I need to discuss this survey by President-elect Donald Trump & his incoming administration. As a professional wordsmith, I find this survey alarming. Not in the content of its questions, but in the content of its options. Words are important. They are literally how we communicate with each other, whether it’s in English, Chinese, Russian, French, or some type of Sign Language. Not only in what we say or write or sign...but in what we leave out as well as what we include. There are 29 questions on this survey, https://gop.com/100-day-plan-action-survey/
These 4 options you see in the photo are the only 4 options given. This is the incoming administration’s request to hear your voices. Sounds good, right? They actually want to hear our opinions, right? Wrong. Look again. The only options are: Highly Important, Somewhat Important, Not Important, and No Opinion. Allow me to rephrase what these options mean: You Strongly Agree, You Somewhat Agree, You Have No Care For This Subject, and You Have No Opinion On This Subject. ...See what is missing? There is no chance, no way, no choice to indicate You Strongly Disagree or You Somewhat Disagree with anything being proposed. This is a tactic used by abusers to silence opposition and dissent, through the removal of any OPTIONS to oppose or disagree. As just one point of proof on this subject, the website Scarleteen constantly sends us well-written articles on how to spot signs of an abusive relationship.
Removing any option to dissent among the choices being presented, any chance to say, “No, I strongly disagree with what you want to do” is one of the stronger tactics used by abusers to silence their victims. This tactic is used by an abuser to ignore his victim’s choices and preferences. Either you go along with whatever they want...enthusiastically or with “no opinion”...or they will ignore you. The diversity of our voices is being ignored, deliberately ignored, by the incoming administration. Now, before anyone yells at me for being a “whiny liberal” let me tell you this: THERE ARE QUESTIONS BEING ASKED THAT CONSERVATIVE AMERICANS WILL WANT TO DISAGREE WITH STRONGLY, TOO. And yet they are not being given the chance to oppose these proposals, either! ALL our voices are being silenced on this survey. This is how the incoming administration intends to treat us. No, you don’t get to say it’s a mistake. 98% or more of all such surveys have ALWAYS included “Somewhat Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree” in their options. This is a deliberate choice to silence any such statements. So... what can we do? Several things, and they need to be done NOW. I strongly recommend the phonecalls wherever possible, but use ALL possible vectors to get your voices heard. We don’t have much time left. #2 is just an option. The rest are all necessary, all the way through down to the bottom of this list.
1. Go here to EMAIL the Electors about this alarming development:
http://asktheelectors.org/ The Electoral College is our best hope to stop this silencing dead in its tracks. Convincing enough of them to turn their votes away from Trump is a hard task, but if they get enough people talking to them, they will realize that this abusive tactic is affecting hundreds of millions of Americans. We need to have voices of dissent heard! For those of you who hate Clinton, rest assured that she is actually the best chance for your voices of dissent to BE heard. Seriously, think about it: Any legislation that would get passed HAS to go through the Republican-held House & Senate. It is something that everyone will HAVE to agree upon. With Donald Trump, there are no options to put the brakes on any bad ideas. It’s been proven that the Republican Party will not strongly oppose him. They do not want to hear any dissenting voices...which means they are silencing their own voters alongside everyone else. 2. Go here to MAIL the Electors:
https://millionlettersmovement.com/
If they receive enough mail on this campaign, they will change their minds. BE POLITE if you phrase your letter personally. It costs $1 per letter, since they do the mailing for you, and the paper, printing ink & electricity, envelope, and stamp all cost about that much...but $1 now versus losing your voice under an abusive government is a hugely cheap preventative action.
I have not found a website listing all mailing addresses for the Electors, but if anyone has one, please let me know and I will include it. REMEMBER TO BE POLITE. Death threats (ffs, really??) will get your opinions IGNORED.
3. Find Your Federal Representatives at this website and CALL THEM:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
Find them, and Call Them On The Phone. Emails and physical letters tend to get piled up and stacked up. But an Actual Phone Call Gets Their Attention 100 Times Better at the Federal level. MAKE SURE YOU TALK POLITELY. Prepare what you want to say in advance, write it down, try to write words that are logical and calm and rational, backed with facts. There are MANY issues that need to be discussed, but on THIS issue, you can be absolutely sure you’re speaking for ALL Americans, so please include it. 4. Find Your U.S. Senator, too:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/
Do this AS WELL AS finding your Representative. Call them on the phone. Speak POLITELY to staff members!
5. Keep Calling Until You Get Through. Write Letters. Write Emails. Speak Up And Speak Out For Your Rights. Speak POLITELY, But Speak NOW.
I know that calling on the phone is scary to a lot of people. It is for me, too. I’m much better at writing than speaking But your rights are at stake, and congressional staffers will tell you that nothing gets the attention of Representatives & Senators like an Actual Phone Call. Send emails if you can, too, but don’t hesitate to write a physical letter, particularly if--as in the case of the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan--you find you get a message saying you cannot voice your opinion via email because you live outside so-and-so’s jurisdiction. Innundate them with polite mail and phonecalls and so forth until they literally cannot get anything else done because you are demanding that they listen to you. Which is exactly what they are supposed to do. So make them LISTEN to you. 6. Rinse and Repeat for State Legislatures, Look them up, and CALL them, Email them, Mail them! I’m not going to list all 50+ links. All you have to do is type in “Who is my representative (or senator) in (name your state)” and pretty much every single state has a form where you put in your zip code and it gives you the exact contact information needed. Why do this at the State level? Because it is 1,000 times more effective than a letter or an email. This is not just a federal level problem; this is a problem that affects everyone at every level. State legislators ARE capable of applying pressure to the Electoral College members. They ARE capable of applying pressure at the Federal level...but MOST IMPORTANT, they CAN PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS AT THE STATE LEVEL. They can pass legislation that will put the brakes locally on any erosion of your rights across the nation. 7. Call Your State Governor.
Let him or her know you oppose the incoming administration’s attempts to silence your right to dissent. Let them know you will not be silenced through not being given the choice to Moderately or Strongly Disagree as well as Moderately or Strongly Agree. This will force the Governors to realize that, if and when their State Legislators are being given a demand by the people to pass laws to protect our rights to disagree with whatever the Trump administration wants to do, they have to bow to that demand and sign those state bills into laws, or face the consequences. This, naturally, goes for any and all other laws we need to get passed at the State level to protect our rights and our neighbors’ rights, in order to put pressure on at the Federal level, too. Again, remain POLITE, but BE HEARD NOW. While we still can be. 7. Rinse & Repeat for Cities And Counties. No, Seriously. Call them and demand they call the higher levels of government to stop these attempts to deny us our right to be heard in all ways, including dissenting ones.
Why is this so important at the local level? Question #13 on the survey says this: End all federal funding to sanctuary cities that circumvent the law in order to provide protection to illegal immigrants.
If the Trump administration wants to punish anyone who wishes to give amnesty to illegal immigrants, AND they get away with it, then they CAN AND WILL DO THE SAME TO CITIES THAT SUPPORT OTHER ISSUES. Seriously, folks, Nazi Germany didn’t spring fully into being in just 24 hours, magically hating and imprisoning Jews, Gays, And So Forth overnight. It was LITERALLY LITTLE STEPS LIKE THAT, one step leading to the next, that permitted the creation of the most horrific government of our times. #NeverForget #NeverAgain Why do this at the city and county level as well as State and Federal? Because Mayor Offices and City Councils and County Councils start to freak out when they get just 3-5 phonecalls on an issue. They really freak out if they get 100 phonecalls, because phonecalls are going to be 100,000 times as effective at the local level. Even an email or a physical letter will be 100 times as effective! Every Call Matters. They in turn can put the pressure on the state legislative and executive branches as official government employees, AND they can reach out to the federal government as well on our behalf. Their voices will help carry a mandate up through every level of government. We Will Be Heard In All Ways.
Words are important. I make my living putting together words carefully and conscientiously. I love doing it...but there are words that should never be left out of a conversation. I know from having been through abusive relationships in the past that being refused the option to use the right words (”I disagree” being the most vital) is something I cannot give up, should not give up, and will not let anyone else be forced to give up. Stand with me. Make the call, literal phonecalls, to support each other.
I’m doing this for conservatives, I’m doing this for moderates, I’m doing this for liberals. ALL of us are having our rights suppressed and taken away with this denial-of-voicing-disagreement attitude from the Trump-led GOP. Reblog this on Tumblr, link this to Twitter, share it on Facebook, every social media platform you have available. Spread it everywhere.
Don’t let anyone abuse you or the people around you, in any way.
...
**Update: I just spent a couple hours looking up, emailing, and phoning my state legislators, my state governor, my US District Representative, and both of my Senators. It was nervewracking, it was not easy--and this was just me speaking to voicemail recordings!--but it was important, and I did it. And I am going to do it on Monday in the hopes of reaching real humans. I also need to remember to call my city & county officials.
I am going to celebrate by curling up in a ball and praying for the safety of all our civil rights. And watching Ray Mears talking about the wilderness on Netflix. Because when curled up into a huddled ball of anxiety, I just roll that way.