Building the playbook for Resistance
Takeaways from my first SwingLeft experience
I’m proud to be part of a growing resistance movement against the current Administration and I’ve found Swing Left to be the best organization for me. SwingLeft volunteers believe that our most effective strategy is to swing the House of Representatives to the left to the Democrats in 2018. To that end, people like me who live in non-competitive districts are reaching out to folks in nearby swing districts, such as California’s 10th district, which is less than 2 hours away. For those of us with limited time and money to devote to this important cause, it’s great that SwingLeft provides an easy, actionable way to affect change.
From local organizing to in-district outreach
My first action with Swing Left was a House Party. Six friends joined me to share why they were passionate about resistance and to plan outreach activities in California’s 10th district (CA10). A key point at our House Party was when we used data to frame the challenge of swinging CA10 to the Democrats. In 2016, there were 500,000 potential voters. Only half of them voted for their Congressman and the Republican won by 4% or 9,000 votes. Our goal is for the Democratic candidate to win CA10 in 2018, which means getting just 9,000 votes — this feels doable!
My biggest takeaway from our House Party was that political activism is hard, but these issues are too important for us to be complacent. The idea of approaching strangers to talk about politics is scary to most of us. Consequently, our goal was to make SwingLeft as easy and as fun as possible.
Let’s make SwingLeft as easy and as fun as possible
Ultimately we decided to volunteer at Love Modesto, a community service day in Modesto, the largest city in California’s 10th district. Volunteering there would allow us to both engage with voters and contribute to the community through voter registration and community service projects. I led our group of 12 volunteers, some who were my friends and some who I met for the first time. I made sure to secure approval from the Love Modesto organizers. Specifically, I let the organizers know that we wanted to register voters and to offer to listen to people’s political views.
Now that I’ve attended my first SwingLeft event, I’m pausing to reflect. The election on Tuesday November 6th, 2018 is a long way away. Time is on our side, so let’s be deliberate and thoughtful. Although I have more questions than answers (detailed below), I came away from my first SwingLeft event feeling inspired.
Focused on fun
I received a lot of warm, gracious feedback from the SwingLeft volunteers in our group that they particularly appreciated how I led our group. Here’s part of my email framing our priorities for the event:
1. Enjoy! Our most important goal is to have a great first experience. We have 20 months before the election so there’s no pressure or urgency. Moreover, talking with strangers about politics isn’t comfortable, so please don’t push yourself this time. Just being in Modesto is a great start. Let’s see how many of us can come away with meaningful experiences and stories to share.
2. Engage with people. Talk with each other and the Modestans. My favorite part of the House Party was learning everyone else’s reasons for joining SwingLeft. Please share your stories with each other — why are you interested in SwingLeft? Of course, we’ll also talk with local folks with an emphasis on *listening*.
3. Do community service. We’re going to register a few folks to vote and we’re going to clean up a park. Let’s be sure to contribute to the Modesto community, but please don’t lose focus of our bigger goals to enjoy and engage!
I think a big reason our event was successful was that our group did a good job of focusing on fun while engaging local people and registering 3 voters. My most important criteria for measuring the success of the event was how many people would recommend SwingLeft to a friend (the classic Net Promoter question). In our follow-up survey, all 6 respondents said that they were very likely to recommend SwingLeft to a friend, an excellent Net Promoter Score, albeit with a small sample size.
I think that the Focused on Fun approach worked because it kept people from forcing themselves beyond their comfort zones. We didn’t need to get it all right the first time — SwingLeft is all about building relationships over time. I’m an extrovert, so I was excited to walk up to people and ask if they wanted to speak with me. By contrast, my friend Erick is more laid back; he handed out about 100 American flags and stickers — kids loved them! Another volunteer, Paul, is an Army veteran and retired lawyer so he preferred to work with people who wanted to register to vote. The key was that each volunteer did something they enjoyed so that as a team we were most effective.
One interesting thing to note about our group of 12 SwingLeft volunteers was that 11 of us were from outside of the district and 1 person, Crystal, was from inside the district. My intuition is that one of the most important things that SwingLeft can do is articulate how out-of-district volunteers can support in-district volunteers. Crystal and other in-district volunteers have the most power to motivate their neighbors to vote Democratic. They are a scarce, precious resource — we don’t want to overwhelm them or for them to feel burnt out. How can out-of-district volunteers grow the numbers of in-district volunteers and make their efforts easier?
Engaging with our fellow citizens
I’m glad that we’re channeling our frustration with the current Administration into such a productive activity. Our form of activism — peaceful, open conversation — is a testament to our beliefs. We’re not charging into people’s towns yelling at them or waving banners. Instead, we’re listening to our neighbors and trying to better understand our fellow citizens. Regardless of the outcome in 2018, fostering conversations and building bridges can only be good for America. At Love Modesto, I said two things to the people walking by our voter registration booth:
(1) Are you registered to vote? You can register right now.
(2) Would you like to talk about politics? I’m curious to hear your views.
Most people responded by saying that they were already registered to vote, not interested in talking politics and kept walking. A few people stopped to engage with me, but those conversations only lasted a few minutes. One of the key challenges for SwingLeft will be how to get value out of these brief interactions; prospective voters didn’t plan to take time out of their day so we’re lucky to get whatever time they give us. Overall, the people I spoke with fell into a few groups:
- Administration Supporter. A number of people enthusiastically replied that they talk politics all the time and they’d be happy to talk with me too. I heard things like “it’s early, give the Administration some time” and “he’s going to solve our problems.” I also had a number of people touch me on the arm or shoulder — something that I found surprising and endearing. These were the people that I was most curious to meet since I rarely meet Administration Supporters in my district. I didn’t try to persuade any Supporters to change their mind, if for no other reason than we didn’t have much time. Regardless, I think the best way to approach the Supporters is with Cory Booker’s philosophy: “I love you, I just don’t want you to be my president.”
- Unactivated Resister. There were a few people I met that were strongly against the Administration but weren’t politically active. I expect that empowering and supporting these people is how SwingLeft can be most effective; after all, they share our beliefs and live in the district so they are best poised to have the most influence. One Unactivated woman, Zeynep, who I met was so interested in SwingLeft that she went to an event that Crystal, an in-district volunteer, was holding a few days later. People like Zeynep are Unactivated Resisters that we want to empower. They’re especially important to recruit since they’re best poised to answer the key question we out-of-district volunteers ask: I don’t live here, but how can I help? What’s the best way to empower and support Unactivated Resisters?
- Ambivalent. Many of the people that weren’t interested in talking with me, simply responded that “they’re all crooks.” One Ambivalent person that I met who was particularly interesting was Juan. When I was cleaning up a park with some of the Hispanic residents of Modesto, a Hispanic woman told me that many people in her community fear deportation and that her 17-year old son, Juan, is an American citizen. She said that I could speak with him about registering to vote. I was excited since Juan will be 18 before the next election — he’s exactly the type of person we want to register. Juan said that he cares about politics, but that he didn’t want to vote. Our conversation got cut off there, but I’m still curious to better understand Juan and people like him — they care, but don’t want to vote. What’s the best way to engage with these Ambivalent folks?
- Uninterested. A few people responded to me simply, “I don’t care about voting.” I’m sure that engaging Uninterested folks will be different from engaging Ambivalent folks. Again, I’m curious how to break through and start the conversation.
So, it’s early days for the resistance movement and SwingLeft. I love the idea of building bridges and fostering conversations between communities that don’t typically communicate — this can only help America. I think it’s important that out-of-district folks work to empower in-district voters and volunteers. Now that I’ve volunteered with SwingLeft once, I’m looking forward to returning to CA10 again soon. I hope to find answers to my questions — I welcome your thoughts and answers. I’m inspired.
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Hat Tip: Thanks to Midori and Judith for their feedback on this article.