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.
OUR 2020 VISION:
Let’s flip the Senate, keep the House, and promote progressive policies to defeat Trump!
As we move into this most consequential of election years, Indivisible Outer Cape has been working on a strategy that aligns with our values of protecting democracy, equality, health, and the environment. Our goals cannot be met with the current administration’s policy, and so far, we are not certain of defeating Trump at the polls. Therefore, our strategy for 2020 is to flip the Senate, keep the House, and advocate progressive policies in order to defeat Trump and trumpism. A Democratically controlled House and Senate will be able to neutralize the worst impules and policies as well as stop the crimes and abuses of this president. Imagine if we replaced nine of the Senators who betrayed the country by voting against witnesses or for his acquittal. That’s what Indivisible’s Payback Project is all about! Imagine if the Senate would actually consider the more than 400 bills passed by the House! Imagine a Senate that would follow the rule of law and remove this corrupt president!
Since December 2019, Indivisible Outer Cape members have been hard at work researching and devising a plan to flip the Senate, keep the House and advocate for progressive policies to defeat Trump. Practically, it is not possible to cover all of the many states that need progressive help, so we decided to focus our energy on the four states of Georgia, Florida, Colorado, and Maine – although we will continue to participate in opportunities in places like Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania when the opportunities arise. The summary of what we have discovered about our four focus states and what we are planning follows:
Georgia: Yes, Georgia is on our minds! Not only does Georgia have 16 electoral college votes, but there are two US Senate seats up for grabs, many State legislative races (18 House and 2 Senate), and changing demographics. We are very motivated by the very slim Republican margins of recent elections there and are certain that their success is dependent upon dirty tricks. The blatant voter suppression tactics of the now-Governor Kemp in 2018 denied Stacey Abrams a victory there. Our plan to raise awareness of this and to make folks aware of Abrams’ group (Fairfight.org) with the documentary Suppressed: The Fight to Vote will kick off our efforts to help flip Georgia. We have also contacted several Indivisible groups there and will be offering our assistance to build on projects that they believe will help.
Florida: Yep, Florida is hot, hot, hot! With 29 electoral college votes, Florida has been the focus of presidential elections for years, but while everyone is watching hanging-chads and looking for lost ballot boxes, Republicans have been stacking all State and local seats by the slimmest of margins. These margins are so slim that the slightest increase in voter turnout (or if all votes were actually counted!), could flip Florida blue. The SwingLeft and Field Team 6folks have this state’s voter registration efforts well covered and we can easily carry on contributing to this effort, like the Vote By Mail campaign we participated in already. Voter registration efforts are in full swing and we will continue to postcard and connect folks visiting Florida to those on the ground there. We are also reaching out to some groups there to see if there is another way to help them build capacity and amplify their work.
High on Colorado: While we are motivated by the reports of shifting demographics and its 9 electoral college votes, we are not losing focus with our Rocky Mountain high! Colorado flipped its state legislature from red to blue in 2018 and many feel that is just the beginning; it is quite possible that voter turnout will determine our success. Indivisible’s Payback Project sees Senator Cory Gardner as a key target especially because of his support for the president’s acquittal and blatant contempt for his constituents. We are excited about text-banking to Colorado through the Indivisitext platform and once we learn the process, hope to roll it out to anyone who wants to learn and help in this way. We have also made contact with groups in Colorado, and we have agreed that we will postcard for one of these groups. We are getting the materials necessary from them Indivisible COCD6 soon and will be working on them during a Do Something Sundays event!
Maine: on the rocks! We all want to Can Collins and we will be building on this effort that we started in October 2019! Everyone is motivated by seeing Sidekick Susie’s public image as a moderate on the rocks! As Maine is a neighboring state it makes sense to look for opportunities to use our progressive energies there. Our friends at Mainers For Accountable Leadership have already given us some good inside information regarding messaging and we will be meeting with them soon to collaborate again! MFAL has already put together a great podcast that we can share with our friends and families in Maine to help get the message out that Sidekick Susie is not a moderate! We need to hear from you if you would like to take trips to Maine to canvass; we may have the contacts that might help you do this!
Other states: We are not strictly limiting our work to only these four states and we know that there will be opportunities to help with other important states like Kentucky, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Alabama.
We know that without removing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, no progressive policies have a chance. This is true whether he is the Senate Majority Leader or not as he has vowed to use the filibuster on every democratic bill. This was the motivation for our Cape and Islands-wide “Bet on Kentucky Blue” fundraisers for Indivisible KY last summer. We still have our Indivisible KY contacts and will watch for ways to support their efforts.
All of us are very concerned with the purges happening right now in places like Wisconsin and we are connecting with Indivisible Chicago who has devised a way to help reach voters in Wisconsin. Look for a Do Something Sundays activity coming soon!
The gerrymandering in many states has also contributed to the imbalance of Republican control of many state legislatures and Pennsylvania has had many court challenges to try to correct this. We are watching the many races heating up there!
Although our victories were great in 2018, many of the new Democratic Congresspeople have been walking a fine line in their home districts. While Democrats like Doug Jones are heroes to us, their positions in opposition to the president, have put them in the firing line and we will watch for calls to action in order to help them keep their seats in the House of Representatives.
Issues: An important way we can neutralize the president’s attacks on our rights is to advocate for the issues that are important to us whether that be on the state or national level. Indivisible Outer Cape has been working on several important Massachusetts bills and two of them have been given extensions in their respective committees, which is good news because it gives us more time to push for their approval. We are watching for ways to support the ROE Act in the Joint Judiciary and the Benson Bill, An Act to Promote Green Infrastructure and Reduce Carbon Emissions in the TUE Committee.
Unfortunately, the 400+ bills passed by the 2018 US House of Representatives have piled up on Mitch McConnell’s door step and unless we defeat him in November will not be revived.
Proposals: If you have an idea for a strategy that might provide Indivisible Outer Cape a way to use our energies in these efforts, you can let us know! We have a proposal form that you can use to explain your idea and bring to the “table” for discussion. You will find the form on this website under “important documents.”
Volunteer time and money: As you may imagine, developing these strategies require many hours of volunteer time to research and prepare – and they cost a fair amount of money to implement! We really need your help to buy postcards, postage stamps, printer paper and cartridges, and other supplies. When you attend our events, like Do Something Sundays at Provincetwon Brewing Company every Sunday evening, please bring a small donation for our supplies or consider making a larger donation to the other groups we are supporting. Thank you!
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
Laurie Veninger veninger@aol.com
Carol Warshawsky carolw104@gmail.com
Keith Thurlow keiththurlow@comcast.net
Deb Raymond johnsonraymond@comcast.com
C-Sue Mrazik 1stdieselfemme@gmail.com
Laura Gazzano laura.gazzano@yahoo.com
Bob Higgins-Steele rehigginssteele@gmail.com
Tricia Aurigemma triciaetal57@yahoo.com
Josh Stiles josh.stiles@gmail.com
Lisa Bergeron lisalatte@gmail.com
Ira Brodsky ibrodsky@hotmail.com
