Brainstorming post

[sathari]

In addition to the master post of ideas and suggestions, on the encouragement of one of our wonderful mods tassosss, I'm offering up a brainstorming post for batting ideas back and forth--- things we've done that seem to be effective, ideas we have, especially for making activism easier in general... and, because of the fannish spirit of this comm, any ideas for activism/tools/etc. that you've gotten from fiction and other media? Or for that matter any stories/art/music/other creations that inspire and support your activism that you want to share?

Comments

Activist tools idea from the Vorkosigan Saga

[sathari]

In the comment that spawned this post, I talked a little about a tool for "organizing" a master list of the voting positions of multiple representatives on vary issues, from Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign, where Miles Vorkosigan and his political allies use them to lay out their strategy for winning multiple votes in the Council of Counts.

The tool was a very low-tech one: a stack of transparency-type sheets with grids on them that had boxes laid out in a model of the seats for each member of the Council (they weren't labeled with the count's name, but for people in this universe, to paraphrase Miles, if you have to ask, you're not someone who's playing this game anyway). The idea was that you took a stack of them, one for each motion/issue that was up for a vote, and then you went through and colored green for every square representing a count who was voting with you, and red for every square where the count voted against--- one issue per sheet. Then you put them over each other and you could see where you had support versus opposition, and especially where you had people who were on your side for one thing but not another. (Bujold has Miles give a MUCH better explanation than that.)

This one popped into my head due to the variety of issues on which the Democrats will need to get a few Republican Senators/Reps to "cross the line"--- in the version of it I'm thinking of, it'd be useful to have--- okay, for our purposes we probably want this in some kind of online format, though I may try to make something similar for using with my own reps--- some kind of master grid of where each Congressperson stands on multiple topics, so that we can see at a glance when our reps are the ones to try to nudge across the aisle. For example I have a Republican Senator with an expressed commitment to supporting Medicare/Social Security (go him for that at least!) so when issues come up that affect that, I'll want to prioritize encouraging him there--- versus... um, a lot of other issues, where my job is more like reminding him that there are voters in his state who disagree with him enough to speak up. Basically, a visual aid for where the cracks in the "red wall" are on each issue.

Obviously, this is a huge undertaking, and also possibly not one I'm explaining well, so, please ask me questions--- this is a teamwork post, after all! ;)

[teaotter]

It's not fannish, but I recommend setting up a google alert on all your reps, especially if they're Republicans.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I've come to the conclusion that some reps will toss an opinion to the media -- that they're unhappy about the way a bill is put together, for example -- as a way of floating an idea past their constituents and seeing if those voters care enough to yell about it. So finding out what your reps are talking about can give you an idea of what issues they're already willing to move on.

And heck, even if they're being stubborn -- if every time they speak up for something, they get called, then they know their voters are paying attention.

Right now, pretty much every single member of the House is freaking out over the last election and what it means for them. They were expecting a completely different outcome, and their assumptions about how to get re-elected look shaky. There are a million surveys being done right now, in both red and blue districts, trying to figure out what voters "really" want. So it's a great time to tell them, in no uncertain terms, loudly and often.

[executrix]

Even in light of how it turned out, I would definitely carry a Freedom Party banner and wear Freedom Party colors at demonstrations, but TPTB declined to provide us with information about what they are. (The logo for the show depicts the Federation logo, which in this case is the Bad Guys, although Servalan dresses much better than Trump.)

[tielan]

I'm going to offer to make some fandom badges for the future. I'm not a US citizen, but I'd like to help however possible.