--
Six years ago tomorrow, Indivisible was born.
It was December of 2016. The shock, anger, and despair of Trump’s election threatened to engulf us — but instead, we chose to turn it into our fuel. We gathered in living rooms, in libraries, and around our laptops to put together a practical guide for resisting Trump’s agenda. We weren’t sure how many people would read it, but when our original document crashed Google Docs and spread across social media like wildfire, we knew we weren’t alone.
And when thousands of Indivisible groups began popping up organically across the country, we knew we were at the start of something momentous and powerful. But even then, it was hard to imagine how much this movement would accomplish together.
2017 was an explosive year of action. We swarmed town halls, and when our Members of Congress refused to attend, we held our own with empty chairs and cardboard cutouts. We saved our MoC’s office numbers in our phones, and we planned retirement parties for Republicans we were already organizing to vote out of office. We marched, we rallied, and we got creative: flash mobs, Monopoly men, even chicken costumes. We couldn’t stop everything, but together we saved the Affordable Care Act and beat back the worst of Trump’s policies.
And we had our sights set even further — already we were hard at work to build the Blue Wave of 2018 and take back the House. We ramped up our trainings and ensured Indivisibles everywhere were ready to register voters, knock doors, write letters, call and text out the vote for the midterm elections. We mobilized to protest Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and channeled our outrage into accountability at the ballot box. We endorsed candidates, and some of us even ran for office! We showed the nation that our movement was in this for the long haul.
We kicked off 2019 by proclaiming: Whose House? OUR HOUSE! We called for Trump’s impeachment and said that nobody is above the law. We decried the administration for separating children from families, and demanded that Congress defund hate to stop the attacks on migrants and asylum seekers. We held our first national gathering, and we pledged to support the Democratic candidate for president to defeat Trump.
We remember 2020 with so much emotion. Together we faced COVID: we masked up, stayed home, and took care of each other. We learned new tech to stay connected. We joined the global movement for Black lives and the call for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Philando Castile, Ahmaud Arbery, and too many others. We challenged ourselves to do more. We grieved, we marched, we stayed determined. And against the odds, from GOP gerrymandering to threats of mail delays, we turned out voters like never before and elected Joe Biden in November — followed by winning both Senate seats in Georgia in the special election. We made sure every vote was counted, and we built a Democratic Trifecta.
Did we pack it up and go home in 2021? Hell. No. As we watched MAGA insurrectionists storm the Capitol, we pushed for Trump’s second impeachment. The events of January 6th made it clear that our democracy was more fragile than ever — and we called on Congress to pass the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. We made the most of every #FilibusterFriday and we flew our 51-star flags to support DC statehood. We got our vaccines and boosters, and made the most of our new normal.
And in 2022, we persevered. We learned of the Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe, and we responded by declaring: we won’t go back. We faced intransigence in Congress, but still passed the largest investment in climate action in our country’s history with the Inflation Reduction Act. We saw Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as our newest Supreme Court Justice. We ensured that MAGA Republicans paid a price for their extremism in November, and made sure voters knew that our freedom and our democracy were on the ballot. And we did the impossible again by re-electing Senator Warnock and keeping the Senate blue.
In six years, you built a powerful, thriving community with thousands of local groups across the country — and you set our goals so much higher than just defeating Trump. Together, we will restore the safeguards of our democracy and defend the rights of the most marginalized. But we face a new Congress in January, led by MAGA extremists fixated on demonizing the LGBTQ+ community and criminalizing trans children and adults, pushing book bans and racializing classrooms, passing a national abortion ban (and coming for contraception next), and gutting Medicare and Social Security.
We won’t sugar-coat it: a Republican-controlled House poses an alarming threat for our democracy. But for six years, Indivisibles have proven one thing: When we show up, we win.
Thank you for six years of resisting, organizing and making history. We are extremely proud to be in this fight with you, celebrating many more IndivisiBirthdays in the years to come ✊
