Indivisible Santa Fe Newsletter
Next meeting: Monday May 19 , 2025 @7pm
Christ Lutheran Church
1701 Arroyo Chamiso Road, Santa Fe
REMAIN UNITED! The best way to play into Trump’s chaos is to become divisive with each other. We have to keep focused on our objective: to defeat the Trump agenda. That’s our overriding focus. With every decision we make, we need to ask if and how every action we take meets that goal.
Scott Romans
Heard around the Internet
Norman Eisen
Leah and Ezra are the co-founders of Indivisible, interviewed here about No Kings Day (June 14):
Upcoming Events
Donovan Kolbly
Donovan Kolbly
In the News
How Trump is affecting New Mexico this week
Heidi Li Feldman
Cormac Dodd cdoddsfnewmexican.com
An Op Ed from Indivisible Santa Fe's own Bruce Berlin and John House:
Bruce Berlin and John House
Paul Dirdak and Wendy PomeroyHappening Around New Mexico
NM Resist has put together a Web Calendar of grassroots events. Check it out! You can filter by Santa Fe or wherever your area of involvement is.
Gabrielle Porter gportersfnewmexican.com
Braver Angels is putting on a Depolarizing Within Workshop on Saturday, May 17 2-5pm. More details here: https://nm.braverangels.org/alliance-events
And, of course, it's always good to keep up with non-partisan, trustworthy election information at https://www.vote411.org/
Stay in touch with us
As part of our rededicated communications efforts, we have become much more active and focused on our social media accounts, currently primarily Bluesky and Facebook. You can help out with this effort by following us and liking and re-posting our messages. Help us get the word out and expand our digital presence!
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And if you want to reach out to your representatives, check out https://resist.bot/ - a handy chatbot tool to make it easy to let them know what you think!
Also we're stepping up our organizing efforts for June 14 by organizing a mass recruitment campaign.
Indivisible National
(published Monday, May 12 2025)
If you’re like me, you’re probably increasingly alarmed about how creepy the creeping authoritarianism is getting. In recent days, it’s been the blatant corruption and escalating attacks on the opposition.
Corruption and escalating threats. Trump is bragging about his plan to accept a $400 million ultra-luxury plane from the Qatari monarch -- a plane Trump claims he'll use as Air Force One before taking into his post-presidency for his personal use. The same guy who wants to blow a reported $45 million in taxpayer money on a birthday military parade for himself also wants a “flying palace” fit for a king. It’s so bad that even the racist, conspiracy theory-peddling, Trump sycophant Laura Loomer says he’s gone too far.
This news comes at the same time Trump’s crackdown on speech is escalating into an all-out war on political dissent. On Friday, federal officials arrested Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. They’ve threatened to arrest three members of Congress who were present as well, while the White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller threatened to suspend habeas corpus altogether.
While Trump brags about bribes and escalates attacks on the opposition, his Republican flunkies in the House are moving a budget through four committees this week. The current plan? Taking healthcare from 14 million Americans and cutting taxes for billionaires.
All of this is infuriating, frightening, and predictable all at the same time. And it begs the question: what can we do about it?
The best read of the week is about what works. In their op-ed How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?, the authors of How Democracies Die and experts in authoritarianism argue that America is indeed descending into an authoritarian state, but this descent is not inevitable or irreversible. For those of us organizing and trying to convince others to organize, here’s a key quote that I hope we internalize:
“So far, the most energetic opposition has come not from civic leaders but from everyday citizens, showing up at congressional town hall meetings or participating in Hands Off rallies across the country. Our leaders must follow their example.”
That’s us -- that’s all of us! If you have called on your Dem reps or senators to fight back harder; if you’ve attended a Republican town hall; if you were one of 3.5 million who showed up for Hands Off; or if you are planning to show up for No Kings Day on June 14 -- you are doing what needs to be done. This is what building a pro-democracy movement at a time of competitive authoritarianism looks like.
We need to reach beyond the choir -- here’s how I’m thinking about that. Because we’re trying to build a people-powered pro-democracy movement, I feel urgency around meeting people where they are. And as nice as that New York Times op-ed is, we know more and more people are getting their news outside of traditional media.
Indivisible is trying to respond to that reality, which means that last week I went on Rachel Maddow’s show (❤️) to announce No Kings Day, but Leah and I also sat down with Tim Miller from the Bulwark. In the coming days, we’ve got interviews lined up with the Contrarian, Brian Tyler Cohen, and PoliticsGirl.
There will be more to come, and if you have specific recommendations for non-traditional media where we should be trying to get the word out, please let me know.
Thank you for not just reading the news, but figuring out what you can do to help. It matters; it’s necessary; and it’s working. Please keep up the fight, and read on for helpful actions you can take this week.
In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director
Indivisible
Your weekly to-dos
- Register for a No Kings protest to defy Trump’s tyranny -- and ruin his self-serving birthday parade -- on June 14. As Trump hosts his un-American military parade in DC, we’re rising up everywhere else to show him and our fellow Americans what real power looks like. Don’t see a protest near you yet? More events are added every day, so please check our map again soon or use our toolkit to host your own event!
- If you have a GOP representative, send an email to get them on the record about plans to defund SNAP and Medicaid. DC Republicans are finally rolling out specifics of their plans to decimate beloved social safety net programs -- all to fund tax breaks for billionaires. We need to get them on the record and hold them accountable. You can also click here to CALL their office.
- Volunteer to call North Carolina voters this Thursday, May 15, about stopping the GOP reconciliation plan. Senator Thom Tillis will be one of America’s most vulnerable Republicans in the 2026 election, so we’re urging NC voters to turn the temperature up on Tillis as we fight Trump’s Tax Scam. Our phone bank is open to activists nationwide and begins with a virtual training for all who need it.
- Join the mass call this Thursday, May 15, at 8pm ET / 5pm PT to launch the next phase in our fight against Medicaid cuts. DC Republicans are finally unveiling new details of their plan to gut Medicaid to pay for billionaires’ tax breaks, so we’re joining a call with Working Families Power and allies nationwide to lay out our next steps to stop them -- with actions and takeaways you can put to use right away.
P.S. No Kings Day could be our biggest, loudest, and most widespread mass protests yet, and grassroots donations make that possible by funding the tools, recruitment efforts, signage, and logistical details (like speakers and portapotties) that great events need! If you’re able, chip in today to support our nationwide organizing and help make the No Kings protests massive.
This week's update on the Republican tax scam
After squabbling behind closed doors for months, Republican-led House Committees are scheduled to publicly unveil key elements of their reconciliation plan* this week, and GOP leaders could compile draft bill text by next week.
But getting enough buy-in to draft a bill is still miles and miles away from earning enough votes to pass it in both chambers. Even if this week goes smoothly for them, GOP leaders will still need to unite virtually every Republican lawmaker around their plan’s most politically toxic cuts. We expect those to include:
- Kicking 14 million Americans off their healthcare through historic cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act
- Taking food off the table of roughly 9 million families per month -- including millions of children and senior citizens -- by cutting SNAP benefits
- Forcing billions of dollars of new healthcare and food assistance costs onto state and local governments -- likely driving huge cuts in infrastructure and other services that will cost thousands of jobs
- Job losses, service reductions, and even outright closures at hospitals nationwide, particularly in rural communities
As Republicans move into this new, more public phase of their effort to make billionaires richer and screw over everyone else, we need to boost awareness of how their plans would hurt our communities -- and apply pressure on vulnerable Republicans that makes intra-party divides even deeper. We have a toolkit for that.
| *You might see this effort called various things, including: the Trump tax bill, the tax scam, the GOP megabill, or the reconciliation bill. They’re all shorthand for the same Republican plan to defund Medicaid, SNAP, and other beloved programs so the government can “afford” to cut taxes for corporations and the ultra-rich. |
Reminder: You’re invited to Thursday's “What’s the Plan” calls!
From the reconciliation fight, to creeping authoritarianism, to immigrant justice, DOGE cuts, and beyond… There's a lot going on and a lot to wrap our heads around each week. It can be confusing. Exhausting. Scary.
That’s why Indivisible’s co-founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin meet with Indivisibles nationwide every Thursday (at 3pm ET / 12pm PT) to help make sense of the news, draw inspiration from our work, and lay out what’s next for our movement. It’s part pep-rally and part strategy session -- but mainly a lot of Leah and Ezra answering YOUR questions.
You don’t want to miss it, and we would love to see you there! Click here to join our weekly “What’s the Plan” virtual call with Leah and Ezra on Thursday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT.
Fight right-wing disinformation with Indivisible’s Truth Brigade
Justice is under attack by right-wing disinformation! Far-right lies are fueling regressive laws and legally dubious executive orders, and propagandists nationwide are filing baseless cases to legitimize the unconscionable.
The Truth Brigade is Indivisible’s answer to the lies. We’re leading a grassroots approach to combating disinformation and, on May 14, launching a new campaign, “When Lies Make Laws,” to expose their tactics and highlight the stakes for our society.
JOIN US: Sign up for the Truth Brigade New Member Orientation and Message Campaign Launch this Wednesday, May 14, at 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT. Truth Brigade's virtual meetings are open to anyone ready to fight online lies -- from brand new members to longtime Brigadiers!
IndivisiWIN of the week
In red and rural South Dakota -- home to Trump’s canine-killing Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem -- Indivisible Rapid City found a uniquely memorable and uplifting way to fight for justice and highlight this administration’s atrocities.
Their Justice for Cricket event was half-protest, half-fundraiser. Dozens of Indivisibles and other activists came together outside city hall to highlight Trump and Noem’s cruelty while collecting hundreds of pounds of dog food and pet supplies for the local Humane Society!
Follow Indivisible national 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.
