The crazy wild momentum this week continues.
I wanted to write a thoughtful post today on how I’ve had this vision for years of navigating a crazy time of transformation and yet that we would survive it and get ourselves to a better place on the other side.
Honestly I think we’re still kind of in the beginning of all that, but what’s changed this week is now we can see a path to a different future. Only there’s just so much sudden momentum so this post is mostly about that instead.
I don’t know what we were doing before this change that happened Sunday when President Biden decided to step back from the campaign.
Were we just waiting for fascism? Plodding into dystopia? Wading into quicksand?
Anyway… whatever it’s been that’s kept everyone quiet and disengaged seems to have broken through like the Hoover Dam breaking and we are off rushing forward everywhere and into everything like how floodwater does. Probably I should stop with my disaster metaphors (yesterday it was wildfire), except that floodwater is one of the most powerful forces in nature, hands-down. Not super catchy but still powerful. And transformative.
What’s changed this week is that everything about politics — which has been turned on its head since 2015 — got turned on its head again.
ONLY THIS TIME IT’S THE DEMOCRATS.
They’re finally catching up, y’all!!!! And blowing right on by those other guys! It’s happening!
For one example, here’s VP Harris’s press release in reaction to Trump, going viral. Here’s another example where the Harris campaign uses a video of Trump’s own words about him being a felon and her being a prosecutor where VP Harris adds “I approve this message.”
But there are a zillion examples. The momentum persists. It grows.
Yesterday I was on a Zoom call for white women to rally support and some serious money after Sunday’s spontaneous Black Women for Harris Zoom and then a South Asian Women for Harris Zoom on Wednesday.
I stuck the YouTube below from on yesterday’s Zoom which reportedly had 170,000 people on it. Zoom has been working to handle these enormous calls this week, but the hosts said during the call that people past the first 100,000 had to catch it live on YouTube.
Highlights! My second-favourite Zoom speaker in terms of the message was Pink (toward the beginning), who joined from her jet like you do. Incredibly eloquent.
My favourite in terms of message was Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow (she went viral a few years back for speaking out against hateful attacks as a white, straight Christian legislator). She starts at 51:15 in this video and gave what she called an a$$-kicking message to white women specifically to stand up and fight. Here’s some:
“This is not the time for us to start a book club. (52:00) This is not the time for us to… learn a bunch of things that, frankly, we should have learned decades ago. This is a time for us to act, every single day for the next 102 days.”
She added, “I’m going to level some uncomfortable truths. A lot of people when they get into this work, they want to do the easy thing. I am reporting in from one of those battleground states right here in Michigan. Nobody here is going to be convinced if they get a postcard in the mail from a stranger in California.”
She went on to say, “You have to talk to people you know. I know that is one of the scariest, most uncomfortable things you can do.” She then suggested that you have an incredible social network of people you know, and that you can talk to those people. Real, deep, sometimes-uncomfortable connection is critical to all of this transformation (it’s our Thing 1). It’s essential to reaching more voters.
Here are some of our action ideas on top of the traditional organizing stuff:
Here’s the whole video from last night:
MSNBC is literally reporting live as I type this that last night’s Zoom effort brought in $8 million.
Monday the same group is hosting a call for all women. Lord have mercy but I can’t imagine how many people are going to join that one. Zoom is no doubt reinventing itself over the weekend to be ready, which is pretty cool. Technology can evolve pretty fast in times of great change and pressure.
Who would have thought we’d be doing Zooms this campaign season with hundreds of thousands of people?
What else will we be doing that we haven’t imagined yet?
These big Zooms have been focused on inspiration, political organizing actions you can take, and bringing in campaign funds. It’s pretty great to see, but we definitely need more than just big money moving.
We need the whole population moving and getting engaged.
We need to get all Americans fired up. We’re not going to get everyone fired up and voting with phone banks and canvassing. We need more.
There are so many ideas! Check out these ways to get folks engaged —
It’s 39 ideas you or your groups could try.
Share it on social media! Get the word out!
Also here’s a guide for doing these ideas… like the things to think about when you’re putting activities together. Sometimes you need it (like holding a rally), and sometimes you don’t (like getting people together at a coffee shop).
This organization is focused on getting the word out about this stuff. It’s a recipe for how to do deeper, systemic change in zillions of ways and zillions of places when we got lots of people doing stuff. It doesn’t have to be hard.
In fact, the momentum is started for doing big, huge transformational things. This nonprofit has a way to grow and expand that into a veritable phenomenon.
We are facing huge things — not just fascism, but also climate change and possibly even another pandemic (bird flu is not looking good). We can survive this stuff. We’ll do it better and we’ll come out better on the other side if we start doing more things with more people now… in all the places.
We can.
And look at that! I’d wanted to write about how we can reach some long-term vision of a different future where this country is more equitable, resilient, and sustainable, resilient… and I accidentally kind of wrote that post anyway.
This nonprofit is doing briefings, training, and coaching for people and groups who want to use this stuff to make big shift happen. Let us know what we can help you with. Book an appointment to talk. Email team@shiftthecountry.com. Call (515) 375-9027.
And we’re fundraising too! Of course we’re not bringing in 170,000 people and $8 when we do stuff, but we’re not running the most badass presidential campaign in history either. And this is week 1 of that!
What we’re doing is helping all this momentum be bigger. Help us make that shift happen.
What else will we be doing that we haven’t imagined yet?
Let’s imagine greatly.
Let’s make more history.
Keep your wits about you. We’re all going to need it. This is going to be absolutely wild and unbelievable — we’re only seeing the beginnings.
And please share our stuff wherever you can!
Vanessa Burnett is the Executive Director of Shift the Country, a unique nonprofit set up to drive civic engagement, public pressure, and voter turnout to create a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable democracy. Vanessa is a former homeland security professional with 25+ years experience in resilience, big disasters, wildland fire, emergency management, land management, continuity of operations, and disaster information sharing.
A few days ago I got something I've never gotten from the official Democratic Party before: a request to volunteer. Smaller groups have asked me, but never the campaign.
It came with times I could log in to make calls. Maybe it's because the technology really progressed during COVID, but it was very well organized. I don't even have to leave my home. I'm impressed.
THIS is how to build the Party base. You get people working. Better yet, you get them talking to other people and forming social bonds.
I remember my conversations with you about our frustrations with the Democrats, especially never supporting local groups. I'm hopeful. Something seems to have clicked with at least some of them.