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So, yourrepresentative is a Republican. Here are some additional items you should know.

The indivisible guide is fantastic about the means and methods to resistance. Id like to add to it with just a few items that apply pretty universally, but especially to Republican sitting elected.

While some of these are straightforward, I want to focus on the last item: ask questions that make talking point answers difficult. Many Republicans have pre-cut responses, which, as others note, you can post online and chastise them for being generic. But asking district specific questions that force the answer to be somewhat localized tends to force congresspersons to do more work if they want an answer that even remotely passes the smell test.

One line of attack isnt enough.

Not mentioned, at all, in the Indivisible guide is the other secret of Tea Party and conservative groups. While it focuses strongly on the attention paid to conservatives, the Tea Party groups also used counter-narratives very successfully. Tea party groups argued with Democratic members inat riskdistricts in hopes ofdividing them away from their own base.

One of the problems that left-leaning groups have had in arguing against Republicans inat riskdistricts is that they have not advanced a narrative that effectively attacks the Republican for, well, not being actually a Republican. Some have called such measures crass or opportunist. I believe that voters deserve to know who they are voting for in a November or summer election.

For 8 years, Republicans and tea party members have used this argument very successfully. Asking the question as to whether candidates running for office really supported the president, they were able to divide their opponents base. You may not have even noticed.

Republicans cowered Democratic party members into thinking the safe strategy was to backpedal away from President Obama to appeal to their electorate. The end result: it also demotivated Democratic voters.

Republicans are now saddled with that concern. Questions should be askedatevery single forum, event and question: So, do you support the Presidents agenda on XYZ. Every time your candidate says NO which may please some Democratic voters in the room, remember, that same answer will anger and upset Republican party members who want their candidate to fall in line in support of their president.

Hey, they resorted to call-in conferences or only staff events.

Several Republican elected officials around the country already know that they would be poor at in person communication and so they dont do it. Elected officials in those cases have long organized meetings in their district where the candidate doesnt attend, only their staff person indistrictto take questions and offer to get the constituents answers from the representative later. They may also offer a muted conference call, where district members can hear the equivalent of a canned speech while sitting on mute to atoll freenumber. Here is how to respond to those approaches:

During the next four years, there will be plenty of opportunities for many of the items on this list. But I would encourage Democratic members to find every single moment to divide Republicans away from their elected president. Pointing out where they split from their presidenthurts them with some of theirbaseand it has a unique benefit that is only true with Trump. Elected officials who reject Trumps agenda may face direct fire from their own sitting president, putting them in a bind.

Remember, all of your interaction and responses have another name for candidates in the future: OPPOSITION RESEARCH.

Next Week Nuts & Bolts goes a bit offline, and were going to start discussing the DNC Chair Race and Sub-races. What impact do these offices have on me, really?

See the original post here:
Nuts & Bolts: So, you want to talk to your Republican representative - Daily Kos