DAY SIXTY-THREE - MAKE A PLAN

Nov 1

day sixty-three | MAKE A PLAN
821 Sawbuck Patriots | $676,958 donated

Team:

I've got four things for you today, as you go about trying to enjoy your weekend and attempting not to eat all your fingernails.

One: please keep up your voter contact work through Indivisible and Knock for Democracy and other partner organizations. Get into those critical purple states and contact people; it's essential. THANK YOU to those of you reporting in tens of thousands of texts sent, calls into Georgia and Pennsylvania... the work is there. Let's do it.

Two: thank you for watching the video yesterday; I really appreciated all the emotional emails. If you're willing, please share the link on your social media - that little chunk of gratitude is worth sending out into the world, as we need all the positivity we can get right about now.

Three: yes, we will have a Zoom election night party, and yes, you're invited to join us. An invitation will be emailed Tuesday afternoon to this list. No RSVPs necessary, but PLEASE keep the invitation and passcode to yourself - we don't want Mitch McConnell or Betsy DeVos to figure out how to ZoomBomb our party.

Four, and most importantly: friends, it's time to make a post-election-day plan, if you haven't already. I'd like you to visit and bookmark protecttheresults, which will be one place (of many) where people will be organizing, should President Trump do what he's said - over and over and over again - that he will do when the election goes to Biden/Harris.

Trump has said "get rid of the ballots." He has said that he'll accept the results of the election - IF HE WINS. He's said Americans should only count ballots on election night. He's said that he deserves a third term as President. He's encouraged his supporters to go "watch the polls" - which the Proud Boys and others are viewing as a clear incitement to violence.

In many different forms and ways, Trump is blithely, openly and appallingly attempting to undermine the democratic process that our country has at least PRETENDED to care about, and mostly followed, for most of our history as a nation. And while none of us can predict the future with certainty, we can certainly take his words at face value and see that there is indeed a real chance that Trump and his allies will attempt to hijack the election.And so we must prepare.

At protecttheresults and other places, you will see a framework for organized protest. It's devoid of calendared items today - that's intentional. But should the election be inappropriately monkeyed with, it will explode into a nationwide cavalcade of events, marches, actions, protests, and the like. Today, I'd like you to read what's on the site, and get yourself ready to join in. And for extra credit, you motivated, action-oriented, opinionated activist, you - I'd like you to read their toolkit about how to host your own action, and consider creating a small team and doing the work yourself - especially if you are reading this email from outside one of our nation's larger cities.

It's time to visualize what you're going to do. Really, even though that may strike you as corny, please do it. Think through what you'd want your absolute best self to do if you observe that this election is being hijacked. Game out what you absolutely should do, what you probably should do, and what you might be willing to do if circumstances dictate. Science has proven that if you think about the range of possibilities beforehand, you're more likely to activate yourself and follow through than if you simply watch events unfold. So do it. And make a plan.

I've made my plan, and I'll tell you what it is. (And gang, please know that I'm telling you my plan NOT in an attempt to say "oooo look at me and my plan" but rather to illustrate the range of possibilities available to some of you. Honest.)

Should this get worse, my plan is to fly to DC and participate in a variety of organized non-violent civil disobedience actions organized by groups that I respect, in as safe a way as one can during a pandemic. I'm probably going to get arrested; probably multiple times. Which will be interesting: I've never been arrested. (And to be sure, I should acknowledge my privilege - I can afford to buy the ticket, my wonderful wife has said she'll take on even more kid responsibilities than usual, my excellent work colleagues have said they'll manage our excellent clients while I'm in the streets of DC, I'm in good enough health to take this mid-sized risk, and so on. I'm fortunate to be in a position where I can plan to do this, and to do this.)

And to be blunt: I think it's especially important in 2020 for older white guys to go stand on the front lines and spend down some of that privilege we've been carrying around for so long. And if you're an older white guy reading this, and you've been feeling a nagging responsibility to do something that's probably out of character for you - especially since it's older white guys that got us Trump - shoot me an email, because I hereby invite you to join me. I invite ALL of you to join me, to be clear - not just the old white guys. But I'm underlining the fact that perhaps some of us might or should feel slightly more of a societal obligation to go get arrested in the nation's capital than some others.

OK, that's enough preaching for a Saturday. A recap :text everyone in Georgia, share the video on the TwitBookInstaChats, look for a Tuesday pm email on our Zoom party, and think about joining me in DC. Got it?

Got it.

Sending lots of love to you all,

- Alex

Alex Clemens

DAY SIXTY-THREE - MAKE A PLAN

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DAY SIXTY-FOUR - STAY PREPARED

DAY SIXTY-TWO - CANDIDATE GRATITUDE

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day sixty-three | MAKE A PLAN
821 Sawbuck Patriots | $676,958 donated