Hey Indivisibles,

I want to give you some straight talk about the Insurrection Act. In the weekly What’s the Plan (WTP) calls on Thursdays, we always take a lot of questions from movement on everything from strategy to tactics to policy to organizing to messaging to how we manage to sleep with two kids under five and creeping authoritarians around (the kids are a way bigger problem for sleep). At last week’s WTP, several of the top-voted questions were about Trump potentially invoking the Insurrection Act on or after April 20. Given widespread concern about the potential threat here, I wanted to give you my read.

Indivisible’s Chief Campaign Officer Sarah Dohl put together a good short explainer that I will flagrantly steal from here:

1. What does it do? Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow Trump to deploy the military (including federalized National Guard) anywhere in the US. Trump may claim it’s to protect the border, but he could deploy these forces anywhere.
2. Why April 20? On his first day in office, Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to take 90 days to come up with a recommendation on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act to solve the non-existent immigration crisis. 90 days after January 20 is April 20. It could come earlier, or it could never come.
3. How bad could it get? We don’t know! Maybe Trump doesn’t invoke it at all -- he didn’t in his first term. Or maybe he does, and he further militarizes the border. Or maybe he uses it to implement his promised nationwide deportation force and crack down on peaceful protest. Last week, his ICE Director described their vision of creating a deportation system “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” Maybe that’s mere bluster, or maybe that’s the plan. Nobody knows -- which means we should neither freak out prematurely nor ignore the warning signs.

So what do we do about it? The courts are unlikely to save us here -- the Insurrection Act gives fairly wide authorities to the President and the courts have historically been fairly deferential regarding those powers. This is more of a political question than a legal question: Does Trump look strong and decisive, and does his support grow by virtue of invoking the Act? As he militarizes the border and beyond, do his approval numbers increase? Does his coalition hold strong? Or is there widespread backlash, defiance, opposition, and ridicule? In the latter case, Trump may call it off and claim that was his plan all along.

Trump is a typical bully. He breaks norms and laws to see what he can get away with. If the opposition is weak, he steamrolls forward. If the opposition is strong, he slinks away and claims he was never interested in doing what he'd committed to do anyway.

It’s up to us. I’m sorry. I wish there was some neat trick to fix this. I wish there were some institution -- businesses, media, law firms, universities, anything -- that would save us. I wish congressional Republicans weren’t feckless cowards or collaborators or both. Hell, I wish I could finally watch the White Lotus season finale instead of reading up on the history of an obscure 1807 law. But here we all are.

As with so much in this era, it falls to the people to protect the republic. Organized people -- like the 3 million people who showed up in boisterous, defiant, peaceful protests in every single state and multiple countries barely more than a week ago for Hands Off! That you’re reading this email tells me you’re interested in being an active part of this movement. That’s great news, because it’s going to take all of us. So read on for this week’s action items, feel free to hit me up on Bluesky, and please join for this week’s What’s the Plan call with me and Leah. Just please no White Lotus spoilers -- someday I’ll get to watching that.

-- Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

Your weekly to-dos

1. Organize in your community against Trump’s reconciliation plan that fleeces working people to make billionaires even richer. Another congressional recess has begun -- just as Republicans are crafting a massively unpopular bill that guts Medicaid and SNAP to fund tax cuts for billionaires. We’re hoping to see hundreds of events across the country to put pressure on congressional Republicans. You can use our toolkit to plan an event or check our map to see if there’s something already planned near you.
2. Call your senators and urge them to vote against H.R. 22 -- the MAGA bill that would disenfranchise tens of millions of voters. Last week, House Republicans passed one of the most extreme voter suppression bills we’ve seen, and we need to make sure it dies in the Senate. We have a lot more to say on this heinous bill below, but if you’re short on reading time, make sure you make this call and/or send an email.
3. Join the Hands Off! “What’s Next…” call this Wednesday, April 16, at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. The historic nationwide protests we saw on April 5 weren’t just a one-off thing; they were the start of something even bigger! This Wednesday, Hands Off! leaders will share plans for our next steps -- including upcoming nationwide actions on May 1 -- to continue demonstrating the scale of our movement.
4. Hear the latest on Trump’s reconciliation plan, our strategy to fight it, and other events of the day from Indivisible’s co-founders this Thursday, 3pm ET / 12pm PT. Every Thursday afternoon, we take a step back to absorb the news, draw inspiration from the work Indivisibles and our allies are doing, and talk about how we fight back. This week, Leah and Ezra will break down what we know about Trump’s billionaire-backed, Medicaid-slashing reconciliation plan, with actionable steps to fight it during this April recess.

P.S. We’re turning the massive energy from Hands Off! protests towards one of our biggest fights yet -- stopping the GOP reconciliation plan that guts Medicaid, crushes SNAP, and shovels trillions of dollars to billionaires. To win, Indivisibles need to be louder and more organized than ever before, so if you’re able, please consider donating to help Indivisible win the reconciliation battle, stop the cuts, and hold Republicans accountable.

Update on the GOP's extreme voter suppression bill

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 22 (you may know it as the SAVE Act) with the help of four Democrats who we will be naming and shaming: Ed Case (HI-01), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), Jared Golden (ME-02).

If you are represented by one of those members, please give them a call and express your outrage at their support for a bill that would disenfranchise millions of Americans and effectively end online and mail-in voting. Otherwise, we’ve got more pressing work to do to block this bill.

Remember -- we’ve said all along this was going to pass the House, but could be stopped in the Senate. And that remains true. Republicans need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, and that means they need seven Democrats to join them. Our job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The Senate is on recess right now, which means no vote is imminent. It also means we’ve got time to apply serious pressure on the Senate Dems who may need it most. Everyone is welcome to call and email your senators in opposition to this bill. But we need to drive the most calls to these* senators:

AZ: Mark Kelly
GA: Rafael Warnock
NH: Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen
NV: Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen
MI: Gary Peters

If you have a senator on that list, please call them (during business hours) and email them. And if you have friends in those states, urge them to do the same!

Here’s the link to our call tool.
Here’s the link to our email tool.

*We’ve included senators on this list due to recent votes and/or because they haven’t announced a position on this bill.

IndivisiWIN of the week

“What surprised me is that after we saw MILLIONS of people turn out on [April 5], it just kept going… People are still going.” --Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow highlighted the work of the Indivisible chapter Partners for Progress SWPA, who organized last Monday to defend Social Security! Gathering near their local Social Security office outside Pittsburgh, hundreds of Indivisibles showed up to rally against the Musk-Trump Coup and show their support for Social Security workers and recipients.

Follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a month.