Editor's Note: Filmmaker Michael Moore, one of the most visible and active leaders of the Trump resistance movement, has stepped up with two major contributions to the battle ahead. He has created an easily accessible website—a Resistance Calendar—where people can post news about upcoming resistance activities and find out what is going on in their community and region. Moore writes: “I’ve promised you a one-stop site, a clearinghouse of all actions—a RESISTANCE CALENDAR—where you can find every upcoming action, protest, march, sit-in, town hall, anti-Trump, pro-democracy event in all 50 states!”
Moore has also unleashed "The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump," published below, which contains Moore's list of tactics for resisters all over the country. Part of Moore's plan is to take over the Democratic Party, which to him means getting Congressman Keith Ellison elected to head the DNC when it meets this Saturday, February 25. A key element of Moore's plan is getting five to 20 of your friends and family members together to create a personal "Rapid Response Team." Moore also wants thousands of progressives to run for office and make their own media using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and information. He says, "Make sure all your friends and family are signed up."
—Don Hazen, executive editor, AlterNet
The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump
First, let's acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble—in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt-right idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly empty White House—and caught inside a disgusting "shit-sandwich," so said his supporter who turned down the NSA job.
Only one month into his so-called presidency—and yet there is good news, as this is what the American landscape looks like:
• Tens of thousands of citizens across the country have stormed congressional district offices and town hall meetings to express their rage at the Trump agenda (a dejected Republican congressman, after a three-hour verbal assault from his angry constituents, said on TV last night, "Let's face it—they [the Obamacare supporters] have won").
• A federal court halted Trump's first Muslim ban—actually, make that FOUR federal courts have ruled against him. He's conceded defeat and will not appeal to the Supreme Court (though he will try a new ban—and good luck with that, you son of a Scottish immigrant).
• Progressive Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison appears to be the frontrunner for this Saturday's vote to head the Democratic Party—and to FIX the whole damn mess! Also, a recruitment drive has begun across the country to find the best local candidates to run for state and federal offices in 2018. Millions are committed to never letting the Debacle of ‘16 happen again.
• Our beautiful Army of Comedy—with its Platoon of Satirists led by Alec Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy—is killing it! McCarthy's devastating impersonation of White House spokesman Sean Spicer has Trump fuming to the point where he has considered getting rid of Spicer. Politico says he simply can't watch one of his top aides being portrayed by...a woman.
So the momentum is with us right now—and if we all just take a little time to do the Action Plan below, I'm convinced we'll succeed in halting the dark force that is Trump. We can tie him up in knots at every turn, and eventually, we can bring him down.
So let's get started with our...
10-POINT ACTION PLAN TO STOP TRUMP
1. THE DAILY CALL: You must call Congress every day. Yes—YOU! 202-225-3121. It will take just TWO MINUTES! Make it part of your daily routine, one of those five things you do every morning without even thinking about it:
1. Wake up.
2. Brush teeth.
3. Walk dog (or stare at cat).
4. Make coffee.
5. Call Congress.
It is impossible to overstate just how much power you have by making this simple, quick daily call. I know from firsthand experience the impact it has. These politicians freak out if they get just 10 calls on an issue. Imagine them getting 10,000! Holy crap—the dome will pop off that building!
NOTE: if you're saying to yourself, "I don't need to call because my rep is a Democrat!"—that is NOT true. They need to hear from you. They need to know they have your support. Don't believe it? Our beloved Sen. Elizabeth Warren voted in favor of Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development! I'm sure no one in Massachusetts thought they had to call her. YOU DO! She and the other Dems need to hear from the boss—YOU! They work for us—and what boss doesn't have daily contact with his or her employees?
It's easy to make the Daily Call. To call your U.S. member of Congress or Senators in D.C., dial 202-225-3121 (or 202-224-3121 if busy). It's even better to call their direct line. For Senators, find each of their numbers here. The direct line to your member in the House of Representatives is here.
Here's some great news: Someone has created an app to make this very easy: Go to the App Store and get "5 Calls." The app will dial the friggin' phone for you and give you talking points for when you speak to your reps!
If you'd rather to write to your reps, you can find the best way to do that for each of them by typing in your address on: democracy.io.
I will post updates on the actions we're fighting for each day and week on my Twitter and Facebook pages. If you want to know what to call your reps about, I encourage you to follow me right now on Facebook at facebook.com/MMFlint and on Twitter at @MMFlint. All my social media sites are at my website www.michaelmoore.com.
Remember—a call a day keeps the Trump away.
2. THE MONTHLY VISIT: To add even more pressure, SHOW UP! Your member of Congress has a local office in your town or somewhere nearby. So do both of your U.S. Senators (often in the nearest federal building). Go there and ask to speak to their aide about the issues we're facing (again, I will continually post them on my social media sites).
Also, don't forget to visit the local office (or the state capitol office) of your State Representative/Assemblyperson, and your State Senator.
And, if you're lucky to live within driving distance of Washington, DC, show up on Capitol Hill and pay an unannounced (it's legal!) in-person visit to your U.S. Senators and your Congress person. They pay serious attention to this. It blows their mind that you'd drive that far to see them. Do it!
I know not everyone has the time to do THE MONTHLY VISIT—but if you can, please do!
3. YOUR OWN PERSONAL RAPID RESPONSE TEAM: You and five to 20 friends and family members must become your personal RAPID RESPONSE TEAM. Sign everybody up so that when we need to leap into action (like we did at the airports the hour after Trump signed his Muslim ban), you can email and text each other and make an instant plan. On other days, you'll share links to good investigative stories and TV news items.
Come up with a name for your RAPID RESPONSE TEAM—mine is called the V for Vendetta Rapid Response Team and it consists of myself, my daughter and son-in-law (and their new baby!); my two sisters, their spouses and adult children; my cousin; eight friends; six co-workers; and my next door neighbor. That's 27 of us and we live from Seattle to Michigan to Maryland. And each of them are forming their own local Rapid Response Teams. So that means the 27 on my team are so far responsible for 405 new Rapid Responders overnight! And each of those 405 are doing the same—they're recruiting their own five to 20 people—and BOOM! 4,050 more Rapid Responders tomorrow—and growing!
4. JOIN! JOIN! JOIN!: We all know it's time for all of us to be part of a greater whole, so let's actually physically sign up online and JOIN some of our great national groups. I've joined Planned Parenthood, ACLU, Black Lives Matter, Democratic Socialists of America, and ERA Action. Some charge money to join, so if you don't have much, pick the lowest amount ($5 for ACLU for example) or join groups that don't charge anything (but if you can help them financially, please do). They will keep you informed of national actions and fight for us in court.
5. THE WOMEN'S MARCH NEVER ENDS: The historical, record-breaking January 21st Women's March on Washington—and the hundreds of other marches that day across the U.S. and the world, with over 4 million in attendance!—brought massive numbers of people out who had never protested in their lives. It inspired millions of others and ignited so many local movements we still can't count them all. The day after the Women's March, another two-dozen protests took place. The day after that, 2,000 Utahans jammed into their state capitol in Salt Lake City. Then, on the following Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans occupied their local airports to oppose Trump's Muslim ban. And on and on and on. Every day—still!—dozens of actions continue to take place as if the Women's March never ended. It hasn't. Join it!
A group of friends and I have set up THE RESISTANCE CALENDAR (www.resistancecalendar.com) that is updated daily, where you can find out what actions are taking place near where you live. All you have to do is type in your city or state in the search bar.
It's critical that large numbers of us continue to march, protest, sit-in and be very visible—to Trump, so he knows we are the majority; to put the Dems on notice that we expect them to grow a spine; to our fellow Americans who live in Boise or Tulsa or Grand Rapids and have been feeling alone and afraid since the election. Our mass presence reminds them the people didn't elect Trump. And it is good for each of us to operate in concert with each other, to feel the solidarity and the hope.
And the official Women's March on Washington—they've called for a national Women's Strike on March 8. Let's join them!
6. TAKE OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The old guard of the Party has twice in 16 years presided over the majority of Americans electing the Democrat to the White House—only for us all to see the losing Republican inaugurated as president. How is it that we have won the popular vote in SIX OF THE LAST SEVEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS—the Republicans have only won ONCE since 1988—and yet, we hold NO power in any branch of government?! That, plus losing 1,000 local seats in this election that the Dems use to hold—plus watching many Dems in Congress unwilling to stand up to Trump—PLEASE, the old leadership has to go. God love 'em for their contributions in the past, but if we don't enact a radical overhaul right now, we are doomed as far as having a true opposition party during the Trump era. And that, more than anything, will help to usher in the vice-grip of a totalitarian culture.
You must do two things:
Let the DNC know that THIS SATURDAY, February 25, the Democratic National Committee MUST elect reform and progressive candidate Congressman Keith Ellison as the new DNC chair. Ellison is a former community organizer, the first Muslim elected to Congress and a key backer of Bernie Sanders. He not only has Bernie's support—and mine—he's also backed by Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Gloria Steinem, John Lewis and many others. Sign his petition of support at www.keithfordnc.org/howyoucanhelp. Let the DNC know how you feel.
And locally, you need to start attending your county Democratic meetings. If possible, organize your friends and others and take over your local Dem organization. More on this at a later date.
7. HELP FORM BLUE REGIONS OF RESISTANCE: People keep saying to me, "Mike, I live in a blue state—what can I do?" If you live in a blue state, you have one of the MOST important tasks to complete: Show the rest of America what it looks like when Trump isn't in charge! Blue states and blue cities must do an end-run around Trump and create the America we want to live in. That means New York goes ahead and offers Free College for All. California can create its own Universal Health Care. Oregon can stop mass incarceration of African Americans. Hawaii can enact its own climate change laws. Blue States can show the rest of country how much better life can be. Important historical note: Before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, California and New York passed their own state laws to make it legal. This greatly helped pave the way for CHOICE being the new normal—and the enactment of Roe v. Wade.
8. YOU MUST RUN FOR OFFICE: I know, that's the LAST thing you want to do. But if we keep leaving the job up to the dismal, lame, pathetic political hacks who have sold us all down the river, then what right do we have to complain? This is only going to get fixed when you and I decide we are willing to put in our time—even if it is a brief time—and run for office. I ran when I was 18 and got elected. You can, too. We need good candidates for the 2018 elections—and not just Congress and statehouses, but also school boards, city councils and county commissions. Why not take out a petition today and run next year? Heck, I'll bet I'll even support you!
I realize most of you can't do this, but there is one office every one of us can and SHOULD run for next year: PRECINCT DELEGATE. Every precinct, every neighborhood can elect x-number of Dems to the county Democratic Convention. It's on the ballot and it's usually blank—no one runs for it. So the precinct delegates end up being appointed by the party hacks. And that's who ends up eventually at the national convention to pick the next presidential candidate. So this is an important position to run for. The time commitment is just three hours a year! You attend the county convention—that's it. Call your city or county clerk and find out how to get on the ballot. If you'll do it, I'll do it. It's the first step to making sure we put a candidate on the ballot who can win.
9. YOU MUST BECOME THE MEDIA: Stop complaining about the media, stop wishing they were something they're not, find the ones who are doing a good job and then start your own "media empire" by sharing their work and your work on the internet. Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media sites to spread news and information. Make sure all your friends and family are signed up. Yes, I'm talking to you, Baby Boomers. Get over it, put down your postage stamps and your "TV clicker" and find a six-year old to show you how to start tweeting. You can be your own reporter, your own editor. You can curate the news for your friends. And now Facebook lets you have your own network with Facebook Live! It's all free. Get on social media now. Imagine, your own CNN is in the palm of your hand...
10. JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY: Trump's Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can't take mockery. So we all need to MOCK HIM UP! Not just the brilliant people at SNL or Colbert, Seth Myers or Samantha Bee—but YOU. Use your sense of humor and share it with people. Get them to do the same. Keep sending around the SNL links spoofing Sean Spicer, Trump and Kellyanne—there's no such thing as watching them too many times! Ha ha ha. I truly believe the final tipping point for Trump will be when he implodes from all the laughter—the mocking, the unbearable ridicule of tens of millions of Americans that will discombobulate him and force him out of the White House. I know this seems like Mike's fever dream, but I believe it can work. I don't know what happened to Trump in boarding school at 13 and I don't care. Whatever it was, let's use it. He's used all the other things he picked up over the years—misogyny, bigotry, greed—against the powerless and the unfortunate. It's time to laugh him outta town. And if there's one thing we all could use right now is a good laugh—and the possibility of a much-shortened presidential term.
So, there you go! The 10-Point Action Plan to Thump Trump. Something for everyone. And every one of us needs to do them. Please share this and spread the word. We can stop him. We can nonviolently block, obstruct and halt the damage he's doing. But it's going to need—and take—ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Let's make Trump toast again.
—Michael Moore