ASBermant, raise your voice to your elected representatives and officials, as noted by reader Rachel.
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
Find your local people through Indivisible:
https://indivisible.org/
As usual Ruth Ben ghiat has gave us information to help get through this attack on our democracy
A real-time horror film. There have been frequent recommendations that we not give in to the ever present sense of hopelessness, but that’s a big and frankly peculiar ask given Musk’s power and the extent of his takeover. All the while the NYT and WaPo seem relatively bland and noncommittal.
And , - that is because the WaWaPoo and the NYBADT ARE bland and noncommittal.
NYT and WaPo are part of the MSM and complicit in the Fascist takeover of this democracy "Woke" was just a distraction for the Fascist oligarchs to destroy democracy.
Why is there no real pushback on Musk's coup? I honestly don't understand this. Where is the Democrat response, where is the justice system's response?
I think it's akin to a "Fog of War" where leadership is grappling with situational uncertainties.
The leadership has been decapitated. Musk knows it and that’s why he’s running free.
While Trump is in power, I suspect the justice system will act ONLY in response to lawsuits brought by groups outside the Federal government - e.g., individual states and groups like the ACLU. My thought is that such lawsuits are, for now, our best way to fight back.
Publiccitizen.org filed a lawsuit against Trump on January 20th regarding DOGE and the various ways it is breaking laws. I agree lawsuits are important.
Public Citizen has been around a long time; I think they were originally founded by Ralph Nader.
The Democrats are complicit in all of this. They are voting to confirm all of these unqualified Secretary nominees. We need to stay on them not to vote yes to the rest. Even if the nominees still get through, it should be strictly because of the Republicans!
I agree - why are they doing that?
Dems, especially the Senate, seem to be and have been for a long time spineless weenies
Seems they are pretty much useless in making charge
Maybe in 2026 if we have any democracy or freedoms left we can get co tell of the house and add seats in the Senator
Yet if all the Dems do is continue to wring their hands - we are totally screwed
👍👍👍👍
"[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941
This is the moment where leadership counts. I am hopeful that despite the cowardice of the main stream media, the collective action and opposition by millions of Americans will be the column of strength that will take back and strengthen our Democratic Republic.
It may take some time for Americans to feel the pain and realize what they've lost, but I have faith that, as Churchill said "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."
U mean from Pam Bondy or the interim FBI director? Who else is there to lead at the highest level. Facebook newsfeed is the most dangerous weapon in the world right now.
I think the person who thought musk would have just read only authority over the government payment systems was amazingly naive. No way musk would be satisfied with read only access. Now I wonder what will happen to Social Security and Medicare, and how they will determine who the enemies are who are to be cut off from government financial payments.
I am going out of the country for a vacation. Wonder if they'll let me back in.
I hope they do!! I wish you the best.
Take your passport AND certified copy of birth certificate …and an immigration attorney/org contact info saved digitally & manually (written down)- especially if u are outspoken/public in your activism.
The colloquial admonition/invitation to "think outside the box" has taken on new and desperate meaning as we watch the entire federal government topple, at least in part, because of individual and collective lack of imagination. Well-intentioned public servants accustomed to doing rules-bound jobs cannot imagine that others who purport to be "joining" the work of the same functioning system are instead hell-bent on full and final destruction of it. They can't achieve a 30,000 foot perspective to see where disruption of their corner of the government portends destruction of the whole. The reason the Senate and the House seem to be simply going about the business of government as they know it, including the confirmation hearings, is not just cowardice. They can't get their heads outside their own familiar patterns enough to see that their jobs have changed -- that their leadership must be applied to a brave and untested course of action in the face of this Musk/Trump-led coup. So far they have let themselves become useless to the democracy that elected them. The courage to rise against this coup will likely come from unexpected places, if at all.
Well said!!! Thank you for writing a piece that I can identify with and fortified by!
This
That is my fear, too.
Perilous times, they will decide who the so-called enemies are. If you are not a white male you will be viewed as a potential enemy of the State. Therefore even if it is our Social Security they will decide if you are entitled.
v
The Treasury Secretary is lying.
Musk, Thiel, etc. intend to steal everything that's not nailed down. That's the goal! Trump is a figurehead, and is disposable. The old rules don't apply anymore. Until we accept this and act accordingly, we are lost.
Are they hoping for a rush on the banks?
Ruth,
Please address the tragedy that Trump as a psychopath needs to be contained through mental health laws such as the duty to warn as illustrated by Dr Bandy X Lee in her book Trump Contagion! Please interview her!
John D Grove LCSW
This is like a James Bond plot where the villain succeeds.
Musk has surrounded the planet with satellites that control the internet for entire countries, appropriated the most powerful social media platform and privatized it for himself, more or less owns the US space program, and now has control of the cash flow of the US government. It's a Bond movie come to life. Is there a hero who can stop this?
This is indeed a coup--a declaration of war on the Constitution. Merrick Garland failed to address the Jan 6 coup attempt. He treated it like a white-collar crime, not an assault on the country. So, Trump got away with it. That emboldened the MAGA movement and Musk and the other oligarchs, and communicated to the country that Jan 6 and the fake-elector plot was a matter of debate. And here we are, with 51% of the voting electorate buying into that framing and blind to Musk's takeover. Who can or will intervene now? Or do we just watch this unfold?
They expect us to pay Federal taxes?
If any of you see a shark pit I have an idea… (but only after he tells us his whole plot…)
trump is no match for the Ketamine King. Musk is operating in a very trumpian fashion, but doesn’t seem to require the public accolades trump does. Therefore, he goes about his coup under the trumpian radar. If he blows a constant stream of smoke under trump’s diaper, he has free access to the fortunes (misfortunes?) of all of us. Ketamine has warped his senses, and he’s developed a god-complex as a result. We’re in for a showdown in DC.
How is it not a matter of national security that our intelligence community step-in to protect us from this individual and his associates? Garland should have instructed his DOJ to start at the top and grand jury all the corrupt organizations that were reported in 2013+, exceptions for Statute of limitations, (esp. when the American population is the most educated and connected, at any point in history- for as poorly as they want to talk about our higher education system- which used to be a top export!).
Where are the Democrats?
No way he was naive. We're talking about a financially and politically sophisticated person (who, of course would refuse to accept responsibility; just in case there is some pushback).
I believe t**** is disposable. Once Musk gets all of the keys he needs to take over our country, he will “dispose” of t****. Therein lies the threat of a true bloody coup.
Musk needs Trump to mesmerize Magats, so he might keep Trump around.
I believe that the Muskrat and the Theil guy will have Trump placed in a long-term care facility and throw away the key.
The evil essence of Trump and Musk is that they'll do anything – and *everything* – they can get away with. After only two weeks, they've infected America with fascism. But how do we get our country back?
This cogent analysis would be lost on most Trumpists except those with an ounce of political or historical awareness. First, of course few if any of them will read it. And second, although I have never explored them, I’m certain there are all too many outlets who are working as hard and as successfully as usual to discredit Dr. Ben-Ghiat and those like her in the minds of any who do.
That does nothing to take away the great worth of her efforts to keep those of us who do value her thinking and her expertise (as well as that of the others she mentioned) fully informed and in the fight.
We must continue to resist, each of us in the ways we feel most appropriate to our skills, but with many others, my real immediate hope is that the current regime’s extremes will start to affect those who thought what they were going to get is very different from what they are about to get. The defeat of Trumpism must begin from within the MAGA ranks, or possibly when enough of the Republican ’stalwarts’ in the House and/or the Senate begin to realize that Trump’s attempted takeover of the Republic threatens them even more seriously that it does the rest of us. After all, hell hath no fury like a Trump scorned by those he thinks of as his own ‘people’. When and if enough of them grow spines, though, they might remember Ben Franklin’s reputedly apocryphal warning to the Founders - Either we all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.
A friend of mine shared on her Facebook Copied from someone else:
FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR despair INTO ACTION, here's some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator.
There are two things that we should be doing all the time right now. You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.
1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.
2) But those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.
YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:
2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.
The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).
Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code. She said that Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.
So, when you call:
A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).
Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.
C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by ——-," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.
D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter — even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.
E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity.
F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.
From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.
Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.
**If you want to share this, please copy and paste.
Photo for visibility.
All excellent points and suggestions.
Thank you.
Pretty much the approach that I and others have taken - but others need notes, guidelines, scripts - and I and others need other ideas, talking points.
We have to row this boat together < my approach to this.
Glad this helps
It does.
I often copy & paste things to send to friends and worry that I’m too repetitive wi my own words and suggestions.
Your list is very helpful - appreciated.
Jessica Craven spells it out for us 5 days a week with phone numbers and scripts for issues. Sometimes she demonstrates calls on her Instagram.
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
This exact post was shared on Facebook today by my local Indivisible group. It is textbook individual small-d democratic political activism, good advice. But, it is also clearly a post from pre-2019, as that is when Claire McCaskill and Betsy DeVos were still in office (see post). Is six-year-old advice to make "6 calls a day", on topics unspecified, all that we need to do right now, while our constitution is being shredded before our eyes? Please help me understand - how best can we use democratic activism to unseat a dictator and an oligarchy. I am no politics expert, just an ordinary (somewhat informed) citizen. Does the situation we are in - a coup - call for additional strategies beyond calling elected representatives? Maybe all the "what should we do" questions are coming from a place of never having experienced an actual successful coup by forces hostile to democracy. Who among us knows what to do to stop coup plotters from stealing our freedoms, our government and our taxpayer dollars? Yes we should be asking our Senators and Congresspeople to step up to the plate and defend democracy. But what else can we do, and how can we do it in a coordinated and powerful fashion?