Photo from Indivisible Springfield's Facebook Page
SPRINGFIELD – Though widely publicized leading up to the event, a disappointingly-small group gathered on the Illinois Capitol steps Saturday, weakly demanding US Congress start an investigation to impeach President Donald Trump.
The anti-Trump rally, attended by members of Illinois' Indivisible Team and the Resist Sisterhood, heard from keynote speaker Renato Mariotti, a CNN legal analyst and a 2018 Democratic candidate for Illinois attorney general.
“There is no question in my mind that if Trump was not the president of the United States, that he would be indicted and convicted for obstructing justice,” the State-Journal Register reports Mariotti said. “No doubt in my mind at all. And that is why I wrote, with a friend of mine, a letter and worked together with a lot of other folks and got over a thousand former federal prosecutors to sign a statement saying just that.”
Capitol police caused the protestors to move off the Capitol steps because they had not applied for a required permit.
Trump supporter Liz Eilers Bron defied the SJR's account, saying she counted only "14 people and a dog" at the rally. The differing accounts posed a quandry for Bron. "It's why people don't trust the media," she said on her Facebook page. "Hit and miss reporting … I was pleased with the article they ran Thursday about the local Trump Rally watch party. I guess it's article by article to be objective or biased."
Photo from Indivisible Springfield's Facebook Page
The rally organizers Indivisible put out a long email over the weekend to supporters, re-emphasizing their plan to oust Trump in 2020.
The Strategy – How We Beat Trump
We can’t afford to sit this primary out. As long as Trump remains in the Oval office, his policies, his cronies, and his ideals threaten millions of Americans. So here’s our 3-pronged plan to win:
Step 1: Weaken Trump.
Our victories in 2018 put us in a strong position to push back against the worst of the Trump agenda. In Congress and in our local groups, we’ll continue to defend against Trump’s attacks, particularly those targeting immigrants. Defunding hate in the upcoming budget in September is the biggest fight against Trump’s agenda of the year, and anti-immigrant attacks will be a key part of his strategy for 2020, so it’s a fight we have to win. We’ll also keep pushing back on Trump’s crimes, and demand Democrats in Congress begin impeachment investigations.
This step is already well underway. Now it’s time to double down on steps two and three…
Step 2: Pick the strongest nominee.
Together, we can ensure the primary candidates offer the strongest possible alternative vision to Trumpism, and that the ultimate nominee is a well-vetted, progressive candidate. Indivisibles (and presidential candidates) across the country have already set the tone by signing the Indivisible Pledge committing to a constructive primary and to support the ultimate nominee.
Indivisibles like you are the candidates’ core supporters, and their pillars for recruiting volunteers, building excitement, raising money, and generating earned media. The candidates know it – and we will leverage this power to get us closer to the best candidate and a more just democracy. We will embrace our grassroots and hyper-local model to grab candidate’s attention, demand answers, listen, and push. This will include tactics like:
🇺🇸Showing up and asking the hard questions: Attending candidate events, hearing from them directly through our nation-wide activist calls, and asking candidates directly to weigh in on issues that are important to you.
🇺🇸 Raising the issues that matter most, in public: We’ll explore ways to engage with candidates’ platforms through issue forums and grassroots mobilizations ahead of key statewide Democratic conventions.
🇺🇸 Mobilizing for a massive day of action: This part of the plan will culminate the weekend after the Democratic National Convention, July 18 and 19, 2020, where we’ll unite, rally behind the winner, and hit the pavement to beat Trump in 2020.
Step 3: Do the work to win.
After the primary, we all need to come together to knock doors, make calls and register voters.
We’ll unite a multi-racial grassroots movement behind the nominee — including people in the Rust Belt, the South, the West, and everywhere in between. It’s a monumental task, and it’s going to require a ton of work. This is the most important part of our strategy — and it’s the part that as Indivisibles, we already know how to do (see: 2018 🌊).
If we pull it off, together, we will beat Trump.
The Tools
This is not an exhaustive list, but we want to lay out the key tools it’ll take to pull off our plan.
🔨Mighty organizing support from our team: We're in the process of doubling our capacity in order to provide necessary support to groups and to organize and mobilize massive numbers of people via online and on the ground events.
🔨A brand-new, super-powerful tool for the movement: We’re preparing to roll out EveryAction to help our groups organize with both depth and scale that’s never been done before.
🔨Innovative digital and communications support: We’ve already hired two and are going to hire two more digital staff to propel massive online engagement state-by-state, provide email and text recruitment for events, and amplify campaigns via the press.
🔨Text messaging tools: Texting has rapidly become one of the best ways to get key information and tools into the hands of large numbers of existing activists quickly. We will continue to use texting to organize and mobilize volunteers and voters around important moments.
🔨Digital ads: Running ads across the web is our bread-and-butter to spread the word about key campaigns and actions to new people, so that they can join our movement. We’re going to need to bring thousands of new people in to help us elect the strongest Democratic candidate and oust Trump in 2020.
🔨Voter targeting software: VAN will allow people to canvass door-to-door using only a cell phone or tablet, call voters in the area, keep track of voters’ responses to questions, bring in new members to groups, and mobilize voters in the final days before the election.
The Indivisible email went on …
Our request (seriously, we can’t do any of this without you)
We’ve put countless hours into developing a plan that will really work. And it’s the most important effort we have ever undertaken together. But frankly, none of this work is cheap, and it’s work we can’t afford to skimp on. We’re setting an initial $80,000 goal (!!!) – which may sound steep, and it is. If we come even close, it’ll be a HUGE accomplishment. It’s important for us to try.
So, we’re asking you to chip in. We don’t take any money from corporations or political figures, which means everything we do is fueled by you, the movement:
Know of any pro-Trump groups organizing like this?
