National purpose with local action
Next meeting: January 5, 2026 🎉
Christ Lutheran Church
1701 Arroyo Chamiso Road, Santa Fe
Don't forget 🤔 The US Constitution is a document designed to be updated. Even the most fundamental protections contemplated by the first crew were structured as amendments and not built in to the constitution. The intention has always been that as we learn more, as we grow in our humanity, and as society changes in other ways, we should update our laws and constitution to reflect what we understand to be just and equitable. The American experience has always been about driving towards the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. An experiment always in progress – not a static, stale notion of what our society should be.
The most recent bits of gun violence – I say recent bits because it seems to be always around us – remind us that our 2nd Amendment is long overdue for some common-sense updating. Australia, within hours after their recent tragedy, is undergoing sensible reflection on the problems with their current laws. You'd think we could do the same.
And then there's the bigger picture: It is certain that this regime will end, probably in 2027 and almost certainly in 2029. When we get back to a functioning democracy, we should not then forget the egregious transgressions against the rule of law perpetrated by this regime. And I don't just mean accountability for the current illegal actions – we need to build the momentum now, during this crisis, to ensure we enshrine the necessary protections and desirable rights to move further down the path of equity and justice. What do you want to see in a more just and equitable nation?
🌅 As the winter solstice approaches, we are reminded that the darkness has been increasing for some time, but that soon light is soon going to rise.
Protests, Rallies, and Events
Showing up with the Body Politic
Dec 20: Signs of Fascism
The Sign of Fascism was on display at the Railyard this past Saturday morning (Dec 13). The participants were dressed in black, silently marching with their signs around the Farmers Market, stopping occasionally to allow for shoppers to read and film the black signs with white lettering. The display was very powerful. The shoppers were enthralled with the display.
Another public display will happen next Saturday morning at the Plaza. Participants should meet in the Convention Center parking garage across from the main Post Office on South Federal Place at 9:45 to get a sign (signs are provided!) and instructions. If we run out of signs, all are welcome to join us for a slow walk around the Plaza. Please wear black from head to toe. Black Face mask is optional.
Signs of Fascism on December 13 on Market Street at the Railyard
Dec 21: Chanukah Celebration in Eldorado
There is a Chanukah celebration on Sunday (the last night of Chanukah Light) with latkes, donuts, music, etc. at La Tienda in Eldorada. More details and RSVP.
Regular protests
Donovan Kolbly
Donovan Kolbly
Upcoming Events
Janie Thelin
In the News
What folks are saying, of interest around here and elsewhere
Committee Work
- ISF Health Committee – The first “ask” is to call or email Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and request that these important issues facing NM Healthcare be on her “call” for the 2026 short legislative session:
- compacts
- medical malpractice as it pertains to punitive damages
- GRT (Gross Receipts Tax)
All three issues work together to increase the number of medical practitioners moving to NM. Phone: (505) 476-2200. Email: https://www.governor.state.nm.us/contact-the-governor/
Today 4 physicians from Dona Ana County presented an extraordinary document in committee as to their personal and professional experiences with the state of medical care in New Mexico.
If you would like a PDF copy please email macrojane@proton.me.
Dispatches from the Indivisible Santa Fe Desk
Gary Kowalski
Leslie Lakind
PS Leslie Lakind has his own newsletter; if you're interested in getting his dispatches, send him an email at leftielakind@gmail.com
Guest post
Stay in touch with us
Check out our resources page with lots of links to useful information, constantly being updated as we find new web resources to help fight for democracy and the rule of law.
You can help our effort to expand our digital presence, including social media on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram by following us and liking and re-posting our messages, or sharing our website with people who might be interested – they, too, can sign up and get this newsletter! 🎉 Help us get the word out!
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As the end of the year approaches, go ahead and take this opportunity to donate by clicking the button below – dollars for democracy!
Indivisible National
Hi friends. We’ve got an upbeat intro section from co-founder Leah Greenberg this week, and we’re glad for that after the horrors of the weekend. But before we dive into the newsletter, we want to acknowledge those events, and send love and solidarity to everyone impacted, directly or indirectly, by the tragedies in Rhode Island and Australia. We went to sleep Saturday night to news of a mass shooting at Brown University, the 389th of the year. We woke up on Sunday to news of an antisemitic massacre at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney. As many of us were lighting our menorahs last night, we were receiving alerts that the death toll had risen. In Sydney, a Holocaust survivor was murdered in an attack targeting Jews. Among the survivors at Brown, there were multiple students who’d already lived through another school shooting. Those truths are enough to make anyone feel numb, like the problems with this world are too great to overcome. We wish we had something more profound to offer you in this moment, but what we have is this: Our thanks. We can’t tell you how grateful we are for this movement of incredible people who refuse to give up, who rise each day and take action to combat hatred, make our communities safer, our society more just, and keep the faith that we can build a world where all can learn, worship, vote, organize, and live authentically and without fear. Within the devastation there is also hope, kindness, courage. As Hanukkah reminds us, there is always light in the darkness. An unarmed Muslim man, Ahmed al Ahmed, risked his own life to disarm one of the Sydney shooters. Wherever we see horrors like campus shootings, we see students helping each other. Every day, we choose this fight, because we believe not just in its urgency, but in each other. Yours in the fight for a better world, |
Leah here, stepping in for Ezra, who’s out this week.
I want to talk about a win that might have flown under your radar last week: the failure of Trump’s gerrymandering push in Indiana.
The backstory
Donald Trump knows that in 2026 he’s going to face an electoral wipeout. So he’s spent the last six months doing everything he can to rig the rules. He leaned on Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri Republicans to initiate mid-decade redistricting designed to maximize Republican seats -- in other words, to dramatically gerrymander them -- and in each of those cases, the Republican legislators did his bidding.
For the last few months, he’s been putting the same heat on Indiana. He sweet-talked legislators. He promised rewards. He sent JD Vance to visit and lobby in person. He (reportedly) threatened to cut all funding from the state if they didn’t fulfill his demand.
And it was all to no avail. On Wednesday, the Indiana Senate said no, by a vote of 31-19, including the majority of the Senate Republican Caucus. The gerrymandering plan is dead.
Trump threw everything he had at Indiana -- and he failed.
Why this is enormous
Sure, every seat matters in 2026, and this outcome leaves us in a slightly better position than if Trump had successfully bullied the state. But the significance goes way beyond one state’s congressional map.
Authoritarian politics runs on a simple logic: If you can convince enough people that you’re going to consolidate power -- and use it ruthlessly to reward allies and punish enemies -- they start falling in line preemptively. That’s anticipatory obedience. And this year, it worked frighteningly well. Across politics, business, academia, and the media, powerful people bowed their heads and complied.
The opposite is just as important, though: If you overreach, if you start to flail, if people begin to see that you’re losing ground and heading toward lame-duck irrelevance? They stop obeying. And that’s exactly what a whole bunch of Republican state legislators in Indiana just did.
Credit where it’s due
Many individual legislators showed real courage, and they deserve recognition.
But none of this would have happened without Indiana’s civil rights leaders and grassroots organizers. They ran a pedal-to-the-metal campaign that drove massive popular outrage -- flooding legislators with calls, filling the statehouse, and refusing to be ignored. And that’s after building grassroots power for years under some of the toughest conditions out there. Indiana Indivisibles: TAKE A BOW.
Why it happened now
Let's be clear: This sweeping repudiation of Trump by his own party didn’t come out of nowhere.
It wouldn’t have happened back in February or June, when Trump’s approval ratings were still hovering in the 40s. It wouldn’t have happened before the massive No Kings rallies, including in Indiana. It wouldn’t have happened before the MAGA coalition cracked over Epstein, before the shutdown cratered Trump’s approval numbers, or before the 2025 off-year elections and TN-07 scared the crap out of Republican legislators everywhere. Nationwide defiance laid the foundation for last Wednesday in Indiana.
This is what it looks like when a would-be dictator tries to bully his way into power -- and fails. It’s a sign that rule-by-fear is breaking down. It’s a flashing warning light that the wheels are coming off the fascism bus.
What comes next
We should also be clear that a wounded authoritarian is incredibly dangerous. We know more harm and more horror are coming. No one can afford to ease up.
But wins don’t come often these days, and we have to celebrate them. Because these moments prove that what we’re doing matters.
We started this year understanding that Trump, Stephen Miller, and the MAGA machine would sprint to consolidate power -- over their party, the courts, business, civil society, and the media. And that our job was to hold them off, drive down their popularity, and build a pro-democracy coalition strong enough to make consolidation impossible.
We’re nowhere near finished.
But damn, last week was a big step forward.
In solidarity,
Leah Greenberg
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible
Your weekly to-dos
- Tell Congress to block Trump’s march to war with Venezuela. Donald Trump, winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, continues amassing warships in the Caribbean while bombing small vessels without any legal justification and threatening a full on invasion of Venezuela. We expect a vote in the House this week, and the Senate soon after, on legislation to block the regime from committing US forces to an illegal Venezuelan war. Use our email tool to urge your Members of Congress to vote YES.
- Email your Members of Congress to demand investigations into Hegseth’s murderous strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. It appears increasingly likely that Pete Hegseth oversaw war crimes in the regime’s illegal bombings of small boats in the Caribbean. Congress has a duty to launch investigations into these strikes, which have killed over 87 people thus far. Email your Members of Congress and demand they haul Pete Hegseth into public hearings on these ongoing extrajudicial murders.
- We’re stronger when we organize together. Join a local Indivisible group today. It’s resolution season, and if one of your goals for the new year is becoming more engaged in your community and doing more to save democracy, it might be time to connect with an Indivisible group near you.
- Please consider supporting your local food pantry this holiday season. This is the busiest time of the year for food pantries, and the combination of federal funding cuts and rising prices are making it difficult for many pantries to meet rising needs. We’re dropping our usual fundraising ask this week and encouraging everyone to support these lifelines in your community. Food donations are appreciated, but to offer meals at scale in addition to other services, donations are preferred. Use the link above or just google ‘food pantries near me’ to find your closest site and make a donation.
What’s the Plan with Leah and Ezra: New year, new link
Our weekly What’s the Plan (WTP) virtual chats with Indivisible co-founders and co-executive directors Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin were a 2025 innovation and we've found that the regular, live Q&A with supporters has been a great way to share our thinking about news of the day and honestly assess our strategies and tactics going forward.
Our final chat of the year is this Thursday at 3pm ET/ 12pm PT, and then, good news: We’re going to keep these going in 2026. But if you want to keep joining us (or join us for the first time) in the new year, you’ll need to use this new link.
Just to repeat that -- the link people have used for all this year’s Zooms (including this Thursday’s) will not sign you up or ensure reminders for next year’s Zooms. Please use this new WTP link to join the weekly chats in 2026.
And if you aren’t signed up for this Thursday’s chat, you can do that here.
IndivisiWIN of the week
Every Saturday (including last Saturday, when temps were well below frigid), members of Indivisible Central Michigan rally on a corner in the town of Mt. Pleasant. Many drive some distance to be there, most come with signs, and everyone shows up with a fire in their belly. Focused on strengthening local political engagement, these Indivisibles are doing the work to ensure that their communities know not just what the regime is doing, but that their neighbors are fighting back.
Indivisible groups everywhere are making sure their communities are informed, organized, and ready to fight; it's this kind of commitment that led to the success we saw against Trump in Indiana this week. Want to be part of this work? The best way in is to join your local Indivisible group!
Follow Indivisible national on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads to keep up on the latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to their text messaging program, where they send rapid response actions a few times a month.
