Cyberdemocracy Research Paper 1

Cassie Slack

CST 273

Professor Wisdom

December 3, 2017

The “Indivisible” Political Mobilization and Protest Movement

The Indivisible movement sparked into action following the 2016 presidential election of

Donald Trump. This non-profit organization’s mission is to resist Trump’s agenda and his

“racist, authoritarian, and corrupt image” (indivisible.org). Indivisible mobilization is made

possible through local organizations and grassroots that uphold the core purpose of influencing

members of congress in hopes of igniting lasting political progress.

Indivisible has had multiple political accomplishments in result of the movement’s direct

influences at town hall meetings, events, and even on political figures. These successes have

come about primarily through the coalition of committed members that are actively visiting

district offices, holding events, and making calls to congress expressing their demands. One of

the founders of the Indivisible movement, Ezra Levin, “credits Indivisible groups for influencing

moderates such as Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican who represents a swing district in

Virginia” (Levin, 2017). Inspiring feats such as this one displays the power of local activism and

the Indivisible movement’s ability to reach local members of congress (MoCs) and eventually

government legislation and upcoming reelection processes.

The anti-Trump agenda movement began when a fresh wave of anger and frustration hit the

democratic party consequent to the 2016 election. Sarah Dohl, former employee of Capitol Hill,

wrote a 26-page instructional paper with her friends and former colleagues titled, “Indivisible: A

Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda”. The guide caught attention through its spread
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on social media and quickly grew into a national movement inviting all people to take part in

local activism to fight against Trump’s agenda. Originally Indivisible had put energy and focus

towards combating Republican attempts to annul Obamacare, however, the movement has grown

to prioritize various objectives including, “pushing an investigation of ties between Russia and

the Trump campaign, getting Mr. Trump to release his tax returns, and reversing his executive

orders to restrict immigration and loosen environmental protections” (Zernike, 2017).

Currently, the Indivisible movement consists of six main directors that do not include

organizers or leaders in local groups. The six main organizers comprise of Co-Executives, Leah

Greenberg and Ezra Levin; Policy Director, Angel Padilla; Organizing Director, Isaac Bloom;

Political Director, Maria Urbina; and Chief Communications Officer, Sarah Dohl. Each of these

organizers have backgrounds in social justice related positions that have lead up to their roles in

Indivisible.

In efforts to pave the way and offer additional support to local groups within the

indivisible movement, organizers published an online guide on December 14th explaining what

members could do to resist. The guide can be found on the Indivisible website and takes

members through effective steps of activism and information including, understanding how your

members of congress work, how to organize locally, grassroots advocacy, and advocacy tactics.

The guide provides thorough resources and information for new and old members and is “useful

for stiffening Democratic spines and weakening pro-Trump Republican resolve”

(indivisible.org).

In addition to the extensive guide published to help local organizations gain their footing,

Indivisible organizers provide members with trainings that teach effective methods of

preforming political action. For examples in California, “leaders of a dozen resistance groups
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have organized a training session […] to write scripts that members can use when talking to

neighbors about the importance of the midterms” (Zernike, 2017). These trainings ensure that

members of the movement are prepared to make the largest impact possible as well as acquire

higher numbers of voters on their side.

Indivisible principles are well defined within the guide and trainings provided to local

organizations of the movement. The movement’s main source of inspiration and example of

successful grassroots advocacy comes from the conservative Tea Party. The Tea Party, although

united through opposing values of the democratic party, was an extremely accomplished

coalition of like-minded people that were able to shift American political lawmaking and policy

through local organization and action. The Tea Party’s practices caught the attention of

Indivisible because “It proved the power that local, defensive organizing can have” (Levin,

Greenberg, Padilla, 2017). Indivisible aims to use similar grassroots strategies that the Tea Party

had used, but instead to demonstrate democratic values and beliefs. On the Indivisible website,

organizers describe their movement to be, “the Tea Party inverted: locally driven advocacy built

on inclusion, fairness and respect. It’s playing defense, not to obstruct, but to protect” (Levin,

Greenberg, Padilla, 2017). Indivisible hopes to impact real change through comparable practices

of the Tea Party without using scare tactics such as physical and verbal assault, threats, and

directed hate towards members of congress.

Indivisible has grown into both a large and strong community of political activists.

According to the most recent recordings of indivisible.org, the guide has been downloaded over

two million times from their website; 5,800 groups are registered in the country with at least two

in every congressional district; three million searches have been made across the country related

to groups, meetings, and events; and their website has been viewed by unique users over 18
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million times (with at least one user from every state). These incredible statistics prove the

growth of indivisible through the mass amounts of followers that have been attracted to the

movement and the group’s strength that has been built upon the density of their supporters across

the country and even the world.

Indivisible uses their numbers of supporters to their advantage through adding potential

members to email lists and sending out alerts to encourage local action. For example, in

Virginia’s 10th district, “‘action alerts’ [are sent] to the 3,500 members of the group’s email list,

asking them to post on social media and write and call their representatives on a different talking

point each week” (Zernike, 2017). Local organizations aim towards flooding members of

congress with their comments and concerns about policy-making until MoCs are convinced to

take further political action at a higher level. The numbers of members in these local groups that

call and write congress are what make Indivisible progress possible. If the number of members

were not as high as they are now, it would be difficult to persuade MoCs to hear out the

movement’s concerns and act upon it.

Progressive movements like Indivisible require a solid social media presence and

following in order to grow within our current society. Similar to Black Lives Matter, Indivisible

uses the hashtag #standindivisible to spread their message across media platforms. On the

Indivisible website, organizers explain to local groups how to be “media-ready”. The webpage

describes how to build a list of followers, get media to one of your events, get ready for an

interview with reporters, properly include video or images on your page, and (in general)

navigate national media. In addition to local media, Indivisible has a main Twitter page that

represents the movement altogether. The Twitter page has 218,000 followers, over 7 thousand

likes, and over 20,000 tweets.

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A total of twenty-five local Indivisible groups have formed in the Monterey, San Benito,

and Santa Cruz counties. Of these twenty-five groups, eleven reside in the Monterey county,

twelve reside in the Santa Cruz county, and two reside in the San Benito county. These groups

unify in cities including Hollister, Pacific Grove, Santa Cruz, Carmel, Salinas, Aptos, and Scotts

Valley. Of these groups, Santa Cruz Indivisible, has had incredibly successful meetings where

more than 600 people have joined to plan effective resist. At Santa Cruz Indivisible’s first event,

organizer of the group, Carson Kelly, “expected only 15 people to come but had to cap

attendance at 150 and turn people away” (Men, 2017). Successful groups like Santa Cruz

Indivisible gives citizens in the Santa Cruz county an outlet to channel their political frustrations

into positive and productive social progression. The group’s organizers give members a safe

community environment with the tools necessary to develop effective forms of resistance.

The future of Indivisible stands strong as long as Donald Trump is in office. The group

formed as a result of Trump’s presidential election and will continue to fight Trump’s agenda

until he is gone and policy has reformed in favor of democratic values. Entering year 2018,

“With Trump ready to move on to other issues, Levin says the resistance is not going away”

(Lee, 2017). In order make a real impact, the movement must continue to stay active, recruit

members, and use their passion and energy to reach their unified goal of resistance. The

Indivisible movement stands as an excellent example of strong local advocacy that is capable of

impacting real change in our society and our government through grassroots. No matter how

powerless citizens may feel, organizations like Indivisible give the people a voice to create

change in a flawed government.

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References

Account, I. G. (2017, November 29). Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam). Retrieved

November 29, 2017, from https://twitter.com/IndivisibleTeam

Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg And Angel Padilla. (2017, January 02). To Stop Trump, Democrats

Can Learn From the Tea Party. Retrieved November 24, 2017, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/opinion/to-stop-trump-democrats-can-learn-from-the-tea-

party.html

Lee, K. (2017, March 26). Meet Indivisible, the young progressives leading the resistance to

President Trump. Retrieved November 24, 2017, from http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-

indivisible-protests-20170325-story.html

Men, C. (2017, February 14). Santa Cruz Indivisible looks to transform anger into action.

Retrieved November 24, 2017, from

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20170213/NEWS/170219889

The Indivisible Project. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2017, from https://www.indivisible.org/

Zernike, K. (2017, April 09). The Trump Resistance Found Early Success. Can It Also Find

Momentum? Retrieved November 24, 2017, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/09/health/the-trump-resistance-found-early-success-can-it-

also-find-momentum.html