Resistance School @Berkeley

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Lesson recap: 1) use “movement moments” to pressure legislators, 2) explore new ways to connect with voters, 3) build on the resistance to restructure politics #rsberkeley

$6.4 billion was spent in 2016. Democrats spent $2-3 billion of that. And still no one is talking to county party chairs. This is the reality we’re in. #rsberkeley

A lot of money goes into the political process. Democratizing politics will directly hurt the interests of campaign consultants and managers. We have to keep this in mind. #rsberkeley

Bonus lesson for the day: No one knows what they’re doing. $$ spent does not equal power. Doesn’t mean rail on the establishment. They’re not bad people, but understand that they do have their own narrow interests. #rsberkeley

In our first sweep, @rapidresist got the Democratic party chairs of over 70 counties to agree to sign on to our organizing efforts. With only two staff members. There is no national Democratic municipal organization doing this. #rsberkeley

56.4% of state legislative races in the south are uncontested. We have to change this if progressives want to be politically competitive. #rsberkeley

The vision: no uncontested races. Having contested elections in all districts in the state incentivizes voters to turn out and that can lead to huge voter gains for state-wide races. #rsberkeley

How did we get to this moment? Answer: liberals failed to organize in state and local politics, ceding that ground to the conservatives, and it critically hurt the movement. #rsberkeley

Next step: how do we turn all these activists into a wave of candidates for political office? #rsberkeley

Lobbyists and consultants will have you think that getting voter data lists is expensive and difficult, but really organizers could get it for themselves for around $100. #rsberkeley

Basic marketing principles: 1) context 2) timely, 3) local, and 4) make it informal and text-like, then end with a question #rsberkeley

The law states that you cannot “robodial” just anyone, but you can speed-dial them. Peer-to-peer texting helps us comply with the law. We used a speed-texting app to allow users to rapidly text many people all from their own numbers #rsberkeley

The lesson that we learned from the ACA victory was that we can win, but we could only do so if we were organized. #rsberkeley

The premise behind @rapidresist was to turn out the voters in front of the media and donors when they were least expected #rsberkeley

Congress is the major check on executive power. Could we stop the crazy cabinet from coming in? #rsberkeley

Please welcome @YLandau, founder and starter of @rapidresist who will talk to us about how to use technology to create mass movements! #rsberkeley facebook.com/ResistanceScho…

Continue the conversation at RS Town Square on Slack and talk about what you learned! Sign up here: resistanceschoolberkeley.org/town-square/

The first session of the summer semester goes live in a few minutes! Follow our talk on Twitter or go to Facebook and watch the video live! #rsberkeley facebook.com/ResistanceScho…

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