In this week’s newsletter, Ezra outlines how…
| In this week’s newsletter, Ezra outlines how we can unify to defeat the fascists, and we share the next steps in our election protection effort and how you can help Peggy Flanagan overcome her corporate-backed opponent Angie Craig in Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary. |
I know I’m biased, but I am such a fan of the Indivisible movement, y’all. Last Tuesday, we saw an historic, blockbuster set of primary elections in Michigan, where all three Indivisible-endorsed candidates won. Then on Thursday, the single most asked question on What’s The Plan was some version of: “Ok, great, now how do we unify to win in the general?”
Does this help us defeat the fascists? I believe Trump is a fascist leader who aims to subvert our democratic institutions to consolidate minority rule and enrich himself. That’s why at Indivisible, our primary means of making political and organizing decisions is a simple question: does this help us defeat the fascists?
That question has driven every major Indivisible tactic of the last 18 months, from DOGE town hall protests to No Kings to our primary endorsements. So I respect the hell out of the Indivisible movement members who win a contentious primary and immediately say, “Ok team, let’s unify to beat the fascists in November!” These are my kind of people. Strategic, practical, and committed to actually getting results, not just winning intraparty debates while the wolves encircle us. But how do we do it?
Be like the chickens. I watched Chicken Run with my 5-year-old this weekend. For a 27-year-old animated kids movie, it sure offers some good lessons for all of us. The chickens are in danger — the farm operators plan to turn them into pies. By working together, they (spoiler alert) do the impossible — they pull off a daring escape from the barbed wire-lined camp. In the climactic scene, it’s only by each chicken bravely doing their part that the entire coop flies off together.
Unfortunately, the anthropomorphic claymation chicken movie is a little unrealistic. There was no chicken contingent actively seeking to divide the flock. Everyone understood who the main enemy was, and that survival required unity.
In our real world last week, after losing a set of primaries, the corporate Dem Third Way group announced with great fanfare a $15 million campaign to attack one faction of the Democratic coalition. And cable TV and political TikTok were full of talkers yelling at each other about why the Democratic Party should rein in one faction or another.
It’s on us all to unify. Don’t get me wrong — these are important conversations. It’s just the wrong time for them. We’re exiting the primary season less than 3 months from a general election that could determine whether fascists consolidate power. For this brief window, we have a common enemy, and it’s every coalition member’s responsibility to help us unify. That’s how we fly this coop — together.
For those of us aligned on this, I’d recommend a simple rule: don’t feed the division. Fight like hell in the primary, and then move on. If you won your primary, be gracious and gratuitously thank your opponents. Like this: thank you Haley Stevens and Mallory McMorrow for immediately rallying around Abdul El-Sayed! If you lost your primary, rally around the winner to defeat the fascists. Like this: John Hickenlooper, we opposed you in a bruising multi-month primary and are truly saddened by Julie Gonzalez’s loss, but now you’ve won, we’re 100% behind your reelection to defeat the fascists! That’s the united and aligned flock energy we need.
If you’re interested in depriving the divisive debate of oxygen and building a Democratic Party that fights and wins, we’ve got some ideas for you this week!
In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible