Making noise locally

As research assistant, Buddy was more on top of local than national issues.

Given what’s happening in Washington to the Inflation Reduction Act, it seems more and more that climate protections will, almost overnight, be shoved onto local and state organizations. I'm greatly increasing my contacts with my state representatives, state and town officials, local committees, and other politicians and administrators.

I never used to write things like

I strongly support HB 1598 about fair access to community solar. Please ensure this bill passes out of the Appropriations committee!

But I think it’s important today, and I've found an easy way to identify these chances to speak out. I use the Take Action Network, mentioned here two weeks ago. I can personalize pre-drafted letters to the in-state decision-makers on lots of different issues.

I filled in my TAN Dashboard with the issues I care about, the kinds of actions I’d like to take (petitions, phone calls, letters, etc.), the organizations I particularly want to reach, and my geography. Every weekday morning I receive an alert notifying me of newly available actions that match my criteria. They are organized by issue (mine include Environment, Elections, Affordable Housing, and others).

Why are actions like this important today?

Reason #1 Politicians and decision-makers need to see the size of the opposition. Many Progressive groups, including the blue side of Congress, seem to be shrugging or hiding. They must understand there’s a huge surge in popular pushback against the Trump agenda and its local consequences.

It’s not easy to make noise, but a burst of phone calls, emails, and office visits may heighten the awareness of the country’s decision-makers.

Nowhere is the impact more apparent than the beleaguered congressional phone system, a major conduit for citizens to contact their representatives in Washington that in recent days has been nearly crippled as it absorbs tens of millions of calls responding to the new Washington order. [New York Times]

Reason #2 The infrastructure, services, and other stuff that's important in our lives may soon be supplied more by our state governments, less by Washington. States seem likely to take on powers and functions that are now with the Federal government - and the funding needs for them - are pushed down to the Statehouses. Already being discussed are climate adaptation measures, electric vehicle infrastructure - not to mention enforcement of environmental protections, election security, Medicaid and other social services, and much more. Cultivating greater influence at the state level may be an increasingly useful skill.

Reason #3 A visit to a legislator or administrator has much more effect than a letter or email. In our state, these visits are easier.

Reason #4 Not only is it likely that governance and funding will fall to state and local governments, the climate adaptation problems growing around us are already more town-, county-, and state-wide than national anyway.

Reason #5 It’s all very well to make state and local officials aware of the size of citizen opposition, but we can lay the same pressure on businesses that are changing their employment, equity, diversity, and other policies. Even the businesses that agree with us have been showing a reluctance, a fear, to say anything against Trump, lest he retaliate. I’ll write about pressuring businesses soon.

Reason #6 I want my state, county, and town to be attractive to others - others who want to push climate adaptations and to drop carbon emissions. Migration within the US is rising. Families want to be where the climate is less dangerous and costly, where their property is more likely to hold value, where residents are working actively to build protections, and where they’re more comfortable with the attitudes and values for the people around them. The harder we work to strengthen those attractions - and shout about them - the more we can influence climate-conscious families to become our neighbors.

Reason #6a And if the red/blue split becomes acute, I want to make sure that my state is increasingly seen as blue, not purple. Buddy and I wrote earlier about the idea of Partition and the surprisingly strong movement to split America into two countries.

Roughly 52 percent of people who voted [in 2020] for Republican former President Donald Trump either "somewhat agree" or "strongly agree" that it's time to split the country, favoring that either red or blue states secede from the union. Comparatively, 41 percent of people who voted for Democratic President Joe Biden agree with the idea. [Newsweek]

Can’t imagine it happening? Neither can I . . but then I couldn’t imagine several other events over the past year happening either.

[Shhh! Don’t look now, but Trump has suddenly and unexpectedly started working to define Palestine and the Ukraine without their citizens’ consent!]

Nobody’s saying much

So we need to be shouting!

Trump's willingness to abide by court rulings will be informed by the degree to which his lawlessness provokes mass demonstrations, work stoppages, boycotts, tax strikes, and civil disobedience. If Trump believes he can ignore court orders without provoking those reactions by the people, he is more likely to ignore the authority of the courts.

In other words, we are the backstop for the courts, and the source of the ‘consent of the governed.’ If we threaten to withdraw that consent, the courts have greater leverage over Trump, and he is more likely to abide by their rulings. [Robert Hubbell]

Need a little more more push to get involved in local issues generally? Read On Doing What We Can, by Dashka Slaterz.

a fellow Substack writer who focuses on justice issues.

Sorry to be talking about politics and activism so much these days. I hope I can soon move back from coalition-building to berm-building, from protecting EPA employees to protecting forests and seashores, from influencing the White House to influencing City Hall.