About 300 people showed up at the Pacific Palisades Democratic Club’s (PPDC) March 26 “Call to Action” to fight the Trump/Republican agenda and hear plans to take back the U.S. Congress and Senate, as well as state legislatures and governorships in the 2018 mid-term elections, and the presidency in 2020.
Featured speaker Congressman Ted Lieu, recently elected by his House colleagues as Vice Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), is determined to fight against the Trump agenda and provided a “Resistance Guide” (pacificpalisadesdemclub.org)
“The best way,” he said, “to stop Trump is to take back the House of Representatives in about a year and a half. We need to flip 24 seats. The DCCC is already targeting more than 55 seats with more being added every month.”
“At this point in our nation’s history, there is nothing more important than finding out whether or not high crimes were committed by associates of Donald Trump or possibly by Trump himself,” Lieu said in a statement on March 23.
“Ted Lieu packs quite a punch,” said Patricia Mitchell, one of several Topangans who attended the event. “He chose to spend part of his 48th birthday celebrating at the PPDC event. After blowing out his candles he made a rousing statement in three parts, she said: Russia’s alleged interference in last year’s election; the use of nuclear weaponry; and that Lieu will work to stop or pause any Trump-backed agenda.”
Tam Taylor and her coalition were impressed with the number of new resistance organizations attending—5Calls, ResistBot, Huddle, Flippable—as well as the better-known Indivisible, Code Blue and Courage Campaign.
“The organizations that appealed to us were the ones that targeted swing districts,” Taylor said, adding that “Any individual or group action is effective as long as we continue to act.”
Lieu’s Resistance Guide suggests seven actions for people to take between now and the mid-term elections:
- Donate to the L.I.E.U.Leadership PAC (https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/lieu-pac-1).
- Donate to the four incumbent Democratic Members of Congress in California who are in swing districts.
- When the time comes, donate to Democratic challengers in the districts we are targeting to flip in 2018 (seven in CA).
- Adopt a targeted district and register voters, contact friends in the area, show up to town halls, rallies and public events in the district.
- Create videos or short films and distribute across social media.
- Join Resistance groups such as Code Blue, Courage Campaign, Flippable, Indivisible, Sister District, Swing Left, and the Democratic Party. Join groups that fight in the Judiciary for your rights such as the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, women’s groups and environmental groups.
- Think Georgia (the state) where a special election primary will be held April 14 for the seat vacated by Rep. Tom Price (now Trump’s TKTK). The general election is June 20. The DCCC has created a special calling tool (https://action.dccc.org/sign-up/virtual-phone-bank) to call voters in that district and urge them to vote for Democrat Jon Ossoff.
A PowerPoint presentation, also available on the PPDC website, goes into greater depth about 14 Republican held California districts that have been targeted to flip from red to blue.
To access these documents: pacificpalisadesdemclub.org.
