Street Roots • Aprii 7-13, 2017
News
Page 11
INDIVISIBLE, fro m page 10
their seven-year promise to repeal the
Affordable Care Act. Upon hearing the news
of the AHCA being pulled from the floor,
Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer
Tweeted out to his followers: “We did it!
Resistance works, derailing the destruction
of the ACA, at least for now. Keep it up!”
“And we’re just getting started,” said
Platt, of Oregon Indivisible. “The takedown
of Trumpcare validates the power of the
people.”
Should I Bring a Sign?
According to the Indivisible Guide, the
answer depends on your member of
Congress, referred to as an MoC in the
document: “If you’re holding an oppositional
sign, staffers will almost certainly not give
you the chance to get the mic or ask a
question.” But: “If you have enough people
to both ask questions and hold signs, go for
it!”
All of these instructions are geared to
help constituents to get a better idea of how
their representatives think: “Reelection,
reelection, reelection,” the guide states.
“MoCs are enormously sensitive to their
image in the district or state, and they will
work very hard to avoid signs of public
dissent or disapproval.”
The guide walks constituents through
numerous best practice approaches to
dealing with their MoCs; especially effective
local strategies include attending town halls,
other local public events (“cutting ribbons
and kissing babies back home”), district
office visits, and coordinated calls.
Congressional staffers who answer the
phones keep tally sheets so they can report
back to their bosses with respect to issues
and where constituents stand. Between
March 22-24, the days the health care bill
was being deliberated in Congress,
Representatives took to Twitter to express
their call tallies:
■ From Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.):
“Phones won’t stop ringing with
constituents asking us for one thing: to stop
this horrible bill. #TrumpCare”
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F IN D IV IS IB L E O R E O O N
A sign from an Indivisible demonstration in Portland.
■ From Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky):
“275 oppose vs 4 support #ObamaCareLite.
Phone calls to my office from constituents
over last two weeks. Why are we voting on
this?”
■ From Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-0re.):
“NW Oregonians overwhelmingly want me
to oppose #Trumpcare.
Calls/emails since January:
Support: 51
Oppose: #ACARepeal: 3,859
Progressives know they won’t be able to
set the agenda for at least the next few
years, according to the guide, which is why
the strategy is purely defensive. While the
phone calls coming in to Congress are
substantial, perhaps the most press-worthy
resistance interactions are taking place at
town hall meetings. Oregon senators Wyden
and Merkley enjoy progressive reputations
and have convened numerous town halls all
over Oregon, where they are met with
mostly approval but also strong pushes to
veer even further left. Other MoCs have not
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gotten off so easily, with Republicans such
as Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Jason Chaffetz
(R-Utah) facing down raucous crowds that
demanded accountability on things such as
health care, Russian political inteference,
and Trump’s taxes. These town halls have
some MoCs seemingly running scared.
“Some groups struggle with MoCs who
won’t show up,” said Martinez de Vedia.
“It’s here that we see tremendous creativity
- they’ve booked gyms and auditoriums and
put a cardboard cutout of their MoC up at a
Armitage, who was so moved by their
accounts that he asked for more. Now that
the battle for health care seems to have
subsided, Andrea Platt expects the
enthusiasm to keep growing. “Even though
we’re all exhausted after 61 days, it’s a
marathon not a sprint. Involvement will ebb
and flow, but we see our role as making sure
that we’re arming people with information
to fight the Trump agenda.”
The Women’s March that took place on
Jan. 21 brought out more than 4 million
people to more than 900 events on seven
continents - numbers the Tea Party never
even came close to. By several barometers,
the resistance to Trump, Indivisible, has had
more early energy and success than the
protests to Obama in 2009. Platt and others
that Street Roots spoke to resisted
comparisons to the Tea Party. “We’re so
much different because we are more
diverse. Our people span a broader
spectrum who show up and are engaged and
informed, not hostile. We want an honest
dialogue,” said Platt. One more difference:
Tea Party town halls didn’t start gaining
steam until around August 2009; anti-Trump
town halls began before he was even
inaugurated, and have continued to gain
steam throughout the country.
In the short time that Indivisible Oregon
has banded together, volunteers put
together more than 50 daily posts with
actionable information, organized more than
10 meet-ups, and lent support to help teams
prepare for meetings with their MoCs. The
podium to ask questions and get on the
g r o u p i s a l s o in. c o n s t a n t c o n t a c t w it t i otV icr
news. One group got a chicken, and they
were talking to it, and the joke was that the
chicken had more courage than their
Congressman” (U.S. Rep. Dave Trott,
R-Mich,).
Indivisible groups from each of Oregon’s
five congressional districts. “We’re trying
diligently to make sure we share
information, and learn from each other,”
said Platt.
“We’re in uncharted waters here,” said
Martinez de Vedia. “Fortunately we’ve put
out a blueprint that specifically addresses
this environment, and shows how civically
engaged people are becoming. We are
pulling the emergency brakes on Trump’s
agenda.”
Coming Together
The most recent Indivisible meetup, on
March 22, had once of its largest crowds to
date, at 70 people, with a focus on health
care. Together, group members shared their
painful stories with Wyden staffer Ree
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