Our country may be on lockdown, but the resistance is flexible…
We at Indivisible Ventura assessed our activity calendar to see what we could still accomplish during this quarantine period. The answer? A lot, just not the activities that require us to be in the same place. Keep calling your legislators, keep writing comments to the regulators, and participate in the peaceful democratic actions outlined below that connect us to writers, texters, callers and voters across America.
- We updated our “events” calendar here
- All activities located on college campuses have been cancelled until the quarantine is lifted. This includes all our voter registration and census education dates.
- Both citizenship fairs this month have been cancelled. If you are a person or know a person needing immigration services, including citizenship forms, DACA and green card renewals, please contact our trusted partners for assistance:
- El Concilio: (805) 486-9777, 301 S C St, Oxnard, CA 93030
- UFW: (805) 246-3867, 920 S A St, Oxnard, CA 93030
POSTCARD ACTIVITIES:
Postcard Action #1 – UPDATE: The April 16th’s Postcard Party is CANCELLED – but that doesn’t mean 500 folks in Arizona won’t be getting hand-written postcards!
We will be putting together kits of cards, scripts and addresses for Arizona – We’ll be sending 500 postcards to voters along with a short script from Center For Common Ground’s Reclaim our Vote Campaign, who is working with the NAACP, Black Voters Matter, Mi Familia Vota, VoteRiders and DemLabs. These voters may have been dropped from voting rolls. This reminder postcard could save voters being turned away, a horrible experience, after waiting hours in line. The dignity of very single vote matters.
For those who have already attended our postcard parties, here’s what we need from you to get your kit:
- Email us at indivisibleventura@gmail.com
- Subject line: Mail me some postcards! (This is important – so we can quickly see your email)
- Give us the following information: Your name, address and how many postcards, in batches of (10) ten, you want. If you also need stamps, let us know.
Postcard Action #2 – Write postcards for Christy Smith! Keep CA-25 blue!
Option #1: Use this link – or this one tinyurl.com/postcards-for-Christy, to sign up using this form to write postcards through Flip the West to voters in Arizona and Colorado, two states Democrats must win in 2020 to win the Senate, or for Christy Smith to keep CA 25 blue. After completion of this form, a staff member will send you scripts and addresses.
Please allow up to 48 hours to receive your list of addresses. If you have any questions, please email our Field Director at davis@grassrootsdems.org and Postcard Coordinator at daniellawilson02@gmail.com.
Option #2: Join the Postcards To Voters Campaign here.
Postcard Action #3 – Thanks to all who wrote postcards! – YAY! SHE WON!
Despite the GOP’s best efforts, forcing people to line up for hours at scarce polling places during a pandemic, Judge Jill Karofsky prevailed!!!
Democrats have been slow to realize how important judges are, unlike the GOP. Mitch McConnell has turned the GOP-majority Senate into a rubber-stamping machine to install as many young right wing extremists onto lifetime judicial seats before they are tossed out of office.
Here are some examples of what good judges can do (#GoodNews):
- Federal court rules that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully installed as the Acting Director of the USCIS and that all policy changes he authorized must be undone.
- Eleventh circuit rules that private contractors operating work programs in immigration detention facilities must adhere to federal law prohibiting forced labor.
- U.S. Court of Appeals rules that employment discrimination against people living with HIV —including those in the armed forces—is never permissible.
- FDA bans the use of electrical stimulation devices on patients undergoing treatment for self-injurious or aggressive behaviors.
- Federal court orders Chelsea Manning’s release from jail.
- DC Circuit Court rules that the DOJ must supply the House Judiciary Committee with grand jury materials from the Mueller investigation.
LETTER WRITING ACTIVITIES!
Letter Action #1: “Adopt” some voters and send them a letter with Vote Forward.
Vote Forward connects volunteers with voters from under-represented demographics to encourage them to participate in elections. In randomized trials, voters who’ve received a such a letter were significantly more like to vote.
You can choose from a number of campaigns, including +34,000 addresses still available in Wisconsin. However, there are over 647,000 address available in Texas, over 600,000 in Florida and 200,000 in Georgia.
Sign up and create an account here and adopt some voters. Vote Forward will send you letters to send and you’ll personalize them and send them on. We’ve included one of their graphics so you’ll have an idea of how the process works. You will need a printer.
Letter Action #2 – Send fan mail to Rep. Katie Porter, because she absolutely smashed this.
You do NOT want Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) to pull out her whiteboard! You do NOT want to say the word “operationalize” to her.
Thank her for being the incredibly smart, 100% prepared and ferocious advocate for the rest of us. Write her a postcard or a letter for this carefully crafted ambush.
Rep. Katie Porter
1117 Longworth HOB,
Washington, DC 20515.
TEXTING ACTIVITIES:
Texting Action #1 – Sign up to text voters for the Payback Project with Indivisible.
Indivisible National is launching the Payback Project, a new peer-to-peer textbanking campaign to engage voters across nine target states to take action with Indivisibles in their area and mobilize locally to flip their Senate seats. No matter if you’re brand-new to this or a long-time leader, sign on right now to commit to do the work to win back the Senate this fall — sign up here and they’ll send you everything you need to start reaching key voters!
Texting Action #2 – Want to text green?
Join Sierra Club’s new Texting Team!
Primary season is in full swing, the Earth Day Climate Strike is fast approaching, and the Sierra Club has set a goal of texting millions of people to get out the vote and come strike! But they need 21 more at-home volunteers to join their texting team this week to reach all of the people they want to reach.
This is bottom-rung texting. Super easy, light scripts, accessible to ANYONE. And, as with all texting programs, your own phone number never gets used. YAAAAY! Join the Sierra Club’s Texting Team and fight climate change from home!
QUICK ONLINE ACTIONS:
Online Action #1: Tell Congress that Trump’s payroll tax is an attack on Social Security.
As with all Trump actions, one must ask “Who profits?” The answer is usually himself or his wealthy friends.
Now, as we reckon with the economic fallout of Trump’s bungled coronavirus campaign, the Trump administration is proposing to provide economic stimulus by threatening our Social Security system to the advantage of the wealthiest Americans.
- The so-called “payroll tax cut” is both a stealth attack on Social Security, and ineffective economic stimulus, while adding nearly $1 trillion more to the national debt.
- The largest percentage income gains would go to households earning up to $250,000 a year, according to calculations by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit in Washington.
- The largest gains in dollar figures would go to households earning more than $123,000 a year, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington.
- It provides exactly zero relief to those who are not working, or have been furloughed or laid off, or low-income seniors.
There are ways to put money into the pockets of those most impacted by the coronavirus such as providing direct payments to working families or finally providing paid sick leave or paid family leave to all working people. President Obama passed a 2-year payroll tax cut in 2011, and studies show that most people didn’t even notice. There’s no economic justification for this cut―which means this proposal is just another part of Trump’s attack on our earned benefits.
Click here to write to your members of Congress. We’ve provided suggested text, but feel free to personalize to have an even greater impact.
Online Action #2 – Sign Ruth Bader Ginsburg birthday card!
“Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a tireless advocate for women’s rights and gender equity. This Women’s History Month join Pantsuit Nation and Supermajority in wishing her a happy 87th birthday! We’ll be sending a birthday card thanking Justice Ginsburg for her lifetime of service with a list of all of the signees and your personalized birthday messages!” Sign here!
Online/Phone Action #3 – Tell NBC to fire Harvey Weinstein’s enablers.
The Enough is a Enough Voter Project, which reminds us that violence against women is a voting issue, wants to make sure, amongst all the election hoopla, that we saw that Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for being a serial rapist. Finally, the justice system is treating privileged rapists like #BrockTurner and #Weinstein just like all other rapists. Women have hit the RESET button on how crimes against women are treated in our justice system. But Harvey Weinstein didn’t commit these crimes alone. He had many enablers, including NBC News’s Noah Oppenheim and Andy Lack, who killed Ronan Farrow’s reporting. Noah Oppenheim and Andy Lack should not be in a position to continue to cover up for rapists like Weinstein. In fact, Oppenheim’s contract was just renewed — incredibly. Let NBC News know that the days when men can cover for powerful rapists like Weinstein are at an end. Noah Oppenheim and Andy Lack must go!
Phone. Main: 212-664-4444. News: 866-639-7244.
Email: tips@nbcnewyork.com.
(Image in header by Florian Pircher from Pixabay)
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 