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A group of former Democratic congressional staffers wants to stop President Trump and thinks emulating the Tea Party is the way to do so, assembling a new group called "Indivisible" to push back against Trump from the grassroots.

Their manifesto, "Indivisible: A practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda," is a 26-page "how to" manual written by scores of former staffers that outlines how progressives can use the most successful tactics employed by the Tea Party to their advantage.

"This all sort of stems from the disappoint and despair that we all felt after the election," explained Angel Padilla, a co-author who previously worked for Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

"To us it's not really about the party; it's about the things that we value," Padilla said. "As former staffers, we don't have many skills, but we know how Congress works," Padilla said, quoting another one of the authors, Ezra Levin, who worked for Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

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Trump wants to "reshape America in his own racist, authoritarian, and corrupt image," Padilla, Levin and Leah Greenberg, who worked for Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., wrote. "If progressives are going to stop this, we must stand indivisibly opposed to Trump" and congressional Republicans.

"We examine lessons from the Tea Party's rise and recommend two key strategic components: A local strategy targeting individual members of Congress; a defensive approach purely focused on stopping Trump from implementing an agenda built on racism, authoritarianism, and corruption," they wrote.

They advise voters to assemble at the local level and to focus solely on their own elected representatives.

"I still get these alerts that say, 'if you want X call Speaker Ryan,'" Padilla said. "That to us is wasted energy. The only way you're going to move Paul Ryan on this is if you happen to be a constituent or get enough of his constituents or House members" to move in your direction, he said.

The four actions that influence lawmakers most are when voters turn up at town halls and speak up; when they turn up at photo-ops, such as ribbon-cutting ceremonies, and ask them questions; when they show up at members' district offices for meetings or to protest via "sit-ins"; and when they burn up their phone lines with coordinated calls, the guide advises.

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"[W]e can all learn from their success in influencing the national debate and the behavior of national policymakers," the group says about the Tea Party. "To their credit, they thought thoroughly about advocacy tactics."

The "indivisible" group does not advocate replicating bullying and violent methods, which they say the Tea Party used.

"In terms of some of that violence and aggressive and abusive rhetoric and behavior we are 100 percent opposed to that as a tactic and it's not consistent with our values," Padilla said.

The indivisible guide says the Tea Party's "ideas were wrong, cruel, and tinged with racism."

Jenny Beth Martin, spokeswoman for the Tea Party Patriots, said she's seen the guide but argues that "indivisible" misrepresents the Tea Party.

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"It's intriguing that the same people who mocked and maligned us now think they have to model what we did," she said. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." However, "they mischaracterize what the Tea Party movement is. They've done that for the last eight years. They do that in their document. Our movement is peaceful," she continued. "We obey the law. We didn't have to tell people to obey the law."

Padilla said that after so many people accessed the initial Google doc where the guide was stored, people volunteered to make a website for it. Half-a-million people downloaded the guide in the month after it went live Dec. 21, he said.

"We had no idea what was going to happen," he said.

Word spread rapidly after former Labor Secretary Robert Reich promoted it, Padilla said.

During Saturday's women's march in Washington, protesters discussed it and recommended following it to the uninitiated. More than 2,400 local groups have registered with the website, http://www.indivisibleguide.com, Padilla said.

All the contributors, who now conduct activism training and speak to groups, are volunteers whose day jobs are unaffiliated with the cause, Padilla said. They also are not affiliated with or funded by any larger, better-known progressive groups, he said.

"We're just trying to respond to the need," he said. They have registered as a "social welfare organization" with the IRS better known as a 501(c) (4) but as far as fundraising or endorsing candidates, "that's way too premature," Padilla said. "We haven't really thought out where we want to go."

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A Tea Party for progressives? Left steals an idea from the Right - Washington Examiner (blog)