Speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of government retaliation*
February 24, 2025
Editor’s Note: This week we’ve separated the Opinions and the Actions. You should have received the actions already (you know you need to make those calls!). As we all recover from November, every one of us has started working toward ending our national nightmare. There will be calls to make, postcards to write, marches to attend, opportunities to yell. Yes, even at me.
This newsletter is also our chance to voice our concerns and opinions. Click the button below to take action. Read on to discover why speaking out is the most powerful thing our Members of Congress can do—and how we can encourage them by raising our voices.
The House Goes Home to Explain and Justify
By Sabra Briere
The House of Representatives is in recess, and all across the US, Republicans and Democrats are holding Town Hall meetings with their constituents. Really, this is positive news.
Eight years ago, just after Trump 1.0 tried to impose his ban on all immigrants from Islamic countries (hamfisted though it was), Indivisible members and others started demanding Town Hall meetings. Some members of Congress had never met with their constituents. Some had met very rarely, or only in emergencies.
Times have changed, to some extent. Some Members of Congress may still be tone deaf. They may become certain that a few constituent (local) issues are all that matters to us. They may think we share their values, while we think they ought to share ours.
This week, constituents met and praised, criticized, and challenged their House members. Not all the Town Hall meetings went well.
“He thinks he’s a king! What are you going to do?”
“Great to see you standing next to Maxine Waters. And John Lewis would have gotten arrested. If you get arrested, I’ll get arrested with you.”
“What are you going to do?”
“This is appeasement, and that doesn’t work.”
“I’m concerned for the women who have lost their rights.”
“What are you going to do?”
With increasing urgency, Democrats and Republicans in Congress were asked,
“What are you going to do?”
At least, at the one Town Hall I attended, I did not have the sense that the audience was satisfied with the answers.
Members of Congress may not all imagine a day when their role as our representatives in Washington is less about making laws and more about ensuring the laws are kept. And to be fair, who can blame them? That’s not what we elected them to do. But here we are, with a President who says the law is what I say the law is.
The playbook everyone uses — including Indivisible — is the only one we have to use. I’m just not certain it’s the best way to fight this battle, when the other side doesn’t believe in the rule of law.
What our Representatives tell us — in words clear enough that we in Indivisible understand — is what they want us to do.
They want us to:
call our friends, family, former neighbors in Republican-dominated districts to try to get them to vote and be active Democrats,
call their Republican colleagues to express our upset and anger at their inaction in the face of Trump 2.0’s usurpation of power,
turn out the vote in Special Elections,
And get out on the streets and protest.
This is what Indivisible volunteers do every week, and have been doing for eight years. And (if you click here!) you can do more of this week, as well.
Clip of Rep. Huffman’s Town Hall: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxtw0_IghR_5SRG8hxpYw6kwO-4zjeh0_X?si=1MsBvO9sKu29KlRl
Audience member arrested at Congressional Town Hall:
https://cdapress.com/news/2025/feb/22/chaos-erupts-at-kcrcc-legislative-town-hall/
What I’ve Learned in the Last 8 Years
When Indivisible first started meeting with our Members of Congress, I had such high hopes. Of course, I thought I understood government. I had studied the constitution, I knew how laws were made, I was familiar with the halls of Congress and Federal budgets. So I was a leg-up on so many others who had joined Indivisible, and who had never been politically active, really.
For the first year or so, I accepted being fobbed off by our MOCs and their staff. They were in the minority. They couldn’t pass legislation. The best they could do was slow down or maybe stop some bad things from happening.
I won’t go on with how their lack of leadership continued to disappoint me, and how frustrating it became. You’ve likely been there, as well. But recently I’ve recognized that I was expecting something few of our MOCs were prepared to deliver — not for us in California, and not for our country.
I wanted their voices more than their legislation. Sure, they each have a role to play getting legislation passed, when they are in the majority (and when they can collaborate with other Democrats and rational Republicans, which isn’t always). They also have a role to play in voting a solid and loud NO on bad legislation and (in the Senate) on bad Presidential appointments. Which right now is all of them.
But that’s not enough. It’s not enough for me. It shouldn’t be enough for you. We need them to be our voices. We need them to be our presence and our absence — present in the halls of Congress when decisions are being made. Walking out on the Republicans when needed. Staying out. Preventing a quorum. Constantly throwing sand in the gears of government. Holding press conferences. Stalking the press and buttonholing them, so they have to cover what Democrats are saying and doing.
Not being silent. Not being well behaved.
Congress is dominated by, dare I say it, old white men. But there are younger members, bolder members, members who had to fight to be heard — who still have to fight to be treated with respect. Just as we do.
Our Members of Congress — both our Representatives, both our Senators (and yes, I’m sorry, but I’m including our newest Senator in this) need to take a lesson from those voices who do a better job of speaking up and acting out.
And so do we.
What is at risk in the budget
I am not yet emotionally ready for a deep dive into the Federal budget. I know that the Congress must agree to raise the debt ceiling and pass a continuing resolution by March 14, or the government will default on its debts. I know there’s a proposed budget in the hands of the Republicans — a budget that cannot pass without votes from Democrats. And I know that there are some Democratic House members who are working even now with Republicans, under the impression that a bipartisan budget bill is possible, one that won’t result in hurting our country.
I wish them well. But I also hope they vote NO.
That’s because I believe they will fail at finding a compromise that works for us.
Republican goals are simply different. They want to cut expenditures but not raise taxes for those who make the most money. Period.
Here’s the Senate budget proposal, evaluated. The House budget proposal, the one our local Democrats believe they might be able to work with, hasn’t been approved. But as Rep. Mike Thompson agreed at his recent Town Hall, the Republicans propose selling national park lands, eliminating federal programs that feed and house the poor, provide medical care to the elderly and medically fragile, provide emergency relief and disaster response, protect and defend minorities … you get the picture. Medicaid, Education, SNAP, EPA, FEMA.
And the reason for all these cuts in services is so they can expand tax cuts for the very wealthy and raise the debt limit by 4 TRILLION DOLLARS. A victory over here to save one program may require a loss over there.
Republicans need Democratic votes to pass the budget, to pass a continuing resolution, to raise the debt limit. Use our scripts and call Congress every day.
Guest Editorials
The importance of being litigious
Lawsuits matter — even when they might not "win."
FEB 22
Forcing the administration to defend its actions, on the record and in public, is important.
The mere fact of litigating can change implementation of policy to improve its application to those affected. Even a loss can advance awareness about oppressive steps being taken by the administration. And, multiple strategies might be taken to challenge certain actions, some of which will be more successful than others.
From a litigation perspective, in other words, not suing is sometimes “obeying in advance.” Actions need to be challenged. If a key aspect of what President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and others are doing right now is seeing what they can get away with — and what they can convince people that they can do — then a key part of pushing back against that needs to be challenging everything that can be challenged.
In short: Force them to work for it.
Trump is ruling like a ‘king’, following the Putin model. How can he be stopped?
By William Partlett
Trump and his supporters sees the natural authority of the American president in broad terms, similar to those of the Russian president, or a king. Trump, in fact, has already likenedhimself to a king.
This desire to “Russify” the presidency is not an accident: Trump and many of his supporters admire the king-like power that Vladimir Putin exercises as Russian president.
Understanding how Trump is attempting to transform presidential power is key to mobilising in the most effective way to stop it.
You can read more of this essay in The Conversation, here.
Actions
Check our website for more information and to learn more about Indivisible.
Our elected representatives should be giving us information on the best ways that we can help stop Musk and Trump and the rest of that misbegotten herd of fascists.
We should know which Republican senators and congressmen/women are most susceptible to persuasion or to being defeated in 2026. Also, which organizations or individuals are most productive to support monetarily (in addition to Indivisible). We need help to focus our power and amplify our voices