By Jim Heffernan
I was attracted to this book because of my involvement with the local “Indivisible” group. I just go to meetings, but I find they’re very popular and they always have good cookies.
This book was published in 2019 and is an outgrowth of immensely popular “Indivisible Guide”* published online in 2016. Both are devoted to resistance to the forces that are dedicated to taking power from the people, us.
The authors, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin are married and met in Washington D.C. when they were both Congressional staffers, she for a Virginia congressman and he for a Texas congressman. They began by organizing protests against those who wanted to end “Obamacare” and now they are now co-directors for a national organization with thousands of local chapters.
I think the book was intended to be a postscript to the first Trump administration, but events have made it resonate with our present-day political climate.
The book is divided into 2 sections containing 5 chapters and 19 lessons. The sections are “What Are We Up Against” and “How Do We Win”. I found it to be a well written book that held my interest. I might be biased in that returning power to the people is something I fervently advocate every chance I get.
The 19 lessons are case studies that talk about how issues were dealt with by indivisible groups across the nation. The book includes and impressive amount of history and background about how we arrived at this point. I also liked their clear-eyed proposals about what is needed to cure our democracy. It all begins and ends with fervent civic involvement.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction that touches on our most important need at this moment, “building a new America together.”
“You’re worried about American democracy. You know that it’s under threat from Donald Trump and his enablers. Maybe you’ve marched, or called your member of Congress, or volunteered for a campaign. Maybe you’ve heard about this “Indivisible” movement or even been part of leading it in your own community. Maybe you haven’t done any of that. Maybe you don’t yet know what to do or how to get involved. But you know some thing is very wrong with American politics and you want to be part of making it right.
We’re with you, and this book explains how we can do this work together.
We believe the next few years will determine whether we have a truly inclusive democratic America, or some thing else-a continued descent into racist authoritarianism. We believe the only way to avoid that “something else” is to create a broad and lasting movement devoted to fixing our broken democratic norms and institutions. And we know we’ll only win this fight if people all over the country understand the threats to our democracy, and how they can be part of saving it.”
And here’s a excerpt from page 306:
“This is the challenge for all of us fighting for an inclusive democracy in America. We will not save democracy by defeating Trump. We will not save democracy by winning any individual election. We will not save democracy by defeating one bad bill or by implementing one good reform.
We will save democracy by standing together in communities across the country and demanding that the system bend to the will of the people-all the people. We’ll do this by working across lines of difference. We’ll do this by organizing ourselves and partnering with others. We’ll do this by leading and by following.”
So I invite you all to gather this April 5 at noon at the Veteran’s Pavilion at 1st and Main in Tillamook for a Indivisible event protesting the lack of resistance by the minority leadership in Washington. Power begins when we form ourselves into groups and let our feelings be known. The power evaporates when we fail to vote.
362 pages, (50+ acknowledgements and notes), published Nov 5, 2019, Available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore and Tillamook County Library
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com
I do not exercise copyright. Feel free to share.
*”The Indivisible Guide” is a 27 page PDF that summarizes the ideas of the book and is available at https://indivisible.org/resource/guide
If link doesn’t work for you, ask me at codger817@gmail.com and I’ll e-mail it to you.
