Saving the Republic
I’ve always been interested in politics as a somewhat abstract academic discipline. I earned an MA and Ph.D. in the field in the 1970s. I have always paid attention to the news, and I have worked in Congress a couple of times. But the candidacy of Donald Trump and his subsequent election to the presidency motivated me to have “boots on the ground” and become a political activist.
I did this through the Indivisible movement — a nationwide combination of grassroots organizations made up of people appalled by Trump and all he stood for. The group I’m part of — the Williamsburg Indivisible Group, or WIG — was founded after the women’s march in January of 2017. I joined the group later that spring, and have been active in it ever since. I’m currently co-leader of the group, which has been meeting twice a month since 2017.
Indivisible’s Statement of Purpose includes the phrase “to defeat Trump and the Trump agenda,” and we have found out that’s a bigger challenge than we thought. We started out non-partisan, and scooped up local Republicans who were as appalled by Trump as the Democrats (like me) were.
We (well, a lot more people were involved) defeated Trump in the 2020 elections. But defeating the Trump agenda has proved way more difficult than we thought. We have discovered, along with the rest of the country, that there is apparently no GOP except for the people aligned with Trump. Recent events suggesting that the GOP is splintering over this issue are encouraging but not dispositive — at least not yet. The political reality at this point is that we can’t defeat the Trump agenda without defeating Republicans at every level, so, although we are still “officially” non-partisan, we work with Democratic candidates to defeat Republicans.
As a member of WIG, I’ve done things I’ve never done before. I’ve participated in protests in various streets throughout Virginia — in my home town of Williamsburg, in the state capital in Richmond, and in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
“Say what, now?”
Mechanicsville is the location of one of the district offices of my Congressman, Rob Wittman, a Republican who has pretty much supported the Trump agenda throughout Trump’s presidency, including voting against accepting the electoral votes in January of 2020. I have stood outside his office with a large group, and I have stood outside his office alone. We hold signs and people honk as they go by. We don’t always know if they’re honking for us or against us, but at least Wittman and his staff know we’re there.
I’ve written letters to the editor, knocked on doors for candidates, spoken at rallies, written “Postcards to Voters,” and organized my neighborhood to “Get Out the Vote.” I’ve tracked legislation in the Virginia General Assembly and lobbied my representatives there. A whole lot of people have done much more than me, that’s for sure. But a whole lot of people have done much less.
I truly don’t know what the result of all of this *waves hands vaguely in the air* will be. But I do know that if my grandchildren ever ask “What did you do to help get rid of that crazy guy, Nana?” I’ll have an answer.