I live in a red gerrymandered district in Texas and our representative is the sort of MAGA you would expect. What do folks think is the best message we can deliver to her to get her attention? Thanks.
pick a few topics that you care about, I try to stay with 2 max 3 on a given day, sometimes more extensively just on 1, and say what you think about them. you are registering your position to your elected representative.. If your rep is sending out newsletters you can always react to the newsletter also.
I make my calls as advised here. And then I wait for a written response from my MOC. Next, if it's an issue I feel strongly about, I write a letter to the editor highlighting the absurdity of the written response from my MOC. (This is always easy because the response is always absurd.) Readers can then see the stupidity and corruption in black-and-white. If your Congressional Representative doesn't write back, then you can always write a LTE saying they won't defend their position.
Called Senators Cortez Masto & Rosen to urge them to support the No Political Enemies (NOPE) Act, which Chris Murphy & some others are supporting to prevent the Trump/MAGA thought police from censoring individuals & organizations who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
IDK if we can post links here, but if so, this article is a good summary:
"The NOPE Act would extend protections to media outlets, political groups, nonprofits, and other organizations, stating that the president and federal agencies cannot 'weaponize' government power against those who disagree with an administration. It would also provide tools for people who believe they were wrongly targeted, such as meaningful access to evidence, correcting the imbalance of proof, and covering legal costs."
Report: I usually use Simon’s recommendations for what to say to my reps. But today the threat to our right to Free Speech is much on my mind. I contacted my reps to demand they push back on this with every tool available. And then to find new ways to push back even more. I told them that I believe their oath of office means a great deal to each of them (all Dem reps for me) and that this moment requires that they uphold it by dropping all pretense of business as usual and do everything they can to stop the attacks on the First Amendment.
I am also spreading Michael Fanone’s comments about political violence on my (meager) social media networks.
Simon, do you know if pollsters ever ask about corruption? I think the news this weekend really crystalizes this administration's corruption in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. A bag of cash is more clearly corrupt than some crypto scheme that allows another country to buy chips. Americans don't like corruption and we've long prided ourselves on being better than "those" other places that run on corruption. I think being anti-corruption is another way for Dems to make headway in red places: "You're having to struggle while the corrupt Trump administration is full of folks getting bags of cash in exchange for favors."
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to ask them to get louder about ICE.
I spent a few hours yesterday knocking on doors in Northern Virginia to get out the early vote for Spanberger and the rest of the Democratic ticket. The response was very positive - even the number of people who bothered to open their doors was much higher than usual and I heard a lot of enthusiasm to vote Dem this year. At this rate, we will bury the Repubs in VA come November.
You’re doing wonderful and important work – and clearly it’s getting results! So far, Virginia’s Early Vote is twice what it was in 2021! Here are fresh numbers, cumulative ballots cast 44 days before Election Day:
That's great, although in 2021, Rs were still very unwilling to vote early. VA Rs have worked hard over the past few years to encourage their voters to vote early, just not by mail. So some of that increase could be Rs who are now voting early but wouldn't have done so in 2021.
I called Senator Cruz and thanked him for speaking up for free speech. I also urged him to take back responsibility for tariffs and to stop the rampage of ICE detentions. I also called Cornyn and urged the same. Of course, he is crickets about free speech.
I sent an email to TX Democratic Chair, Kendall Scudder, inviting him to speak at our November Democratic meeting in San Antonio. People need to meet him and hear his passion for GOTV and what he plans to do to invite young voters to counteract the right wing influencers.
Great idea to share your thoughts on tariffs and ICE while you had Cruz on the phone to thank him about free speech. Little cracks become bigger cracks, so you never know. Hopefully many of your fellow Texans are also contacting him.
thank you for the budget process context. wish the elected dems would spell it out like it is. who knew? the largest economy on earth can not produce an annual budget? there is a budget dept who's only job is to produce the budget. isn't this a priority in every government? to produce, negotiate and pass a budget bill??? this is a national embarassment. and then to just jam it down our throats? this story needs to be told in full. americans need to understand this is not a budget bill, that no budget has been produced by satan, this is just a continuation because repubs cant bother to prepare a budget?? shocking!
I agree that we need to call our electeds both to expand the demands for negotiations, as Simon calls for, and to demand they share those demands with the public. I've heard Hakeem Jeffries several times and he appears solely concerned with health initiatives, ACA, SNAP and Medicaid. No mention of really anything else.
The Senate is doing a little better, including tariff control and budget guarantees. But no mention of ICE, or NIH or Ukraine or Epstein or the fact that GOP never even passed a budget for 2024-25.
I think the Democrats should stay in Washington this week, since the GOP went home and make group announcements on all these issues. They would have the bully pulpit with no one to counter them. Not unlike what Trump did in the August recess. Turn the tables in the coming 10 days.
Simon’s list of demands for Democratic support on the CR are spot on. As for health care subsidies, I hate to say this, but people got to feel the pain to their pocketbooks before the next election in ‘26. Maybe that’s what it will take to get people off their duffs and into the voting booth. As I recall it was opposition to the ACA that swept in the Tea Party types in 2010.
I have called both of my senators and my representative today. Left messages for senators, but did talk to a staff person in representative's office. Fortunately, all three are active democrats who will do what they can to address these issues.
Very grateful for DNC Chair Ken Martin coming to Canton, GA, in (formerly) deep red Cherokee County to show his support (on Saturday) for Democratic candidate Debra Shigley who will face the challenger, Jason Dickerson, in the runoff tomorrow, Sept 23. Shigley has been doing very well and for me, is a VERY exciting candidate. State senate seat for District 21. (Not mine, unfortunately, but a critical area for Senator Ossoff.
Her win would send shock waves through the state. Georgia apples are starting to show up, and I've got some terrific wild Georgia honey to go with them.
I saw that on IG! I'm 60+ miles south of ATL with only R's/MAGA's ever representing our state districts, so I have only partially paid attention to details of this race, but it will be sweet if she can win! Yes, that will be a critical area for Ossoff to win since it is metro ATL now.
Every word you say is true, but no time should pass between reminders of the Epstein files that the GOP won't release and the wounds from Musk's chainsaw. Photos of Musk and Epstein are often more effective than alarming statistics.
We saw Musk sitting with Trump for a little while yesterday, so let's use it.
I live in a red gerrymandered district in Texas and our representative is the sort of MAGA you would expect. What do folks think is the best message we can deliver to her to get her attention? Thanks.
I’d go with “this isn’t working, you need to change course.”
pick a few topics that you care about, I try to stay with 2 max 3 on a given day, sometimes more extensively just on 1, and say what you think about them. you are registering your position to your elected representative.. If your rep is sending out newsletters you can always react to the newsletter also.
I make my calls as advised here. And then I wait for a written response from my MOC. Next, if it's an issue I feel strongly about, I write a letter to the editor highlighting the absurdity of the written response from my MOC. (This is always easy because the response is always absurd.) Readers can then see the stupidity and corruption in black-and-white. If your Congressional Representative doesn't write back, then you can always write a LTE saying they won't defend their position.
Please define “fight back.”
I think the post is full of ideas on how to fight them.....
Plenty of additional ideas and actions in the comments here, too, and every day!
Called Senators Cortez Masto & Rosen to urge them to support the No Political Enemies (NOPE) Act, which Chris Murphy & some others are supporting to prevent the Trump/MAGA thought police from censoring individuals & organizations who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
IDK if we can post links here, but if so, this article is a good summary:
"The NOPE Act would extend protections to media outlets, political groups, nonprofits, and other organizations, stating that the president and federal agencies cannot 'weaponize' government power against those who disagree with an administration. It would also provide tools for people who believe they were wrongly targeted, such as meaningful access to evidence, correcting the imbalance of proof, and covering legal costs."
Let's get it done!
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/democratic-leaders-introduce-nope-act-after-jimmy-kimmels-suspension-sparks-free-speech-debate/509-b073cb56-11d3-4c40-b67d-13e7baa18b2d
Thank you Simon
Thanks for the list of issues.
There is such a long one, it'a getting hard to remember them all.
What a horrible mess he and his nazi zombies have made.
Report: I usually use Simon’s recommendations for what to say to my reps. But today the threat to our right to Free Speech is much on my mind. I contacted my reps to demand they push back on this with every tool available. And then to find new ways to push back even more. I told them that I believe their oath of office means a great deal to each of them (all Dem reps for me) and that this moment requires that they uphold it by dropping all pretense of business as usual and do everything they can to stop the attacks on the First Amendment.
I am also spreading Michael Fanone’s comments about political violence on my (meager) social media networks.
Happy Autumn!
Simon, do you know if pollsters ever ask about corruption? I think the news this weekend really crystalizes this administration's corruption in a way that's easy for everyone to understand. A bag of cash is more clearly corrupt than some crypto scheme that allows another country to buy chips. Americans don't like corruption and we've long prided ourselves on being better than "those" other places that run on corruption. I think being anti-corruption is another way for Dems to make headway in red places: "You're having to struggle while the corrupt Trump administration is full of folks getting bags of cash in exchange for favors."
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to ask them to get louder about ICE.
I spent a few hours yesterday knocking on doors in Northern Virginia to get out the early vote for Spanberger and the rest of the Democratic ticket. The response was very positive - even the number of people who bothered to open their doors was much higher than usual and I heard a lot of enthusiasm to vote Dem this year. At this rate, we will bury the Repubs in VA come November.
You’re doing wonderful and important work – and clearly it’s getting results! So far, Virginia’s Early Vote is twice what it was in 2021! Here are fresh numbers, cumulative ballots cast 44 days before Election Day:
2025 – 34,197
2021 – 16,437
https://www.vpap.org/elections/early-voting/2025-november-general-election/
That's gotta be a good sign.
That's great, although in 2021, Rs were still very unwilling to vote early. VA Rs have worked hard over the past few years to encourage their voters to vote early, just not by mail. So some of that increase could be Rs who are now voting early but wouldn't have done so in 2021.
This is wonderful news at this time of year!
Self report -just signed up for training to be a Yes on 50 texter by clicking on the link in the post above
It also includes other ways to be involved other than texting
I called Senator Cruz and thanked him for speaking up for free speech. I also urged him to take back responsibility for tariffs and to stop the rampage of ICE detentions. I also called Cornyn and urged the same. Of course, he is crickets about free speech.
I sent an email to TX Democratic Chair, Kendall Scudder, inviting him to speak at our November Democratic meeting in San Antonio. People need to meet him and hear his passion for GOTV and what he plans to do to invite young voters to counteract the right wing influencers.
Great idea to share your thoughts on tariffs and ICE while you had Cruz on the phone to thank him about free speech. Little cracks become bigger cracks, so you never know. Hopefully many of your fellow Texans are also contacting him.
Thank you for calling Cruz, although I think it is just talk until he takes action.
Way to be proactive in calling the TX Chair. Great work!!!
I also called Cruz to say “good job, kinda” last week. I also told Cornyn he should be more like Ted in that ONE regard lol
So, it's BIDENS budget? Love it.
IKR. I didn't even realize this.
That's actually pretty hilarious! Wish I had the skills to make some cutting memes about that and spread them around...
Biden's budget, but Trump has refused to spend a good deal of it in the way Congress designated. He has perverted the budget.
thank you for the budget process context. wish the elected dems would spell it out like it is. who knew? the largest economy on earth can not produce an annual budget? there is a budget dept who's only job is to produce the budget. isn't this a priority in every government? to produce, negotiate and pass a budget bill??? this is a national embarassment. and then to just jam it down our throats? this story needs to be told in full. americans need to understand this is not a budget bill, that no budget has been produced by satan, this is just a continuation because repubs cant bother to prepare a budget?? shocking!
My 2 GA Senators are getting the word out.
Yeah--both Warnock and Ossoff are great!
I agree that we need to call our electeds both to expand the demands for negotiations, as Simon calls for, and to demand they share those demands with the public. I've heard Hakeem Jeffries several times and he appears solely concerned with health initiatives, ACA, SNAP and Medicaid. No mention of really anything else.
The Senate is doing a little better, including tariff control and budget guarantees. But no mention of ICE, or NIH or Ukraine or Epstein or the fact that GOP never even passed a budget for 2024-25.
I think the Democrats should stay in Washington this week, since the GOP went home and make group announcements on all these issues. They would have the bully pulpit with no one to counter them. Not unlike what Trump did in the August recess. Turn the tables in the coming 10 days.
Man, that would be smart.
Simon’s list of demands for Democratic support on the CR are spot on. As for health care subsidies, I hate to say this, but people got to feel the pain to their pocketbooks before the next election in ‘26. Maybe that’s what it will take to get people off their duffs and into the voting booth. As I recall it was opposition to the ACA that swept in the Tea Party types in 2010.
I have called both of my senators and my representative today. Left messages for senators, but did talk to a staff person in representative's office. Fortunately, all three are active democrats who will do what they can to address these issues.
Very grateful for DNC Chair Ken Martin coming to Canton, GA, in (formerly) deep red Cherokee County to show his support (on Saturday) for Democratic candidate Debra Shigley who will face the challenger, Jason Dickerson, in the runoff tomorrow, Sept 23. Shigley has been doing very well and for me, is a VERY exciting candidate. State senate seat for District 21. (Not mine, unfortunately, but a critical area for Senator Ossoff.
Her win would send shock waves through the state. Georgia apples are starting to show up, and I've got some terrific wild Georgia honey to go with them.
I saw that on IG! I'm 60+ miles south of ATL with only R's/MAGA's ever representing our state districts, so I have only partially paid attention to details of this race, but it will be sweet if she can win! Yes, that will be a critical area for Ossoff to win since it is metro ATL now.
Every word you say is true, but no time should pass between reminders of the Epstein files that the GOP won't release and the wounds from Musk's chainsaw. Photos of Musk and Epstein are often more effective than alarming statistics.
We saw Musk sitting with Trump for a little while yesterday, so let's use it.
A virtual smorgasbord of outrages. It's hard to know where to start.
If you can post a link to the photo/video, I'm sure Hopiumites will be happy to share it!
Somehow the link copied from a news service won't paste here, but a search for "photo of Musk and Trump 9/21/25" will turn up more than you want.
Thanks for the link and letting us know they were together! And we all thought they didn't love each other anymore! 😂
Great idea to remind everyone of Musk's role in dismantling the government as the newscycle has moved on from that.
Thanks for the feedback. Post early and often, especially if you can do trickier stuff than Twitter and Facebook!
Gift article NYT with a pic of the cozy destruction duo.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/us/politics/trump-musk-kirk-memorial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n08.GeKo.sQe7A4Xwwa2L&smid=url-share