Tag Archives: Hoosiers 4 Democracy

When They Decline To Face The Music

The Trump/Musk administration has been in power for a mere two months, and during that time we’ve been treated to a firehose of destruction and illegality. Two months isn’t much time for people to begin recognizing the threats to their lives, their finances and their wellbeing posed by these insane incursions. Most people have busy daily lives–family to care for, jobs to do, obligations to meet….the would-be autocrats wreaking havoc with our lives have undoubtedly been counting on those distractions to delay resistance to their wrecking ball.

Meanwhile, the GOP cowards in Congress who have obediently bent the knee to those autocrats have decided to avoid face-to-face confrontations with We the People who elected them. However, as awareness and resistance have gained momentum, local organizations have decided to hold Town Halls anyway.

Hoosiers4Democracy and Central Indiana Indivisible will each hold an “empty chair” Town Hall at Broadway Methodist Church during the Congressional Recess.

Indivisible of Central Indiana has tried for the past few weeks to obtain an agreement from Senator Young to attend a Town Hall– without success. Accordingly, that organization will hold an “Empty Chair” Town Hall on Wednesday, March 19th, at Broadway United Methodist Church. Hoosiers will be able to address an empty chair (an emptiness that will signify not only Senator Young’s unwillingness to face his constituents, but the appalling emptiness/non-existence of his backbone in the face of Trump’s assaults on constitutional governance.) That event will also feature brief introductory presentations on the dire consequences of various elements of the Trump/Musk assault. (Yours truly will address the constitutional issues–others will explain assaults on Medicaid, etc.)

The Indivisible Town Hall will be held from 6:00 to 8:00, and registration will be required (they anticipate a large turnout, and while the sanctuary is spacious, space is still limited). You can access the Mobilize link here to register.

Hoosiers 4 Democracy will sponsor the second of those events. Here is the information provided by H4D:

Congress will be in recess from March 15-23, when representatives typically return home to engage with constituents. However, despite our repeated efforts, we have not received confirmation of any town halls hosted by Senators Jim Banks or Todd Young.  There is a possibility that Representative Victoria Spartz will hold an event in Muncie, but that has not been confirmed.

Meanwhile, the Braun administration has aligned itself with the Trump/Vance/Musk agenda, further jeopardizing our democracy. Now, more than ever, people must have a space to connect, share their experiences, and send a clear message to our leaders: their actions and policies are harming our lives and livelihoods.

To ensure our voices are heard, we are hosting a People’s Town Hall—a space for community members to come together, share their stories and concerns, and collectively demand accountability from our state and national representatives.

📅 Date: Saturday, March 22
🕛 Time: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
📍 Location: Broadway United Methodist Church, 609 E. 29th Street, Indianapolis.

If any of you reading this wants flyers to promote the event, you can access them here.

Kudos to Broadway United Methodist Church for demonstrating that there are actual Christians–not just White Christian Nationalists– in Indiana. I hope those of you reading this will attend one or both of these events. I certainly intend to participate in both.

I know that this blog is an example of “preaching to the choir,” but sometimes, the choir needs to be reminded to sing…

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Organizing For Resistance

I spoke about Hoosiers’ post-election options to a group of volunteers at a Women 4 Change event a couple of days ago. Here’s what I told them. Much of it will sound familiar….

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I’ve done a lot of thinking since the election. Some of my conclusions are pretty obvious:

Americans don’t occupy a common reality, thanks to our information environment. It isn’t just the fragmentation and the ease with which we can all indulge our confirmation biases, although that’s a big part of it. It’s also the case that Rightwing propaganda sites are all pumping out and reinforcing the same talking points, misinformation and propaganda. The result is that many people occupy bubbles impervious to inconvenient facts.

We know that Americans are polarized between educated and uneducated, informed and uninformed people. In November, voters who reported following political news went for Harris by 8 points, while voters who reported seldom or never following the news went for Trump by 19 points.

During the campaign, we were repeatedly told that the election was a battle for American democracy. But we’ve already lost that battle. We lost it in 2010, when the Republican RedMap project was successful in gerrymandering across the country. W4C has been fighting Indiana’s extreme gerrymandering—thus far, without success—so you all understand how pernicious partisan redistricting is. Not only does it tilt the playing field, it suppresses turnout. Since 2010, Republicans have exercised power vastly in excess of their percentage of the vote, especially in the U.S. House and in statehouses around the country. That’s especially been the case in states like Indiana where we don’t have  access to mechanisms like referenda or initiatives.

The question, as always, is what can groups like W4C do? How do we counter the loss of democratic decision-making?

Here’s my preliminary “take” on that question:

  • We need to focus on Indiana. Our resources are limited, and the likelihood that we can have much of an effect elsewhere is minimal.
  • We need to communicate. Not just with each other—although that’s helpful too—but in ways calculated to break through to those who follow only Rightwing news sources or none at all. I’ve been working with Hoosiers 4 Democracy to plan a peaceful protest on Monument Circle, to take place on the day of the Inauguration. We will bring together people representing as many parts of the community as possible, to explain why we resist the profound anti-Americanism of the coming administration. It should be covered by Indiana media outlets.
  • What we need, however, goes far beyond such isolated events. We need a plan to take factual information into all parts of the state, to people who haven’t been paying attention, who haven’t been voting, who aren’t going to visit blogs and websites and credible media that don’t reinforce the misinformation that makes them comfortable.
  • Ideally, that plan should be produced by a “pro-democracy” coalition that includes as many partners as possible: the ACLU, faith leaders, Common Cause, W4C, H4D, etc. etc. The coalition should plan a two-pronged movement: one focused on penetrating the (largely rural) information bubble, and one focused on the General Assembly. With respect to the legislature, my own preference would be to lobby for a referendum. Indiana’s legislators will not abandon gerrymandering, because they benefit from it– most owe their seats to it. If we could at least generate support for a referendum, in the future we could use that process to overturn gerrymandering.

The next few years are going to be difficult—and pivotal. We have some assets: at the state level; extremist Christian Nationalists like Micah Beckwith offend a lot of people who typically vote Republican. At the national level, if Trump follows through with his promises (threats?), the negative effects will be pretty immediate and hard to ignore.

Our job should be to ensure that Hoosiers know what these people are doing, and why their actions are inconsistent with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, basic ethics and common sense.

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