Members of Congress care about reelection most of all. And that means they care about their constituents. So you have to be a constituent to make your voice heard.
The bottom line is that every single member of Congress has to get voted into office every two or six years. That means they need to look really good in their home district and state. That means good local press. That means people in their district thinking, "Man, I really don't like Congress, but I like Senator Bob."
To the extent that we can shine a light on the bad things being done, that's going to have a positive impact.
The tea party had a lot of nasty tactics that were needlessly aggressive and petty and scary. But they proved it is indeed possible for a committed, relatively small number of folks across the country to make Congress listen to them and to slow and stop an agenda.
If people don't get as engaged as the tea party was, we're going to lose.
Obama had a mandate for change and Trump clearly does not.
Another crucial thing the tea party did really well is to focus in on the folks who are more or less on your side, and make sure they are as bold as possible.
Stiffening the spine of progressive members of Congress is crucial.
It is really crucial that folks focus on their own representatives. If you call or write a member who does not represent you, I can tell you that contact is going to be a waste of time. You might as well just talk to yourself in your living room.
When someone is running for reelection in Texas, they're not looking for votes in California or New York.
I really do not think there is a serious split between Republicans and Democrats in Congress in how responsive they are to constituents.
One strategy that the tea party smartly embraced was one of being almost entirely defensive. They consciously decided not to figure out which of their really abominable conservative policy priorities to prioritize. Instead, anything that came out of the Obama White House they were against. What they recognized is that when you've lost the White House and the House of Representatives and the Senate, you're not setting the agenda anymore. We progressives find ourselves in a similar situation now.
You have to be local. You have to focus on your local members of Congress.
Progressives are the majority; we won the popular vote by a long shot and Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans representing mainly rich old white men are a minority. If we stand up together and use the effective strategies and tactics the tea party used, we believe we can stop them.
A lot of people are worried that many of our rights and privileges we've come to expect as part of the American democratic process will be abandoned or restricted in some way. That is a valid fear and it makes it all the more important that people get together now to prevent any possible damage.
