Moral Outrage is Political Power
Photo via Mass 50501 Volunteer
Massachusetts 50501 believes it is our absolute moral and strategic imperative to push our congressional representatives hard for impeachment. We executed our first action of this type in coalition with many partners from Indivisible and non-affiliated organizers at the local level targeting five districts on January 20th. Now, we have joined Citizens Impeachment and the Removal Coalition nationally and Indivisible Mass Coalition and other partners locally down to the district level. We are engaging in a simple, lightweight, high-impact action that takes our message and impact directly to congress.
2/17: A National Day of Action
Citizen Lobbying
Citizens do not have massive amounts of capital at their disposal but we are endowed still with the power to influence legislators. Most congressional offices do have places where you can physically go and register complaints where they handle constituent services. You can call, set an appointment, and go visit one of the representatives' staff.
It is possible to do this en-mass, with dozens approaching the office in a coordinated manner at the same time, made up of a broad spectrum of organizers. Once we have the attention of the staff and potentially even the representative themselves, we then go around the room and provide deep, honest emotional appeals around why we believe this action on the part of congress is necessary.
Mass 50501, IMC, and other partners will be doing exactly this on 2/17. We would be interested in having you come with us, and learn how direct action by a small number of people can have an outsized impact.
Why Impeachment?
Impeachment hasn’t worked before, but there is no reason the future will be like the past. The MAGA movement underneath Trump is getting weaker. The pillars of support are beginning to fracture under the weight of the constant lies and vitriol. The temptation to finally end the troubles may occur to enough people in power to prompt an impeachment preceding. But there are other reasons to appreciate this approach.
The House is only 2 seats away from being able to vote in favor—assuming you get all the democrats to vote in favor plus Thomas Massie. There are enough moderates or cowards to pressure that as the administration weakens, they may be tempted to move to the right side of this issue, if at least to avoid being obliterated in the midterms.
Once we have an impeachment trial, that is already a historic victory. It means months of national television and press, discussing the horrors of the Trump administration in exacting detail across every network. If the minority party chooses to draw out the process, this can further deplete the administrations legal and cognitive resources, divide the republican leadership, and put them on record in support of an extremely unpopular president. This could be the margin of victory in the midterm elections, with an extra margin to pad in compensation for the likely cheating the administration will attempt.
Impeachment may not reach the threshold required for removal, but there is no limit to the number of times you can impeach a president. This process will tie his administration in knots as it seeks to explain away its crimes. The president is a vain man and people being mean to him on television will divide and distract his attention. With a simple majority vote we can disrupt the fascist leadership structure utterly and cause chaos and dissension in its ranks. This is achievable.
As a secondary benefit, the action will be followed by community building. The group, having made their case, will go out to eat and talk shop. This action will include leaders of indivisible, 50501, and non-affiliated chapters, building coalitional ties and spawning future organic regionalized action networks (that respect institutional autonomy). This network can then be tapped by all organizers when they have plans for bigger and better things they cannot do alone. Participation in this action makes each participant a member of a large regional coalition with hundreds or thousands of people who are able to be activated.
From this action we will also begin to develop a sense of how to effectively conduct pressure campaigns that are sequenced as part of a strategy. I will not speak of a long term strategy beyond impeachment but the capacity to apply sustained pressure to push for impeachment could be used to push for any legislative action we choose. We will be developing a new muscle that will remain beyond the utility of Impeachment.
Low Cost - High Impact
This action also has a fairly low cost. 50501 will be taking on some of the burden of administration but we will require help from partners. Of most volunteers it would require nothing more than half a day off from work. You don’t need to be a seasoned activist to participate. This action simply requires showing up and registering your honest complaints and concerns.
A demonstration of conviction, dedication, and reliability can be achieved, movement-wide, across the entire state by a simple commitment of a small number of members for a half-day action. It can be broadcast across social media and then done repeatedly, slowly increasing the pressure on Congress to explain why they haven’t done anything yet. If scaled, this action could be done across the entire country and modeled on the use of honest, direct emotional appeals.
An action like this invites every organizer to be a hero for that moment, and to speak truth to what they fear to as large an audience as possible. Our representatives will hear the truth in a deep and powerful way that will move hearts and minds more in our column. Then we multiply those heroes through our various social media and other platforms and amplify those pleas.
This is a form of pressure. We can demonstrate to both the media and to the representatives that we are unified and organized both nationally and locally into a growing organism with political demands and the capacity to execute on them. We also will use the presence of leaders who represent a significant fraction of the electorate to remind our leaders that it’s in their best interests to do what we want. The threat is implied. Do your job or else we will replace you. We have the means to do so, and we have deep and ethical reasons to assert this power.
By doing this we are also reminding them that our demands are grounded in a deep respect for the principle of human rights and human dignity, and also a fear for our future as a nation. We are stating clearly that we will not accept an answer that does not protect our constitution, our values, and our people, and we are prepared to use any non-violent means that are at our disposal. By repeating this action we remind them we are disciplined and driven.
This will take time, but the pressure will serve to stiffen the spines of our representatives. For all their individual faults, they are human beings, and the pleas of their constituents, if these pleas come from a place of radical honesty, will have an impact on them. They may not accept impeachment right away, but they may decide to bargain a bit harder, or consider other ways to obstruct the administration.
Impeach. Convict. Remove.
https://www.facebook.com/ma50501.bryan.winter
For more information about 2/17 plans in your district, please visit:
D1 : https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898922/
D2: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898923/
D3 :https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898925/
D4: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898926/
D5: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898928/
D6: https://www.mobilize.us/mobilize/event/898930/
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