According to Ballotopedia by 1 July both Houses of Congress will on recess until 12 July. It is the perfect time to get your family, friends, acquaintances, unsuspecting strangers on the bus, and Indivisible group members together and go visit them in their offices and townhall meetings.
No one needs to be reminded of the threat that our democracy is facing as the Republican Party makes a nakedly aggressive move to impose such grievous voting restrictions upon us so as to render us a single-party pseudo-democratic minority-rule autocracy. If they succeed in gerrymandering and voter suppressing their way to a House, Senate, or Congressional majority in the 2022 elections they will be trying to impose the same restrictions on a national level.
It is imperative that all members of our electorate become in formed about the For the People Act and communicate to their Members of Congress their support for voting rights even if it means modifying or abolishing the filibuster. The recent partyline vote in the Senate that would bring the bill to the floor for debate shows that they are faithless negotiators simply wasting time.
Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and the party leaders of both Houses have made it abundantly clear that they do not intend to allow a single Democratic sponsored piece of legislation to pass if they can help it. We've given them six months and ample opportunity to demonstrate that there are ten Republican senators who would be willing to vote to end a filibuster on any of the major Democratic bills. There aren't. It is time for Democrats to go it alone.
Follow these steps to organize a visit to YOUR Member of Congress's office or townhall between now and 12 July.
See if there is an Indivisible event near you.
Contact your member's office to get a copy of their recess schedule. Use The Call Your Members of Congress Kit to find their contact information.
Canvass your friends and family to see who is willing to visit their office or townhall.
Together develop a plan for what to do in your visit. At a minimum you should (a) record your visit from beginning to end, (b) contact your local media outlets to let them know you'll be there because they frequently will cover these visits if they are large enough or splashy enough or its a slow news day, (c) write a script for communicating your main points, and (d) figure some cute harmless stunt to make your visit memorable, think baking cupcakes with your point-of-view written on the bottom of the box so it is revealed as they are eaten or making a giant card or covering their door with pre-written sticky notes with your request. Something that is harmless but photogenic and communicates your views.
Know your Member of Congress. Indivisible advises that their are five types: leadership, progressive, moderate, conservative, Republican. Use their guide to help you develop effect messages to pressure each one into supporting the For the People Act.
Execute! Execute! Execute!
Check The Call Your Members of Congress Kit for other things you can do like writing letters to the editor at your local paper or their websites, writing follow-up postcards, orchestrating a social media video messaging campaign.
And, let us know how you are helping preserve our democracy in the comments and in our forum. We'll need everyone of us to contribute to this effort if we are to continue to be a viable republic.