For the days you find yourself doubting our collective power
7 minutes If you ever find yourself doubting whether we can make a difference by coming together and exercising our power, think of the Tesla Takedown efforts around the country.
To take a stand against the broligarchy that’s ripping away our freedoms and endangering our families, Americans are selling their Teslas. They’re dumping the company’s stock, which is now down 36% year-to-date. And folks are showing up for peaceful protests at Tesla showrooms everywhere. 💃🏼
In less than a month, everyday Americans have accomplished all that, plus sent the most powerful man in the world and the richest man in the world scrambling to record a car infomercial in the White House driveway. (Everything’s computer!)
These protestors don’t have a big budget (or any budget, actually). This isn’t their day job. They’re just regular people like you and me who took time out of their day to show up, make noise, and demand a better future.
If they can do it, so can we. 💪
What’s inside
Inside our latest update, you’ll find these sections:
- Do this + feel better: 3 things you can do right now. Taking any action (even if it’s tiny!) will help dispel feelings of hopelessness and overwhelm.
- Get a shot of motivation: A quote that resonated this week.
- Call: The stakes are sky-high, and calling works. Let’s do it!
- Hey, look! We did this: A quick run-down of what folks in our little group of rabble-rousers have been doing to help.
- Your turn: What small actions have you taken lately? Let me know so we can celebrate with you!
Do this + feel better
Here are 3 things you can do right now. As a bonus, taking any action (even if it’s tiny!) will help dispel feelings of hopelessness and overwhelm…
1. Show up at Tesla
Let’s keep hitting Musk where it hurts: his bottom line.
👉 Join in for the next Tesla Takedown rally on Saturday, March 15. Find your closest Tesla Takedown event here.
But what if you can’t take that much time out of your day? Or you’ve got kids in tow? As an alternative, you can drive by the protest and give the protestors a friendly honk to show your support.
If you’d like to learn more about this peaceful protest movement, head to Tesla Takedown.
2. Become a registrar (Texas-specific)
As a first step, tune in for this virtual training from Battleground Texas on how to get voters registered:
- Date: Thursday, March 20
- Time: 6 pm to 7 pm
- Where: Join from anywhere
- RSVP: Go here
You’ll learn how to become a volunteer deputy registrar, best practices for voter registration drives, and more.
April 3 is the deadline for registering to vote before the next local election, so now’s the perfect time to get plugged in as a volunteer registrar.
3. Learn to de-escalate
Nobody wants to end up at a protest where the situation escalates quickly. Sign up for this virtual training to learn proven de-escalation techniques for preventing and interrupting highly charged environments in multiple scenarios:
- Date: Wednesday, March 19
- Time: 7 pm to 9 pm
- Where: Join from anywhere
- RSVP: Go here
You’ll practice adrenaline management skills and communication strategies to help you stay calm and assertive so you can help navigate conflicts with greater confidence and composure.
This training is the perfect preparation for attending protests. (Not to mention, it sounds like excellent life advice you could apply to everything from parenting to dealing with a toxic co-worker?!)
Get a shot of motivation
A quote that resonated this week:
“Elected leaders in the Democratic party are mostly failing to provide inspiration for people who are alarmed about the president’s actions. The protest paddles they held up at Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress underscored the fact that they’re flailing more than they’re leading. Meanwhile, for most of us, the chance to vote again is almost two years away.
The problem is not that there aren’t meaningful things ordinary people can do. There is strong evidence that protesting, calling our elected representatives and even just talking with people about our political concerns can create change. Fighting back against Trump’s naked power grab requires a whole “ecosystem of resistance”, as Sherrilyn Ifill, a law professor and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, recently put it. Each bit of that ecosystem adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
The question isn’t whether there are meaningful steps to take. It’s why we don’t take them more often.
The work of making change is difficult. Most of it is boring, unsexy and, at best, modestly incremental from day to day. But if asked to describe a success story of political change – for example, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which is widely credited with paving the way for the 1964 Civil Rights Act – what comes to mind is an image of hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in a triumphant, decisive moment. Images like these can be inspiring, but they can also cloud the imagination. What doesn’t always come to mind are the thousand small steps that led to that moment and carried the work forward the day after…”
— Michael Brownstein, professor and author of the forthcoming book Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change, in The threat of Trump is vast. But don’t underestimate incremental change.
Call
We believe in taking care of our neighbors. But real people are hurting because of what’s happening. Cancer trials are getting canceled, and those patients won’t get the medication they’ve been pinning all their hopes on. Nonprofits that provide food to seniors are losing federal funding. Federal workers, many of them veterans, who serve our communities are getting fired.
This is a five-alarm fire, created by an unelected billionaire, a wannabe dictator, and the elected officials who are standing back to watch it burn. So make your reps listen. Don’t. let. up. 🚨
Why this matters: According to current and former Congressional staffers, calling your reps is the most effective way to make your voice heard—better than text messages, emails, or letters.
Reminder: Install the 5 Calls app to get your reps’ phone numbers, or save them in your phone as contacts. (If you don’t love talking on the phone, call after business hours and leave a voicemail.) Also, no need to read a long script. This is the most important part:
“Hello, my name is [first and last name]. I’m a constituent, and I live in [city]. I’m calling to urge Senator/Representative [name] to [whatever you want them to do/not do].”
Hey, look! We did this
Here’s a quick run-down of what folks in our group have been doing to help lately:
- Lots from our group in Austin showed up for the rally at the Capitol on Saturday to hear Elizabeth Warren speak: Annie, Brandon, Caroline, Cyral, Dana, Dottie, Erin, Ginny, JoAnn, Julia, Laura, Lex, Melanie, Meribeth, Michelle, Nancy, Nikki, Rob, Sara, Sarah, Susie…so many! 🤸 (I tried my best to remember everyone, but if I missed you in this list, I’m sorry!)
- Holly felt inspired by our group to make more calls to her representatives than usual. 🤩
- Erin made several postcards for the Ides of March protest, where folks everywhere are mailing postcards to the White House to express opposition to what’s happening. If you’re interested, mail your postcards on Saturday, March 15. This is very grassroots, so there’s no fancy website explaining it all, but you can find a little more info here. 📫
- On Wednesday, folks joined in on the rally outside Senator Cornyn’s office: Annie, Austin, Dana, Janis, Laura…and more! One person had a sign that said “Honk for Ukraine,” so lots of people were honking as they drove by. Dana said, “I have heard that the Cornyn staffers are getting really annoyed about the honking, so that’s fun” 😈
- Several of our group turned up in person last week for what turned out to be an all-nighter (!) to testify against school vouchers at the Texas State Capitol. Here’s a summary from the President of the Austin Council of PTAs: “The good news is that after nearly 22 hours of testimony, going until almost 6:30 this morning, [which] was overwhelmingly against this bill and undeniably angry about the lack of funding for public schools, the House Public Education Committee did not take a vote to move HB 3 out of committee. It’s not dead, but it took a beating.” 🥊
- Cyral is on fire: “I’m an 8 on the Library Ladder, have been making all the calls, sending postcards, and just got back in town so I can start attending protests again.” 💥
Your turn
What small actions have you taken lately? Please drop a comment below (or email me) and let me know what you’ve been up to so we can celebrate with you. 🥳
