Proposal for grassroots organizing in every congressional district

An idea for a national movement

I am inspired by the 50501 protests, the unwavering dedication and commitment of our federal civil servants, and the thousands and thousands of calls Americans have been making to their congress members.

I have been disappointed by the lack of unified response by Americans’ elected officials in response to the president’s unconstitutional acts. If Americans in all 50 states can coordinate a nation-wide protest in 3 days, their congresspeople can organize more coherently in our capitol building’s halls. If federal civil servants have found the courage to continue to uphold their oaths, we can and should expect - actually demand - courage from our elected officials.

I’ve put together a plan on how to demand our members of congress restore the our taxpayer funded government to the way we already paid for it to be- on January 19, 2025.¹

I. Overview

We make a coordinated, organized effort to demand all US Representatives and Senators take two specific actions in Congress until two specific demands are met.

A. Actions

1. Shut down the Federal Government

2. Immediately stop proceedings on all presidential appointees.

B. Demands

1. The president issue an executive order restoring the federal government (all departments, positions, funding, everything) to the way it was on January 19, 2025

2. The president issue an executive order appointing a special prosecutor approved by the American Bar Association to investigate Elon Musk for violations of Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. § 552a, and any other unlawful activity uncovered by a reasonable investigation.

C. Method

1. Organized 1st Amendment activity demanding our congress members sign a pledge and publicly support items I.A. and I.B and commit to this policy’s implementation.

   1. I thought folks might naturally organize by congressional district -

   2. Opportunity to build off of the networking from the ongoing country-wide protests and DC protests.

2. For members of congress that do not respond to I.C.1.

   1. Support primary candidate or opponent who will sign pledge (C.1.)

   2. Public awareness campaigns on harm president’s unconstitutional acts are causing their local community

      1. pressure local elected officials to call for I.C.1.

      2. local media

      3. organized social events

      4. organized protests and rallies with politicians and public figures who support I.C.1.

D. Strikes

If this plan works, there will effectively be a strike, as the federal civil servants may be furloughed during shut down or terminated by the administration. I also propose that we have a general strike if/when congress and/or the president refuse.

1. Strike Funds

   This presumes there will be an interruption of federal salary and federal benefits at some point.

   1. Federal Workers

      1. Work with federal employees unions (maybe federal employee credit unions too) to set up or support existing strike funds

   2. Social service recipients

      i. work on supporting local non-profits and leaders already supporting neighbors in need.

2. General Strike Preparation

   • Look to examples from France and India and other countries that have successfully staged general strikes in recent history.

   • Idea is that by working together on the political pressure phase we can start to build local networks of mutual aid and shared commitment to constitutional ideals. This is good for 2 reasons

     • If things get worse - better organized than would otherwise be

     • If things get better - new political movement based on shared constitutional ideals

II. Why?

A. Why demand Congress take the actions outlined in section I.A.?

1. These things are within Congress’s lawful constitutional powers and are quite easy for them to do.

   • There have been 20 government shutdowns since 1976. Four since 2012.

   • Republicans currently have a 3 seat majority in the US House - they are already fighting among themselves about spending. It would not take much to shut down the government.

   • During the Biden Administration, Senator Tuberville (R-AL) held military appointments for 9 months of the due to his anti-Abortion politics, despite Democrats controlling a majority of Senate seats at the time.²

2. These actions are proportionate to the administration’s unconstitutional actions.

   • Congress should not enable the administration’s continued abuse of its power while it is failing to faithfully execute its constitutional obligations.

3. If met - these actions would lead to accountability for the illegal actions that have occurred.

   • The remedy sought is directly correlated to the harm done.

   • Similar to the strikes MLK Jr. and other civil rights leaders led where they would refuse to patronize racist businesses.

4. These are things that are within our rights to do as our congressional representatives’ constituents.

   1. We elect our members of Congress to represent us and govern on our behalf.

   2. The First Amendment gives us the right to petition government.

   3. We have the right to support whatever political candidates we choose and to run for office ourselves - assuming we meet the minimum requirements set forth in the constitution.

   4. The Supreme Court in Citizens United has affirmed that citizens can spend unlimited amounts of money on political activity.

B. Outline of how President Trump has violated the constitution

1. Americans elect Congress to pass laws on our behalf.

2. Congress passes our country’s laws on our behalf. Whenever a law is passed, the president has the opportunity to veto the law or sign it into law. This is the president’s only opportunity to block legislation.

3. Once Congress laws have been enacted, the president has the constitutional obligation to faithfully execute those laws.

4. The president administers the executive branch of government (cabinet departments - like the Defense Dept., Justice Dept., Dept. of Education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) on American’s behalf.

5. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the sole power to collect taxes and to spend money on Americans’ behalf.

6. Congress funds the all of US government (including the white house and executive branch) by passing laws.

7. Those laws are passed the same way as outlined in paragraph 2 of this section. Once Congress passes a bill funding the government, and directing how the money is to be spent, the president has one opportunity to sign it into law or to veto it.

8. Since taking office on January 20, 2025, President Trump has been refusing to faithfully execute the laws Congress has passed on Americans’ behalf.

   1. President Trump has unlawfully fired, terminated, or otherwise separated thousands of employees of the US government without good or just cause.

   2. President Trump has unlawfully ended several programs that were lawfully funded by the American people’s tax dollars through lawful acts of Congress.

9. Not even 30 days into President Trump’s administration, there are too many specific constitutional violations to list, there are thousands of examples of conduct described generally of paragraph 8 of this section.

10. Accordingly, the only appropriate remedy is to restore the US government to the way it was on January 19, 2025- the last time the executive branch was faithfully executing Congress’s laws.

C. Outline of President Trump’s corruption and illegal patronage

1. In August 2024, then-presidential nominee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. indicated he would drop out of the race and support President Trump’s campaign, if Mr. Trump agreed to give Mr. Kennedy a cabinet position.³ President Trump subsequently nominated him to Secretary of Health and Human Services despite lack of qualification or merit.

2. Elon Musk has business interests that earn billions of dollars of Americans’ tax dollars per year.

3. Elon Musk has relationships with Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian opponents of American democracy.

4. Elon Musk donated millions of dollars in support of President Trump’s reelection campaign and against Kamala Harris.

5. President Trump has given Mr. Musk access to Americans’ private, government data.

6. President Trump has unlawfully permitted Mr. Musk to influence government spending and personnel policies.

D. Why such a narrow scope?

1. Biggest Audience Possible

   I personally have a lot of policy issues that I care deeply about - abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, reform of our immigration system to a humane one, rent being unaffordable in every city, 50% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, medicare for all. I personally have organized, volunteered, donated, voted and protested for these issues before.

   But I also know people who disagree with me on these issues and have different political policy preferences than I do who are just as angry about the unconstitutional actions outlined above as I am. I believe we have the most chance for success if we can appeal to the largest possible audience.

2. There is broad consensus on these issues

   Related to 1 but different. For example, it might be fair to say that a lot of Americans have strong feelings about abortion - but there is not likely to be a large consensus across everyone who cares about the issue.

   Here, there is no good faith argument that President Trump and Elon Musk’s actions as outlined above are lawful. There will be and have been plenty of bad faith arguments in support of it. But the President cannot refuse to execute our laws and cannot refuse to provide us the services we have paid for. Mr. Musk is not an elected official and is not qualified to access our sensitive government data.

   I personally think the administration’s actions on immigration are reprehensible, but immigration is a complex issue and a concern of many Americans - trying to organize an effective country-wide protest around a set of concrete demands on immigration reform and detention/deportation policy would take years. But don’t lose hope, see number 3.

3. Building a grassroots network of people committed to using our political power to preserve constitutional democracy - what a great start.

I’m sure that as we continue to organize we will discover that there are many issues we mostly agree with each other on and decide to organize together in pursuit of those beliefs. I think that is great, and I hope it happens. I hope this movement leads to good, qualified people getting involved in politics and legislating change. But even if we disagree with each other on every other political issue, knowing that we have allies who are committed to the rule of law and the constitution will be a great way to help bridge political divide in our country.

4. One voice demanding one thing

Clarity and consistency of communication is critical in a nationwide campaign. Choosing these narrow issues will make it easier to stay on message. Easier to avoid bad faith and misleading arguments meant to distract from or obfuscate the truth.

5. Right ask of the right people

   • Congress is supposed to listen to its constituents - it is a principle of republicanism⁴

   • The things we are demanding are in the language of the constitution - these are their literal job duties

   • We have the power to fire them for not listening to us - they need us for their jobs and their power

   • Contrast this with symbolic protests and rallies that lack specific actionable demands and consequences

E. Take advantage of existing systems vs 3rd party/starting from scratch

1. I’ve been waiting for the Green Party to do something relevant for over 20 years. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders and AOC have been able to effect policy while holding to their core beliefs within Democratic politics. In the Republican Party, both the Tea Party and MAGA movements have provided opportunities for relative political newcomers to become viable political candidates - and have unseated or driven to retirement several long-standing Republican elected officials. If this is truly going to be a nationwide, every congressional district political movement that gets stood up ASAP - then I think we need to not be precious about how we do it. We’re currently at a public pressure phase, so you may naturally find more people of one political party or another that are your natural allies.

   When it comes time to run yourself, if you live in a deep red district and feel like you have a connection with local conservative/republican leaning folks - we’ll support you. If you’re deep blue and need to pull an AOC and primary a useless entrenched Democrat, we’ll help you out. Hell, Bernie Sanders is technically an independent - I’d love a viable Green Party in America, prove me wrong! But lets not make building the perfect, incorruptible political party a prerequisite to promptly addressing the emergency at hand.

2. To me, the very point of the movement, is that it transcends banal contemporary American politics and news culture. Our movement is based in basic constitutional principles. The constitutional harm is clear. The redress is clear. And our right and privilege as Americans to effect change through political action are clear.

1. I have also demanded my members of congress address Elon Musk’s repeated violations of Americans’ privacy. Great resource from attorney Elizabeth Booker Houston on pursuing claims of violation of the Privacy Act against Mr. Musk.

2. Military.com article from November 06, 2023 describing some of Sen. Tuberville’s Republican colleagues vocal criticisms of his “nine-month stunt.” Hill.com article describing how hold was hurting the military.

3. When asked for comment at the time, then-Sen. JD Vance said “I think you shouldn’t ever trade important jobs in the government for an endorsement. Whether it’s illegal or not, it’s certainly unethical,”

4. Contrast a pure democracy where every citizen votes on every single issue. Most if not all modern democracies use a republican form of government, where the people elect representatives to govern on our behalf