The what, why, & how of taking the fight to MAGA
By Ezra Levin, Indivisible co-founder
I hope you were able to get to your local mobilization with March For Our Lives on Saturday — please share your photos with us on Twitter if you did. In the last newsletter (here if you want to catch up), I started a discussion about the MAGA propaganda operation we’re seeing everywhere right now, and I got a ton of responses (fascinating, insightful, hilarious, poignant). In this newsletter, I want to continue the discussion on the what, why, and how of taking the fight to MAGA. As always, there’s no fundraising in these newsletters — this is just a friendly conversation among us pro-democracy collaborators. I hope, if it moves you, you’ll continue the conversation in your own groups and communities, and hit me up on Twitter if anything comes to mind to share — @ezralevin. You get two new pics of Zeke if you make it to the end!
MAGA wants to define this election on their terms
After the last newsletter, I sat down with a drink and read through all 1,214 responses from this group. Seriously, every one. Yes Madelyn in Utah, your’s included even though you wondered aloud whether I would! (And like Madelyn and many others, I’m as fed up with Fox News propaganda as the rest of you…more on that below).
It turns out most of us here agree that the most important thing happening in the country right now is the rising tide of radical, violent, right-wing extremism — I call it MAGA for short. This MAGA surge is not just in red or rural areas. I read your stories about it from all over the country — red, blue, purple, urban, suburban, exurban, rural. Y’all recounted stories of rightwing attacks on schools in Nevada; harassment of teachers in Washington; banning books in Iowa. It’s everywhere; it’s endemic.
For those who expressed fear, disgust, or hopelessness at the state of the world right now, know you have plenty of company. But I also want you to know that the overwhelming response I see in your comments is a desire to go on offense against these extremists — to figure out a way to rally the vast majority of Americans against this dangerous, marginal, MAGA minority. I hope you can feel part of that pro-democracy community — we are the majority after all.
Ok so where do we all go from here?
The strategic vacuum after we beat Trump
One response to the last newsletter I saw a few times was an assertion that we’ve just got to get people to VOTE. And while there’s some truth there, I don’t think that’s the whole shebang. Here’s why.
Voter contact made a huge difference in the last elections. I’ve been thinking about our success in the past two national elections — 2018 and 2020 — and what it means for this one. In those elections, we did a ton of voter contact to make sure everyone who could vote did vote. Postcards, letter-writing, text messages, phonebanking, door-to-door canvassing, relational organizing, GOTV (get-out-the-vote) ads — everything under the sun, we did. Indivisibles reached out one-on-one to more than 70 million voters! It’s the work of small-scale democracy on a mind-boggling scale.
And, hey, it worked — we won! We built the largest midterm margins in the history of the republic in 2018. In 2020 (and early 2021), we made Trump the first one-term president in a generation and clinched the senate.
That voter contact work undeniably made a major difference. And we’re going to have to do something similar this time around. But I think we have to do something new too.
When we were reaching out to tens of millions of voters in 2018 and 2020, it was clear to everyone what the issue of the day was. Trump was out there constantly spouting off some extremist nonsense — about the border wall, or family separation, or cutting taxes for his donors, or deregulating polluters, or undermining democracy. The 2018 and 2020 elections were referendums on MAGA and Trump. All of our voter contact happened within that basic political reality.
In this new political reality, we have to also shape the political environment. After we won, Trump was suddenly out of office and off Twitter. As a result the most important thing happening in the country wasn’t as obvious to everyone outside of our clubhouse. It was up for debate. And the MAGAs actively sought to win that debate. For many voters in the Virginia statewide elections last year, the top issue of the day wasn’t COVID, or the economic recovery, or Biden’s agenda — and it certainly wasn’t MAGA extremism. The MAGA Republicans successfully made the Virginia election about their issues — in that case, “Critical Race Theory.”
Our side did a ton of voter contact in Virginia last year. But before any get-out-the-vote calls were made or any doors were knocked, the MAGAs had defined what the election was about. And their success paid off big time — in a blue-ish state that voted for Obama twice and against Trump twice they nearly built a GOP trifecta.
One lesson for me here is voting and voter contact work is important, and to stay important in a post-Trump world, we have to think about how we shape our conversations with voters — framing the conversation for the country on our terms. Before the voter contact even begins, we have to work to answer the question: what is the most important thing happening right now?
Exposing MAGA extremism, again, and again, and again
MAGA has a clear goal: distract the country in order to focus national attention on anything other than their political violence, extremism, and wildly unpopular agenda. How do we know this is their goal? Well, evidence abounds, but most glaring in my mind right now is last week’s January 6th coup hearing. Take three pieces of evidence in the last few days:
- Ignore. This week, several members of the Proud Boys were charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in the Jan 6th coup. Search Fox News for any mention of it. You won’t find it.
- Distract. Fox News announced they were breaking with all other networks and choosing not to cover the hearings. Instead they aired Tucker Carlson spouting his MAGA propaganda.
- Hold attention. This was just shocking to me. During the hearing, while Tucker Carlson was spouting his nonsense, Fox wasn’t running ads because they didn’t want their viewers changing channels during a commercial break and seeing the hearing.
Fox is an effective propaganda arm of MAGA, but it’s not just Fox. Every elected MAGA when asked about their agenda, their violence, their threat to democracy does some version of the same thing — ignore it, distract with other BS, and try to hold the attention with outlandish claims that get coverage.
They want to hide, so we have to vigilantly expose them. OK, so if MAGA’s goal is to hide from the truth of their dangerous extremism, our goal has to be to expose it. When we talk about “going on offense” that’s what we’re talking about. Forcing the local and national conversations back to the most important topic of the day: MAGA extremism.
If the dominant local and national conversations are about MAGA extremism, then we’ve got a shot. We’ve got a shot to safeguard our elections. We’ve got a shot to pick up seats in the congress. We’ve got a shot to pass legislation to safeguard our democracy.
You’ll notice I’m referring to them as MAGAs or the MAGA GOP a lot — and that’s because we have a quite a bit of new polling and testing that shows this is the most effective, succinct way to brand them as the extremists they are. I’d recommend we all adopt this as a simple, effective shorthand.
So what do we want to maintain the focus on? Unfortunately, when it comes to extremist MAGA behavior, we have an embarrassment of riches to choose from. But there are three broad categories that I think we should do our damndest to maintain focus on this year:
MAGA’s attacks on people: They’re outlawing abortion in all cases. They’re coming after contraception. They’re terrorizing trans kids and their families. They’re laying the legal groundwork to outlaw every right not explicitly listed in the constitution.
MAGA’s attacks on schools: They’re banning books. They’re calling teachers pedophiles and groomers. They’re defunding schools. They’re blocking any attempt at addressing gun violence in schools.
MAGA’s attacks on democracy: January 6th coup. The Big Lie. They’re enacting voter suppression laws and election subversion laws. They’re promising to overturn the next election if they don’t like the results. They’re threatening more political violence.
The story may change, but the moral should always be the same: We have experts, and polling, and message testing driving us to these areas, but I’d be first to say: nobody can definitively tell you which issue is “best” to focus on. It very well may vary between communities and states. Maybe you and your Indivisible group have other issues in mind — I know MAGAs are pulling some really awful stuff everywhere.
But while the specific issue and story you’re telling may change, the moral should always be the same: They are dangerous extremists who are already doing damage and will do more if entrusted with more power. We are the normal majority that is doing our damndest to actually address real issues.
Our job is simple, but not easy. Again, and again, and again, we need to use our collective voices to force the national attention back to their extremism. It’s not easy because MAGA will be trying to distract. It’s not easy because the media will be easily distracted. It’s not easy because we have to find new, effective ways to draw attention back.
But Indivisibles are built for this. You — yes you — are a credible, local messenger. You are more aligned with the vast majority of Americans than MAGA is. Your concerns are those of most Americans. We, collectively, are well-positioned to remind our fellow Americans again, and again, and again, that MAGA extremists are a danger to us, to our communities, to our democracy, and should not be entrusted with more political power.
Let’s keep figuring this out together
In the past, we had to figure out together how to be effective resisters. Later, we had to figure out together how to be effective election campaigners. Then we had to figure out together how to fight for a pro-democracy agenda. Now we’ve got to figure out how to be effective messengers together to drive the local and national conversation to the MAGA-led threat to our democracy.
We have a compelling story to tell — and we have to figure out how to tell it. What works to turn public attention to MAGA extremism in our own communities? Gaining attention requires winning news coverage. News coverage requires novelty, inspiration, creativity, entrepreneurialism, conflict, and compelling storytelling. They’re are plenty of tactics we can probably all think of quickly: In-person events, bird-dogging MAGA electeds, strategic polling, marches, creative actions, and skewering the other side with humor. We’ll have to rework old tactics and develop new ones to demonstrate the human cost of MAGA’s agenda and make clear the imminent danger of entrusting them with more power.
I help lead Indivisible national, and we’ve got some ideas — but we don’t have all the ideas. Indivisible has never been a command-and-control operation — we’re a grassroots movement supported by a national movement organization. That’s the beauty of our work — it’s the source of our creativity and dynamism. It’s what allows us to adapt and innovate quickly while scaling up nationally. So while I don’t have all the answers, I strongly believe that, collectively, we do have the answers. We’re going to figure this out together.
In the coming weeks, Indivisible National will be working with local Indivisible groups on this (see some coverage of those plans here). And we’ll be pulling folks together for a virtual, three-day Indivisible Group Leader Convention to talk about a lot of this July 12–14. But don’t wait for us! Get your group together to discuss, plan, and create. It’s up to all of us. So let’s get to it.
PS: Ok, time for your moment of Zeke. He turned 20 months old this week! His newest obsession is dumping water on his head at the community kiddie pool near our house. But here he is climbing out of a barrel and showing off his new sunglasses.
PPS: It turns out there are a lot of readers in this group! In response to the last newsletter, many folks recommended additional articles/books/podcasts that I think are great. Providing a few links here in case it’s of interest!
- Jamelle Bouie: Democrats, You Can’t Ignore the Culture Wars Any Longer
- Jennifer Rubin: How to cope with a deceitful, anti-democratic party
- Michigan State Senator’s fiery speech: The ‘straight, white, Christian, suburban mom’ taking on Republicans at their own game.
- Many raised up Senator Schatz going on the offense, e.g. Greg Sargent: A Democrat erupts at Josh Hawley, and a ‘loudness’ gap is revealed
- Anat Shenker-Osorio’s podcast: Words To Win By
