On Sunday September 29, Indivisible East Bay held its next-to-last (and last Zoom) All-Members Meeting (AMM) before Election Day. It had a packed agenda chock-full of talks worthy of your attention. If you weren’t lucky enough to have been there, fret not! We have the receipts!
Here are six video highlights from the meeting:
- Dispatches from the Road to Victory. This is our monthly update (both humorous and serious) of national politics, this month presented by Ted Landau. As you might expect, yesterday’s Dispatches focused on the upcoming election. And, as a follow-up, we note:
- One of the themes running through the talk was the “insanity” of Donald Trump. As if on cue, Esquire published an article (paywall-protected) by Charles P. Pierce today titled: “Trump Ranted and Raved About Immigration, ‘The Purge,’ Movie Casting at a Rally In Pennsylvania; We are once again noting that the former president* sounds objectively insane.”
- A query noted several times throughout the presentation was “How is it possible that Trump still has a chance of winning, despite a list of negatives that should have long ago disqualified him from consideration?” Again, as if on cue, Robert Reich just today posted a blog titled: “How the hell can Trump be running neck-and-neck with Harris? Let me tell you.”
- Update: Yet another great and “on cue” article came out today in The Atlantic (possible paywall). Titled “The Election’s No-Excuses Moment,” it covers a broad range of predictions about the next few weeks. And it includes this quote about sane-washing (a topic discussed in Dispatches): “After Trump went on yet another unhinged tirade in Wisconsin this past weekend, Bloomberg posted on X: “Donald Trump sharpened his criticism on border security in a swing-state visit, playing up a political vulnerability for Kamala Harris.” Well, yes, that’s one way to put it. Another would be to say: The GOP candidate seemed unstable and made several bizarre remarks during a campaign speech.”
- Vote YES for Proposition 4. On the ballot for this fall is Proposition 4, authorizing a bond to fund “various activities aimed at conserving natural resources, as well as responding to the causes and effects of climate change.” Isabel Penman, from Food & Water Watch, explains what it does and why you should support it.
- Interview with a phone-banking convert. IEB team-leader Toni H. interviews Suzanne K. about how Suzanne overcame her initial reluctance to phone-bank — and why you should do so as well.
- How to persuade “lefties” reluctant to vote Democratic. Some people on the left are reluctant to vote for Harris, presumably because they view her as “not left enough.” As a result, they may wind up not voting at all. Larry B. offers tips on how to convince such voters to show up for Election Day(s).
- Election Messaging. Continuing the theme of the previous talk, Ion Y. offers general advice on how to talk to undecided and persuadable voters in a way that stands a chance to get them into the Harris/Democratic column. Tip: It all starts by letting them tell you about their concerns and then you specifically respond to what they say.
- IEB meets with Buffy Wicks. Recently, IEB members (together with several others from Bay Area progressive groups) had a virtual meeting with State Assemblymember (District 14) Buffy Wicks. We discussed several issues of concern, including a bill for legalizing public campaign financing that was stopped in the Appropriations Committee (which Wicks chairs). Larry B., who organized the meeting, reports back on what happened.
To view the full Agenda for the meeting, click here. The Agenda includes links to an assortment of actions you can take over the next month to make sure that Harris and fellow Democrats win in November!
