Indivisible. Up Close in protest of Donald Trump and Greg Walden

"Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."    Bill of Rights

Three Hundred people gather in Medford with a message:   Shame on Greg Walden.  Resist Trump.

Some political actions are very effective.   The Indivisible group in southern Oregon had another of their "Resist Trump Tuesday" rallies.   They followed the rules of sensible, effective democratic protest.  

Doing it right is not a secret.  Indeed, a small volunteer group of former Congressional staffers wrote it out and put it on line for everyone in America to Read:  Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.  Click to Read. Take Ten Minutes to Learn how Representative Government Works

Me, on the right, a Congressional Aide, 1979

Note that the guide makes sense for every kind of political group, regardless of policy position or political party: left or right, anti-abortion or pro-women, anti-Obama or anti-Trump.  The guide was intended to help channel resistance to the Trump agenda but it openly recognizes the effectiveness of the Tea Party protests that began when Obama was elected.  It copies some of their methods.  (It does criticize TGea Party policy positions and the times it became violent or targeted fellow citizens.) 

The formula is simple.  It reflects exactly what I learned as a District political person for a US Congressman forty years ago (1976-1980.) My job was to help the Congressman have happy constituents and for the Congressman to look good.  What was true then is true now and the shorthand version can be summarized:

Senators and Congressmen want to be elected and stay in office.   They want good press and happy constituents.  They mostly care about the thoughts of their own constituents, not the thoughts of people elsewhere.  Citizens who bring direct, challenging questions, or who are angry and visible, make them look beleaguered and unpopular and they hate that and will try to avoid it.  Citizens can make their representatives change their policies by putting pressure on them.

Indivisible Leader Jessica Sage.   No, not a relation.

The visible leader of the southern Oregon group is Jessica Sage.  (No relation.  We met for the first time yesterday.)  There was a gathering on the steps of a public building, the County Courthouse.   There was notice, approval, and permits for the gathering.   The gathering was orderly.  There was about fifteen minutes of speeches, then a walk to the branch offices of Senators Wyden and Merkley, passing by the office of Congressman Greg Walden.   People stayed on the sidewalks.  

Older crowd.  No surprise for a noon meeting. 

The subject matter of the speeches was simple:  1. Wyden and Merkley are good people who listen to reason and have good values and policies. 2. Congressman Walden is endangering millions of American by destroying access to affordable health care without having a realistic plan to replace it.  3. Good news!  We are already making Walden moderate his positions because is now getting pressure from progressives, not just from right wing Obama-haters.

The rally was very well handled.  It was focused and it avoided mistakes.

Meeting a Wyden aide at Federal Building

It was orderly.  I saw no visible police presence because none was necessary.  This is important and good.  Television and news reports showed peaceful protesters angry with Representative Walden and President Trump, not a clash or interaction between disorderly people and the police.

It was the right length and mostly stayed on message: resist Trump and blame Greg Walden. Sometimes rallies of this kind can go too long and go off message.  There are issues which motivate a crowd that are particularized and destroy the solidarity of the movement: natural gas pipelines, Indian sovereignty rights, marijuana legislation, bicycle paths, city or county issues, or resurrecting the Sanders-Hillary primary, what Hillary should have done, etc. 

Nice Signs, Orderly and Earnest Crowd

The optics were good.  Good signs and no bad signs.  All it would take is one sign with a swastika or one sign showing Trump with a noose and that sign would be the centerpiece of the media reports.   Then the optics would be "violent crazy people" against democratically elected government--a disastrous image.  In this case the optics were "resolute older people" versus Walden and Trump.  Perfect.

There is a meme being pushed by Sean Spicer and repeated on Fox News: Indivisible is "astro-turf".  Spicer said that the Tea Party was "very organic" but the Indivisible demonstration like this one in southern Oregon was "a very paid, Astroturf-type movement."  Congressman Steve King of Iowa made the same allegation: "I think it will be a demonstration a week until they run out of funding."   This allegation was echoed and amplified on Fox News.  It isn't true.  I was there.  I talked with people.  Look at them.  They are citizens.

These protesters are real, concerned, motivated citizens.  This being Medford, Oregon and this being mid-day on a Thursday, the audience was overwhelmingly white and older.  They are not representative of the whole of America but they are representative of this Congressional District's most reliable voters.  

Congressman Walden would have no illusions that these people are anything other that what they are: political opposition who could make trouble for him, and indeed already are doing so.

Nice signs, cooperative people, leaving open the walkway.

One task of Indivisible of the 2nd Congressional District is to put pressure on Greg Walden to change his policies better to reflect progressive values.  The second is to find and support a viable candidate to unseat him.  The keenest way to focus the attention of a Member of Congress or a Senator is to know that someone very viable is gaining political support and you are losing it.   Money is very nice but money only helps you indirectly.   People vote, and angry people are sure to vote.

The point of Indivisible--and the primary effect of the Tea Party during the Obama presidency--is to focus on the most responsive part of the American political system, the elected representatives.  Not the president, but the Member of Congress.  Public outcry puts pressure on ones political allies not to compromise--not to dare even thinking of it.   And it puts pressure on ones opponents to try to dampen down and mellow out the opposition.  Move their way.  Quiet them down.  Try to mollify them.   It worked for the Tea Party.  The intractable opposition to Obama by a unified Republican party, and the defeat of vulnerable Democrats, put the current majority of Republicans in office.   Now the same technique is being used against them.

As this blog as said several times in the past week, Walden is in trouble--or not in trouble--depending on how well he performs in the hot seat of Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.   No amount of party advantage and no amount of money will protect him if he is understood to have failed at his job.   On the other hand, if he can pass legislation that brings simple, affordable, universal, and excellent health care to the nation, health care that people are thrilled with, then he is home free.   

The Indivisible rally in southern Oregon is intended to let him know he is being watched and warned.

Medford Rally, Valentine's Day