WE THE PEOPLE are united to resist attacks against justice, domestic tranquility, the national defense, our nation’s general welfare, and our personal liberty guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States of America. Our Mission
Sierra Vista United for Equality is a group of citizens from Sierra Vista and the surrounding areas of Cochise County united to resist attacks against justic
e, domestic tranquility, the national defense, our nation’s general welfare, and our personal liberty guaranteed to us by the Constitution of the United States of America. We believe that an engaged citizenry can defend democratic norms, truth, respect for the United States Constitution, and simple decency. To this purpose, we align ourselves with the principles outlined in the Indivisible Guide (https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web/) initiated by former Washington D.C. political staffers, whose “only goal is to help the real leaders on the ground who are resisting Trump’s agenda on their home turf.”
Here are the basic elements of the Indivisible Guide’s strategy:
Three targets:
Two senators and one congressperson: Let them know how you feel about every important issue that comes up. (So our targets are Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, and Representative Martha McSally.) Four Tactics:
Become educated on issues of importance, and contact the targets via these means to convey our determination to have our representatives resist unacceptable aspects of the Trump agenda:
1. Calls
We believe that peaceful protest and direct engagement with lawmakers, especially in their own districts, can incentivize members of Congress to disregard party loyalty. In other words, political survival usually beats out leadership pleas to stick with unpopular policies. Collectively, an engaged citizenry can defend democratic norms, truth, respect for the Constitution and simple decency. (Some language borrowed from Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post: “How to resist Trump from both inside and out.”)
We attempt to follow these four rules for making our protests work (These rules are borrowed from Brian Resnic, Vox.)
1. Make the message as salient as possible: Make it stand out and get noticed.
2. Unite overlapping protest concerns under one banner: Don’t get too diffuse.
3. Pivot from talk to action: Put political pressure on politicians to address their concerns.
4. Be proactive: Protests in which demonstrators are trying to prevent an action from happening tend to be more effective than reactive protests, where people mobilize in response to an outrage. According to a Harvard study, the actual effectiveness in protest comes mainly from organizing and energizing the protesters to take more effective political action. As Sarah Jaffe of Rolling Stone Magazine puts it,“Taking part in a protest can have a transformative effect on the people who get involved.”
Important Question: Can we sustain the energy for the long, ugly fights ahead?
