Posted on 03/10/2017 1:05:33 AM PST by iowamark
When the 115th Congress took its first recess, members went home to their districts and in some cases to speak directly to their constituents via town halls. During recess members made news for one of two reasons: either they held a town hall which was packed with angry constituents or they opted not to hold an in-district event and were shamed by their constituents as a result.
Republican members who were targeted in particular complained bitterly about organized and so-called paid protesters. They were supported by the White House in their characterization. President Trump tweeted that the protests were “planned out by liberal activists” and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that “there is a bit of professional protester, manufactured base in there.”
Despite accusations, town hall attendees aren’t being paid. They are however organized. And most of that organization comes from Indivisible, a guide to resisting the Trump Administration’s agenda, which in just a couple of months has taken the internet by storm. Here are four things campaigns and consultants need to know about Indivisible:
Indivisible began as a Google Doc As digital organizing goes the original Indivisible Guide was fairly low tech. Their current about page accurately describes it as a “poorly formatted, typo-filled Google Doc.” Essentially a brain dump of four ex-Democratic Hill staffers, the Indivisible Guide in its original form was intended as a way to help its authors share their knowledge of how Congress works, and cope with their own heartbreak over Trump’s win. It had no method for email capture, no digital ad buy behind it, and the document optimized for sharing. But The Indivisible Guide quickly found an audience desperate to oppose Trump and hungry for concrete actions they could take. Because it was the right tool in the right moment it spread like wildfire online.
Indivisible was inspired by the Tea Party If crowded, raucous, congressional town halls look familiar to you that’s because they are. The authors of the Indivisible Guide are all veterans of the Tea Party wave, experiencing it first hand as staffers for Democratic members of Congress. The guide makes no attempts to hide that the tactics outlined come right out of the Tea Party’s own playbook offering “a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Party’s success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents.” in its Introduction.
Indivisible is decentralized, hyperlocal, and growing The Indivisible guide has been downloaded over a million times and had over 10 million pageviews. More than 6,000 local Indivisible groups have formed. They’re organizing local actions in their community and sharing their stories through social media using the #Indivisible and #resist hashtags. Indivisible offers resources for chapters including a group leader toolkit, a guide to getting media ready, even suggestions for how to deal with potential right-wing sabotage.
Indivisible isn’t going away anytime soon. What began as a hastily written Google doc has grown into a movement. Its founders are forming a 501(c)4 organization, and more than 10,000 donations have come in online giving them a solid foundation and large grassroots donor list. An email sent to their members on Monday, reminded them to pace themselves because opposing the Trump Administration is a marathon not a sprint. “Your energy will be needed in the months ahead, so make sure that you’re taking time to reflect and recharge so that you can be in this for the long haul. Change doesn’t always happen quickly, but with all of us standing indivisible together, it will happen, and we will win.”
Political professionals can learn a lot from the success of The Indivisible Guide. No consultant would have advised them to launch in the way that they did, but their lack of polish wasn’t a hindrance. A clear call to action, released at the right moment and at the right time, was enough to light a spark and inspire tens of thousands of people to take action. Recess might be over but the 115th Congress hasn’t heard the last from Indivisible. They have only just begun to fight.
The Leftist answer to the Tea Party currently harassing Republicans.
>>Its founders are forming a 501(c)4 organization
Are they going to get the same reception at the IRS that TEA party groups did?
I didn’t go to your link, but I know they have it broken down by political subdivisions like congressional districts.
Its DNC artificial turf just like so much of the “Tea Party” was RINO RNC GOPe artificial turf.
Katie Hogan, a former Obama campaign aide who is now serving as spokeswoman for the lobbying group, told NBC News. The information will be used to unleash an “army of the door knockers” to back the president’s legislative agenda as well as raise money for “issue ads” – particularly in crucial congressional districts, she said.
They plan to call members of Congress in support of Obama’s gun control proposals, even offering a sample script of what they should say. (Excerpt) Read more at investigations.nbcnews.com ...
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Organizing For Action (OFA) has already acquired access to the Obama campaign's database under a leasing agreement, Katie Hogan, a former Obama campaign aide who is now serving as spokeswoman for the lobbying group, told NBC News.
Except that ....Obama's campaign supporters voluntarily shared personal data with the campaign ... and have no idea the data has been transferred and is being used for purposes beyond the election....for purposes some consider illegal....
What would they say (or do) if they knew OBAMA leased the info to OFA and is making money on their personal information.......
Sounds like a class action suit to me.
PING
Those that disturb the peace of a peaceable assembly should be arrested and charged!
Santelli’s rant started the spontaneous Tea Party as the Tea Party. Prior to that there had been many Tea Party like efforts on smaller scales.
The Tea Party started with a simple economic focus: Low taxes, less regulation, no Obamacare. Ron Paul fans formed the core.
Gradually the focus of the Tea Party shifted. First, 2A was added. This was non-divisive. Everybody agreed on it.
Then pro-life and immigration were added. Pro-lifers lack the techniques to build on their issue. So immigration emerged as the dominant issue of the Tea Party.
The Tea Party started as a free market capitalist movement and turned into an anti-capitalist nativist movement.
The Koch Brother, AFP types spent big money trying to keep it focused on capitalist economics and failed.
This is a lesson for us. But it could also be a lesson for the left. They start as anti-Trump. But what is the possibility that down the road the movement shifts to a different focus? How much will people insist on identity politics within the movement vs real issues such as minimum wage, Obamacare and bathrooms?
Which money sources will try to control the agenda?
Which egos will try to control the agenda?
For a student of community organizing and movement organizing this could be very interesting.
I'm sure that many of them are, in fact, paid to agitate and recruit others to their army.
I wonder what their links are to the fascist thugs who call themselves "Antifa"?
We live in frightening times. We have violent brownshirts who attack people for simply standing up for freedom, and other groups, such as the one described above, organizing for revolution. They exist in the shadows of the October and Cuba revolutions, with as much potential for death--not just during the revolutions but after, when the revolutionaries consolidate their power by systematically exterminating entire groups of people.
I wonder if any of the little sheep following these revolutionaries has ever studied an iota of the history of socialist movements enough to understand that they are being used to advance movements that historically result in mass murder and complete authoritarian dictatorship where the leaders enjoy absolute power and luxury while everyone else lives in fear and misery. And if they did understand that, would they still be so eager to be the tools of these movements?
So much talk of Google Doc, Google Doc in the story, it sounds like the story was concocted by the Google PR team.
If they insist on disrupting civil meetings of citizens, they will only turn off the voters.
Indivisible is not a term I would associate with Leftists. Fractured Fools is more like it.
Bookmark
Where is the Tea Party?
My response to their door knocks would be, “You are trespassing on private property. Please leave or the police will be contacted immediately. If you fail to heed my message, there will be trouble.”
We never said EVERY protester was paid.
The whole point of a ‘community organizer’ is to ‘organized’ everyday people.
The ‘organizers’ are paid professionals. They are responsible to see that signs are printed, buses are chartered, hand-outs are printed...”hand made” signs are commissioned with professionals writing the slogans and any ‘props’ like statues to mock Donald Trump are commissioned.
It’s not a small task.
Any volunteer coordinator can take one look at these operations and see the massive effort behind them. These aren’t small time operations... and giving them the look of ‘grassroots’ is even harder. Remember, they’ve been fooling the press for decades... well, could be the press wanted to be fooled - or were “in” on trying to fool free citizens.
Liars in each others causes... working against traditional Americans.
It's always amusing to see a spontaneous, grass-roots demonstration where everyone in the crowd is holding the exact same, professionally printed protest sign.
Protesting and Organizing, Yep, thats’ the ticket! It worked so well during the Election, heh heh
Melissa Ryan is nothing more than a propagandist. Providing no information whatsoever about the organization, her sole goal is to attempt to equate the Indivisible organization with the Tea Party... when there is no moral equivalency at all.
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