Protecting DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY, OUR HEALTH AND OUR ENVIRONMENT!
The goals of Indivisible Outer Cape align closely with our core values. IOC members believe in the civil and human rights of all people. This means that we will fight for:
DEMOCRACY – We know that without a healthy and functioning democracy, with all the checks and balances of power, that none of our other goals are possible. The balances have been tipped and many of the checks have been ignored. We insist that voting rights are enforced, and that all votes count. We want campaign finance reform and a repeal of Citizens United. And we want politicians to be held accountable to the people!
EQUALITY – We demand equal rights for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. We demand that all people be treated with dignity, respect and due process, including immigrants. We will fight the attacks on the rights of women and their bodily autonomy, and the rights of LGBTQ individuals. We will fight for social justice everywhere.
HEALTH – This includes quality and affordable healthcare and a society without rampant gun violence. We insist that our legislators find an alternative to the current profit-driven health insurance and prescription drug system and that we care for all people equally. Our country’s gun violence problem is a public health crisis that no other country in the world suffers from and one that we demand Congress addresses.
ENVIRONMENT – Climate change is real and we insist that climate scientists be listened to. We demand action now to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to stop the current administration’s roll-back of all environmental regulations in favor of fossil fuel corporations.
The IOC Action Team
Since January 2019, a small, dedicated group of IOC members has been meeting regularly, to implement Indivisible’s new strategies which call for bold, progressive offense at the national and state level. You can read the new guides here. Since our January Day of Action, this team has been working to identify key legislation and bills on the national and state level that we support. You will find some of these explained in our Updates Section.
We have had to learn quickly about the many steps a bill takes and to research the issues and history surrounding these. We have also developed staunch allies with other Indivisible groups here, throughout MA, and even in other states. We have established strong working relationships with our elected officials, Congressman Keating, State Senator Cyr, and State Representative Peake, and are developing collaborations with other activist groups. Our 2019 goals included planning tactics to reach and inform the public, encourage their civic engagement, and advance bills on issues that affect all Americans such as healthcare and the environment.
We know that the 2020 elections are approaching quickly, and we know that we now need to shift our attention to elections, here and in other places. Fortunately, many national organizations are also planning for this and we will be offering opportunities for our members to work with groups like SwingLeft and MoveOn as we have done in the past. Our work for 2020 will be to influence Cape Codders to vote on issues that matter to us locally and nationally. Enacting progressive legislation here will help protect us against the attacks on our rights that have been initiated by this administration. Flipping the U.S. Senate will be imperative, not only to move the many progressive bills that have languished under McConnell’s death grip, but to neutralize the enormous threat in the Oval Office, should he be re-elected.
GOTV work is needed in many key districts in other states such as ME, FL, GA, CO, WI and TX. We are currently considering strategies and will be doing what we can to help. Post-carding, phone and text banking, and letter writing are the most important tactics we can employ to reach folks in other states. We have already held post-carding parties and will be planning more events in the coming months.
There are two vital ways every voter can make a difference. The first is to regularly contact your Members of Congress! We have learned that the folks on the other side of our issues do call them regularly and, even though you may think our MoCs will vote our way, they still need to hear from us (there is no way our state MoCs should have received more calls opposing the Conversion Therapy Ban, but they did)! So after you’ve done your part, the second is to get other progressive voters to do the same. The best way to do this is through voter to voter contact. That not only means getting your friends and family to call about issues, but to reach voters in other places from Harwich, MA, to Sarasota, FL. This is why so many groups focus on phone-banking and canvassing. So, whether we like it or not, these tactics work and saving our democracy just may depend on coming out of our comfort zones to do it!
Our Action Team members have divided up the issues in order to just keep track of the many aspects of legislation surrounding them, but we come together to share and to plan our work. There is a lot of labor involved in this and if you have an interest in helping, please get in touch!
Laurie Veninger veninger@aol.com (healthcare, women’s issues, Indivisible MA Coalition)
Carol Warshawsky carolw104@gmail.com (democracy)
Keith Thurlow keiththurlow@comcast.net
Deb Raymond johnsonraymond@comcast.com (immigration)
C-Sue Mrazik 1stdieselfemme@gmail.com (LGBTQ)
Laura Gazzano laura.gazzano@yahoo.com (climate)
Bob Higgins-Steele rehigginssteele@gmail.com (climate)
Tricia Aurigemma triciaetal57@yahoo.com (LGBTQ)
