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Paul Wellman

SWEET, BUT NOT TOO SWEET: Indivisible Santa Barbara members (from left) Jennie Reinish, Christina Eliason, Laura Smith, and Loretta Smargon brought chocolates and valentines to Rep. Salud Carbajals office on Tuesday.

Members Mimic the Take-No-Prisoners, In-Your-Face Style of Right WingPopulists

Anti-Trump activists have designated every Tuesday a Trump Tuesday, a time to demonstrate their disagreement with the new presidents agenda. This last Tuesday started off on a positive note, with a delegation from Indivisible Santa Barbara, a branch of the nationwide movement, showering newly elected Congressmember Salud Carbajal with handmade Valentines greetings. We Love You Salud, proclaimedone.

Carbajal, of course, was in Congress at the timenot in his new digs by the Plaza de Oro movie theater. As the 24th Congressional Districts representative in Washington, D.C., Carbajal has become the go-to man for the growing legion of Indivisible volunteers in Santa Barbara. A liberal-progressive organization, Indivisible intentionally seeks to mimic the take-no-prisoners, in-your-face tactics of the right-wing populist Tea Party. Carbajal, a liberal Democrat who has already spoken out against Trumps policies on the floor of the House, has not yet experienced theirire.

No such luck for archconservative Republican Congressmember Tom McClintock, who represents the Sacramento metro region. (McClintock once represented Santa Barbara in the State Senate before moving north eight years ago.) Two hundred Indivisible activists from his district packed a town hall meeting McClintock scheduled in Roseville last week, leaving several hundred more protesters outside. Inside, they were boisterous and determined, challenging McClintocks stated intention to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Roseville police insisted Indivisible protestors were peaceful and cooperative, but since the crowd was bigger than anything theyd encountered, they gave McClintock a police escort when he left. McClintock later spoke on the House floor bemoaning the loss of civility in public discourse, but only after he first characterized the protestors as an anarchist element and the radical left. No Indivisible Valentines forMcClintock.

By PaulWellman

The national Indivisible organization began shortly after the presidential election as nothing more than a well-modulated civics primer on social media, written by former staffers of a former Democratic Congressmember from Texas. The 26-page how-to manual offered angry but politically inexperienced anti-Trump citizens ways to make elected officials feel their heat. It emphasized the success enjoyed by Tea Party agitators, who translated their rage against the bank bailout and the 2008 election of President Barack Obama into a highly effective campaign of uncompromising opposition. Certainly, Carbajals predecessorCongressmember Lois Cappsfelt their wrath when busloads of Tea Party activists assembled in front of her downtown offices to denounce Obamacare. After that, Capps hosted her town hall meetings in churches, hoping to encourage civildiscourse.

Indivisible soon morphed from social media underground into a flesh-and-blood movement thanks to a three-hour special broadcast by MSNBCs lefty commentator Rachel Maddow. In Santa Barbara, a couple of filmmakersJennie Reinish and Christina Eliasondecided Santa Barbara needed an Indivisible chapter of its own. They teamed up with Laura Smitha techie, sculptor, Summer Solstice organizer, and paid field operative for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. On January 2, the Santa Barbara chapter had 14 members. Two weeks ago, 185 mostly middle-aged and white people showed up for an organizational meeting. The next day, they packed a scheduled Carbajal press conference, transforming it into a bona fide political pep rally. One of his field workers exclaimed: We need people shouting into thehurricane.

By PaulWellman

Indivisible activists deliver Valentines cards to Salud Carbajals districtoffice.

Indivisible is all about writing and calling ones congressmember and senators, and showing up for office visits and town hall meetings. They ask yes or no questions. They leave short messages on oneand only onesubject. They share personal stories that are relevant to the issue at handthe Affordable Care Act, for instance. In Santa Barbara, most Trump Tuesdays have been spent focusing on Senator Dianne Feinstein, lobbying her to oppose all of Trumps Cabinet nominees. Californias newest senator, Kamala Harris, has publically announced her opposition to them. Feinsteinas a matter of policywaits until the very last minute before announcing her position on cabinet appointees. Three weeks ago, Indivisible raised the alarm that Feinstein might actually support Jeff Sessionsthe archconservative Alabama senator ultimately confirmed as Attorney Generalwith whom she allegedly enjoyed cordialrelations.

When Eliason and Smith first called Feinsteins office, they were told the senator had only received 5,000 callssix times fewer than those her office had gotten supporting former president Bill Clintons impeachment proceedings. Indivisibles all over the state turned up the heat. By the time Feinstein voted against Sessions, 114,000 people had called, 98 percent against the nominee. Three Tuesdays in a row, hundreds of Indivisibles rallied at Feinsteins downtown Los Angeles offices. That has always included a Santa Barbara contingent. After each rally, the organizers met with Feinsteins staff. When they learned Feinstein liked personal stories, they delivered. First Feinstein delayed the vote on Sessions; then she voted against him. At that time, she used some of the personal details shared by Indivisible activists to make hercase.

With Trump in the White House, the old rules of engagement no longer apply, Indivisible activists argue. The times are calling for someone to step in and be a true leader, said Eliason. Our kids need a hero. Our girls need a heroine. People need to feel theyre not alone. In the meantime, she added, the National Republican Party has already targeted Carbajals seat in 2018. To keep Carbajal in office is one thing, she said; to keep Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch off the Supreme Court for two years quiteanother.

Today, there are about 6,200 Indivisible chapters throughout the United States; Santa Barbaras boasts about 1,200 members, and that doesnt include the 80 people who just formed one in Carpinteria. But theres a big difference between reacting and organizing, Eliason believes. If youre just reacting, youll get burned out. We need to be better at organizing. This has been such an insanemonth.

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Indivisible Santa Barbara Borrows Tea Party Tactics - Santa Barbara Independent

By By NANCY DUNN

Published: 2:06 pm, Tue. Feb. 14th, 2017Updated: 2:05 pm

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(Nancy Dunn For the Daily Press)

Sometimes the best parties are the ones that werent exactly planned and Lynette and Jade Throneberrys annual Victorian Valentine Tea Party is a case in point.

Jade learned about the Victorian tea party tradition when she was pretty young and decided that it would be a lot of fun to host one. So she proceeded to invite a large group of ladies from her church to come over to our house for a tea party which was very sweet, but she forgot to tell her mother Lynette about it!

Lynette found out she was hosting a tea party a few days before the event and was able to scramble around and make it happen. It turned to be so much fun that the event has become an annual Throneberry tradition, and this year was the eighth year for them to host their Victorian Valentine Tea Party for local friends.

And what a party it is! The attendees dress up in their finest ladies tea party outfits and are transported by members of the Artesia Car Enthusiasts in vintage cars. This years party had 30 attendees (including chauffeurs and servers), and the traditional menu included two kinds of quiche, three kinds of cakes, assorted scones, fresh fruit with cream, cheeses and crackers, and even cucumber sandwiches.

Nearly everything was made from scratch, too. And of course, there was nearly every kind of tea imaginable also, with tea bags as party favors.

There are a lot of ways to celebrate Valentines Day, and Lynette and Jades mother-daughter tradition has become an eagerly-anticipated event for all their friends a nice way to show their love to all.

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Local mother, daughter host Victorian Valentine Tea Party | Artesia ... - Artesia Daily Press

On Monday, the Hill reported that the Tea Party group FreedomWorks is planning to counter the surge in liberal activism with new rallies and appearances at town halls where constituents angry about the potential repeal of Obamacare have confronted Republican members of Congress in recent weeks. From the Hill:

FreedomWorks, a nonprofit with a network of 6 million members, is best remembered as one of the groups responsible for organizing and coordinating the original Tea Party protests of 2009 and 2010, then under the leadership of lobbyist and former congressman Dick Armey. Their work was derided by some as astroturfing designed to make highly planned events look like spontaneous, grassroots protests. From ThinkProgress:

So why is FreedomWorks waiting until March to get started this time around? Because, after years of decrying the Affordable Care Act, Republicans still haven't figured out what they want to do about it. The reason FreedomWorks is waiting until mid-March to ramp up its grassroots engagement on ObamaCare, the Hill writes, is that by then, Brandon said, GOP leaders will have a better idea of which path they are taking on replacement. The GOPs cluelessness about the path forward was on display at a town hall held by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., on Monday and attended by Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times:

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Tea Party Activists Are Planning a Comeback - Slate Magazine (blog)

It's not often that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer sounds like his Obama predecessor Robert Gibbs, but on this, he might as well be reading leftover talking points. Gibbs dismissed the Tea Party town-hall agitation eight years ago as "manufactured anger" reflecting "the Astro-turf nature of grassroots lobbying." Spicer says of the town-hall protests, "It's not these organic uprisings that we've seen through the last several decades the Tea Party was a very organic movement this has become a very paid, Astro-turf-type movement."

What was true in 2009 is true today: In the normal course of things, it's not easy even for a well-funded and -organized group to get people to spend an evening at a school auditorium hooting at their congressman. If these demonstrations are happening in districts around the country, attention must be paid.

This is not to condone the more rancid elements of the Left's ferment (blocking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from entering a Washington, D.C., school was petty thuggishness), nor is it to consider what is happening as nearly as significant as the Tea Party yet.

To become the Left's equivalent of the Tea Party, the protestors will have to persist despite the inevitable legislative defeats on the horizon; organize at the grass-roots level; play in Democratic primaries; make their own party's establishment miserable; and pick off a significant Republican seat in what seems like impossible territory the way Scott Brown did in the Massachusetts special election after the death of Ted Kennedy.

None of this is certain, or necessarily likely. But Democrats deluded themselves in 2009 by disregarding the early signs of fierce resistance to their agenda, and paid the price over and over again for their heedless high-handedness. Republicans shouldn't make the same mistake.

There is nothing to suggest that the Left's town-hall protestors represent anything like a majority of the country. Even an impassioned plurality can make a big impact, though. And if we have learned anything from the Obamacare debate, it is that disturbing the status quo in American health care carries significant downside political risk. Democrats were in that position in 2009; Republicans are now.

The GOP can't and shouldn't back off their promise to repeal Obamacare. But the party should re-double its commitment to do as much as it can to replace the law simultaneously with its repeal. At the prodding of President Donald Trump, congressional Republicans have been moving in this direction. It behooves the party as a policy and political matter to show that its legislation won't lead to millions of people losing their insurance and won't return to the pre-Obamacare status quo for people with pre-existing conditions.

With a consensus on replacement, Republicans would be much better equipped to push back at contentious town halls, and to potentially defuse at least some of the fear and anger engendered by their health-care agenda. The alternative is to look the other way, avoid town halls, and hope that after the repeal passes everything calms down. This was essentially the Democratic tack in 2009, and how did that work out?

comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

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Rich Lowry: Today's protests aren't the Tea Party yet - Salt Lake Tribune

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This broadcast is a part of the#OnPoint100 Day Spotlight.

Democrats take a page from the Tea Party, as grassroots resistance to President Trump grows. Well look at the movement.

There were plenty of digs at President Trump at last nights Grammy Awards. And A Tribe Called Quest full on chanting for resistance. But Hollywood doesnt win elections or stop policies people do. Right now a lot of Democrats are looking to what may seem an unlikely model: the Tea Party. It roared to life in opposition to Barack Obama. Now progressives are taking a Tea Party page to Donald Trump. Will it work for the left? This hour On Point, well ask them. And well ask the Tea Party. Tom Ashbrook

Ezra Levin, president of the board of Indivisible, a grassrootspolitical organization. Also author of the group's guide to resisting President Donald Trump's agenda. (@ezralevin)

John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation. (@NicholsUprising)

Vanessa Williamson, fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. Co-author, with Theda Skocpol, of the book, "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism." (@V_Williamson)

Taylor Budowich, executive director of the grassroots political organization, the Tea Party Express. (@taylorbudowich)

Associated Press:For Trump, a solitary start to life in the White House "Around 6:30 each evening, Secret Service agents gather in the dim hallways of the West Wing to escort Donald Trump home.For some presidents, the short walk between the Oval Office and the White House residence upstairs is a lifeline to family and a semblance of normal life. Others have used the grand residence for late night entertaining and deal-making with lawmakers. For Trump, life in the White House residence is so far a largely solitary existence."

New York Times: To Stop Trump, Democrats Can Learn From the Tea Party "The Tea Partys ideas were wrong, and their often racist rhetoric and physical threats were unacceptable. But they understood how to wield political power and made two critical strategic decisions. First, they organized locally, focusing on their own members of Congress. Second, they played defense, sticking together to aggressively resist anything with President Obamas support. With this playbook, they rattled our elected officials, targeting Democrats and Republicans alike."

POLITICO:Inside the protest movement that has Republicans reeling -- "The group isnt planning to limit itself to the town-hall resistance to repealing Obamacare that its becoming known for. Indivisible has marshaled demonstrations against Trumps Cabinet nominees and his immigration order, and its partnering with the organizers of the Jan. 21 Womens March for a new action next week."

This program aired on February 13, 2017.

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An Indivisible Democratic Tea Party - WBUR