Turning Your Facebook Rants Into Tangible Civic Action: A Beginner’s Guide
The Wellstone Organizing Triangle: All three areas are connected
● Public Policy without Community Organizing and Electoral politics is just a set of ideas, isolated from any ability to be enacted.
● Community organizing absent policy is directionless, and organizing without electoral politics cedes one of the most important arenas of power to other leaders.
● Electoral politics without a clear agenda for the future quickly becomes a cynical competition that’s focused only on winning, and politics without community organizing lacks accountability and focus.
At the epicenter of these three components is leadership. That’s YOU .
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY DO: - Call your MOCs at ALL their office locations (https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact) - Send handwritten letters - Write Letters to the Editors and Op-eds - Set up in-person lobby visits Don’t: - Use spam-bots - Call or email MOCs who aren't yours
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: ● Calling and writing Letters to your MOCs are always good actions to take, however, they are not the most effective tool in your citizen toolbox. ● The BEST way to make sure your MOCs hear your concerns is to write a letter to the editor (LTE) of your local newspaper. ● Each MOC has at least one staffer whose job it is to read every published article with their boss’s name in it, and report back to the MOC the general image that is being projected of them by the press. ● LTEs with your MOC’s names in them are virtually guaranteed to be read and taken into consideration
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: Below is an easy guide to writing and submitting an LTE on any issue that concerns you. It takes 15 minutes and is about as easy to write as an angry facebook post -Keep it around 250 words - Most Newspapers will have a link to submit letters under their opinions tab or on their LTEs page. If yours doesn’t have a link, email your letter to the editor. The editor’s e-mail can usually be found in the “contact us” section. - The following outline is just a suggestion. If you have already written something on the issue (on facebook, for a blog post, ect.) feel free to send that in instead! Just make sure to tack on the information in the paragraph 3 section of the LTE outline at the end. - If you’re an expert on the topic at hand (for instance, a Latin American Studies professor wishing to talk about the immigration crisis), consider writing an op-ed instead. These are longer and generally require contacting the newspaper beforehand to “pitch” your article.
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: LTE Outline: Title: Should mention your MOC by name, as well as the issue you are advocating for. Example: “Letter To the Editor: Senator Cornyn, put Texans before politics and support the Bridge Act”
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: LTE Outline: Paragraph 1: Explain your issue and give a little background in 2 or 3 sentences. Use the last sentence to call out your MOC for not supporting (if talking about good bill/action) or supporting (if talking about bad bill/action) Example: ● The BRIDGE Act is an important piece of bipartisan legislation that would… (explain what it would do in 2–3 sentences) ● Final Sentence (call out your MOC): The bill has strong bi-partisan support with co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle — but one very important name is missing from the list of republican co-sponsors: Senator John Cornyn. Cornyn has taken a moderate approach to immigration in the past, often favoring reforms. Why has he fallen silent now?
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: LTE Outline: Paragraph 2: In 3–4 sentences, explain your personal connection to the issue. Why is this important to YOU? Why is it important to YOUR community? Example: ● As the proud daughter of an immigrant, I am especially heartbroken by the anti-immigrant rhetoric that (MOC) has been engaging in….. AND/OR ● Here in the Coastal Bend, a mere 90 minutes from the border, this issue is particularly important, because……
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY Print Media isn’t Dead: The Power of Letters to the Editor: LTE Outline: Paragraph three: Call to action — urge readers to make their voices heard. Tell them to contact their MOC about the issue and include the MOCs phone number and the address of their In-district office (do not use the phone number and address of their D.C. office). If you are writing about a Senator rather than a House Rep, include the phone number and address of the in-district office nearest to you (Senators in large states often have multiple regional offices across the state). The in-district staff is generally more concerned with constituent concerns than the D.C. staff, and if more likely to prioritize your requests. Your MOC’s district offices and their phone numbers can usually be found on the “Contact” section of their website. Example: We must come together and urge Senator Cornyn to stand up and co-sponsor the Bridge Act. This is a human issue, not a political one. Senator Cornyn has a regional South Texas office at 222 East Van Buren, Suite 404, Harlingen, TX 78550. They can be reached at 956–423–0162. Call and let him know why the Bridge Act matters to you!
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY YOU can be a Lobbyist: ● Lobbyists have all the power in Washington right? ● So if you can’t beat them… ● A lobbyist is just someone who meets with an elected official to discuss an issue that matters to them. ● You can have a lobby visit with your MOC’s in-district staff (this is GREAT) or with your MOC in person during the congressional recesses. ● If you want to get on the calendar in either scenario, you should lobby with a group. ● 4-8 people are ideal - too few people and the staffer will not feel the meeting is worth their time, too many and it starts to feel like a sit in/ protest ● To set up a meeting for your group with in-district office staff - simply call and ask for one. Then call again. And again. And again…. ● To set up an in-person meeting with your MOC and your group during a congressional recess, call your MOC’s office at least 3 months before the congressional recess in question, and KEEP CALLING until you’re on the calendar
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: PUBLIC POLICY YOU can be a Lobbyist: ● Lobbying is EFFECTIVE ● Public Policy research has shown that voting behavior typically starts to change after an MOC receives just 9 lobby visits on a particular issue/piece of legislation ● Leave the statistics at home - this is your chance to connect with your representative on a human level ● Tell YOUR story (storytelling exercise at end of presentation) ● More information on citizen lobbying: https://www.fcnl.org/updates/how-to-meet-with-congress-19
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: Community Organizing ● Coalition Building around an issue (Ex. For The Greater Good, Corpus Christi Immigration Coalition) ● Mobilizing groups of people to provide needed community services (Ex. Black Panthers and childcare, Tacos not Bombs) ● Protests and Direct Actions (Ex. The ADAPT protests that saved the ACA) All of these things require us to MOBILIZE groups of people to action, not just change one person (elected official’s) mind
TANGIBLE CIVIC ACTION: Electoral Politics ● Voter Registration Drives ● Getting out the vote for candidates you care about ● Grassroots fundraising for candidates you care about All of these things require us to MOBILIZE groups of people to action, not just change one person (elected official’s) mind
Each of us has a story to tell Public narrative is a practice of leadership
My Story: I should be dead
Some Emotions Inhibit action, but others facilitate it
The three key elements of storytelling structure: Challenge — Choice — Outcome
If you’re having trouble getting started, here are some factors that may have contributed to your current choice to take leadership on your issue: Family and childhood Life choices Career experiences
The substance of these ideas can extend to storytelling through other communications processes as well--- through lobby visits, email blasts, blog posts, online social media, even through the campaign itself, making your campaign the vehicle for telling and creating a collective story.
Your Turn! 5 min- Write your story 10 min- share your story with a partner and give feedback (five min each)
Your story matters So does what you do with it
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has” - Margaret Mead
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