The Chaos Caucus's First Days: Republicans Create Narrative. Media Regurgitates.
Our task: Focus on building political power. Period.
Friends, welcome to the new reality, where the Chaos Caucus disinformation is given a bigger megaphone because of Republicans’ slim majority in the House, and of course, because the chaos they cause is irresistible to the mainstream media. As we know, media 1) twists itself into pretzels to prove it doesn’t have a liberal bias. 2) is motivated by clicks over truth, 3) is owned by big corporations with a profit motive.
Our job.
1. Reframe the narrative to protect our freedoms
2. Amplify to “regular” people (who aren’t on Twitter, maybe aren’t on Facebook, and think that politics “isn’t for them”).
What do we know from the early days of Republican “control” of the House?
Chaos Caucus cares more about creating a media narrative than actually governing (which they have no intention of doing). Obviously, none of the bills below will get past the Senate or signed into law by Biden. BUT, they’re more about the false headlines than actually governing.
We need to reframe all of these stories for regular people out there who aren’t as engaged as we are.
Day 1. Bill to stop the hiring of IRS agents over the next 10 years to catch tax cheats and tax evaders. Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader said, “to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, benefit millionaires and billionaires. Not working-class families, not middle-class families, not low-income families, not veterans, not everyday Americans, the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected.”
Day 2. Select committee on “insurrection protection.” This committee, the Chaos Caucus insisted, has the power to influence ACTIVE investigations by the DOJ, which is a very big no-no for the rule of law. The point was to be able to identify when these Congresscritters are under investigation and stymie the DOJ. I would not expect the DOJ to play ball here, but nevertheless, file this under “When they tell you who they are, believe them.” Remember, most of these Reps denied that Biden won the election, interfered in the peaceful transfer of power, and some even ASKED FOR PARDONS (which is considered evidence of guilt).
Day 3. Measure to criminalize abortion nationwide. As those of you from Indiana and other states who have passed abortion bans know, these bans are government mandated forced pregnancies. They are meant to keep women economically dependent, unable to fully participate in the workforce, and in some cases, a sure death sentence for women whose pregnancies have gone catastrophically wrong.
What do we do?
Our main task, as people who care about democracy and the lives of other human beings, is to unveil the motivations of these reactionary right wing loonies who presently have a lot of political power. We can do this on social media, but most importantly we need to be talking to our circle off of social media.
The other thing we can do is to put our focus into building political power in places pro-democracy forces have lost it, and shore it up in places where it is vulnerable.
How do we build political power?
Several states have done a phenomenal job building political power in the face of reactionary opposition, and we saw this bear fruit in the midterm elections: pro-democracy forces were able to win in places where pro-democracy organizers have been working for years: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia, and other places.
Our organization, Hoosier Victory Alliance, will be doing that in Indiana. It may seem hopeless at the moment, but we’ve got to start at the beginning and over time we’ll be able to turn the tide, because Hoosiers aren’t nearly as extreme as their unaccountable representatives.
We’ve got a plan, and we’ll be rolling out invitations to help organize in the next couple of weeks.
Our ask.
If you’re in a truly Blue state, or in a state that has already shored up democratic power, please adopt Indiana or another Red state where hard working activists are trying to build power.
To adopt Indiana, please consider:
Donating a small amount on a repeating basis to enable us to stand up a Blue Indiana chapter…where we crowdfund candidates to contest every single state representative office and not just give away power by not even running a candidate.
Coming to our organizational meetings (more to come!) and becoming a donor organizer, where you work with your network to collect small donations that add up to more so we can build an organization to do proper voter research, build coalitions of activists, and support campaigns with people to help run them to free candidates to meet voters, which is their true purpose.
Thinking about your real-world skills and how you can apply them to build power in Indiana.
If you’ve got a lot of money to invest in a state that’s starting from scratch, please contact me—we can talk individually about how we plan to move forward, and I can give you a detailed view of what we’re planning to do to organize full time, not just around specific elections.
Stuff to Consume:
Look for our upcoming podcast What the Gerrymander? I’ll let you know when it’s available for subscriptions, but it’s not too far away now. In the meantime, if you’re interested in political entrepreneurs and the latest and greatest tools and techniques for activists, The Great Battlefield podcast is replete with activists and entrepreneurs doing exciting things to build political power. Every time I listen, I get new ideas on things to implement in Indiana.
To defeat Trumpism, stop letting MAGA stunts drive the debate. Read this article in the Washington Post by Greg Sargent about how Dems need to stop the Chaos Caucus from setting the terms of the narrative.
Indiana Insights:
Arielle Brandy, President of Indiana Young Dems, provided analysis on Governor Holcolmb’s State of the State last week. Here’s a video of the State of the State and analysis following it.
Matt McNally, Indiana State Legislator, has a new podcast, “Session Sessions.” He discusses with other legislators what’s gone on during the week in the statehouse. Listen here.
Thank you for reading this and thinking about how we can build political power for democracy in Indiana!