tassosss: Farscape Posse (Posse)
[personal profile] tassosss
I’m back from being out of town. Many thanks to [personal profile] tanaqui for keeping up with check-ins. This week there were a lot of town halls taking place around the country. Did you go to one, or plan to? How was it?

Housekeeping

Is anyone out there interested in helping us tag posts? That seems to be the area where we’re falling down the most.

Reminder that we have a suggestion post if there’s a topic that you’d like to see discussed but would like to ask the mods to look into. This can be anything from general information, or a how-to-do-a-thing, or something you may want to discuss as a community. Folks are welcome to post directly to the comm as always, but if you’re not comfortable/don’t have spoons, we can help too.

If you read one thing this week, read this:
A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, and What the Majority Can Do This is an excellent article that talks about world views and the brain and how absolutely essential the language used around politics is for shaping how people vote.
Follow up reading includes actions you can take.

Muslim Ban/Immigration

[personal profile] tanaqui  has an excellent round up post this week on what our Minority President’s next moves are and what DHS is doing.

Confirmation Hearings
Not a lot of movement at the moment but we’ll keep you updated as they continue.

Get Involved
Anyone thinking of running for office? The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is holding candidate training this spring and summer for how to run for office

Get Educated

You can request a recording of the conference call that took place this week with Elizabeth Warren to discuss resistance strategies
[personal profile] snickfic ’slink roundup on running for office, and work done by the resistance, including a platform for The Movement of Black Lives
In yesterday’s roundup Civics 101 podcast, enrollment in ACA maps, resistance news, how voter ID’s discriminate, and Delaware’s special election for a State Senate seat goes to Democratic candidate Stephanie Hansen
Updates of Minority President’s campaign in contact with Russian operatives during the campaign and his undermining of democracy by attacking the press

Poll #18044 check in Feb 26
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20


This week I

View Answers

called my one senator
4 (36.4%)

called my other senator
3 (27.3%)

called my representative
2 (18.2%)

got on a resistence call
0 (0.0%)

signed up for daily action alerts
2 (18.2%)

called my state senator
1 (9.1%)

called my state representative
2 (18.2%)

called my governor
1 (9.1%)

went to a protest
5 (45.5%)

went to a town hall
2 (18.2%)

.

View Answers

got involved with a local group
3 (15.0%)

sent a postcard/email/letter
7 (35.0%)

donated money
9 (45.0%)

took care of myself
13 (65.0%)

committed to action in the coming week
3 (15.0%)

did something else
10 (50.0%)



tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
We've had a few posts and links previously about how to present your arguments so they appeal to Republican-leaning voters, and on how we might refer to Trump. I've now been pointed to some really interesting stuff by George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley about how to "frame" the argument to direct the way an issue is perceived and therefore how people respond.

A classic example he uses is that Republicans talk about removing "regulations" -- which are in fact "public protections" (e.g. for clean water and air) that they want to do away with.

He's got a lot of stuff on his blog, but here's a couple of places to start:

A Minority President: Why the Polls Failed, And What the Majority Can Do

Ten points for Democracy Activists

A lengthy (20-minute) interview on PBS

Lakoff is aiming to establish a "Citizens’ Communication Network" -- I'm not exactly sure what he has in mind with this, but he suggests you can "unofficially join" by following him on Facebook or Twitter for more information and insights while he sets it up.
stardreamer: Meez headshot (Default)
[personal profile] stardreamer
A linguist explains how to write protest signs that everyone will remember.

Words matter. Part of the reason Republicans have been so successful for the last half-century is that they seized control of the discourse. They turned "liberal" into a dirty word, and they've been trying to do the same thing with "progressive".

Going the other way, think about how the same-sex marriage movement took off when some genius reframed it from "gay marriage" to "marriage equality".

An effective protest sign will also be an effective T-shirt slogan, or bumper sticker, or tweet (or hashtag, if it's really short).

Remember also the slogan "Short is good. Funny is good. Short and funny is better." Because people remember funny stuff -- but don't let that stop you from writing a short, snappy angry sign either. One that I saw at the march in Houston today was "Grab them by the BALLOTS".

People will tell you that we can't win this war with soundbites. But that doesn't mean that soundbites aren't a useful tool! And you can be sure it's a tool the other side will be using.

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