Hashtags Are Not Activism... And Social Media Only Accomplishes So Much.

Not all Democrats are the same. Filling Congress with garden variety Democrats isn't even a good idea. It would just enable the worst instincts of the worst power-mad, values-free careerist Democrats, the Schumers, Emanuels, Bidens, Bustoses and Hoyers. Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and our nation. He's got to be dealt with. But nominating Joe Biden is exactly the wrong way to deal with him, absolutely guaranteeing that Trumpism will triumph, either in 2020 or soon after. Political hacks like Biden and what they stand for-- nothing-- is what caused us to be burdened with Trumpism to begin with. We're in the midst of a primary. We should pick the best Democrat running, not the one the corporate-- anti-working class-- media tells us can beat Trump, the way they told us Hillary would-- just to prevent Bernie from actually doing so. Bernie's as much a threat to our corporate overlords as Spartacus was a threat to Rome's slaving-owning aristocracy.

Yesterday John Pavlovitz compared hashtags to bumper stickers-- and suggested there is an alternative to both, one that as Americans, we need to start seriously thinking about. Hashtage, he wrote "change nothing."

• They don’t strike fear into the hearts of criminals.
• They don’t intimidate lawless politicians.
• They don’t terrify soulless, malevolent despots.
• They don’t force corrupt leaders out into the light.

• They don’t change legislation or alter elections.

• They don’t bring revolutions.

Neither do politicians who run for office because of their egos. Revolutions take a lot of selflessness and a lot of planning. Revolutions are the opposite of Status Quo Joe.

All hashtags do is let us do the absolute minimum and imagine that we’re helping. They are emotional intoxicants meant to briefly soothe us and numb us enough so that we can bear the burdens in front of us. 
They give us the illusion of power while leaving us powerless.
They are paper tigers we hope will scare away the real monsters.

...[Trump and his henchmen] know that we mistake social media for work and hashtags for activism. They know that whenever a new flood of passion rises and trends, they need only wait it out, let the words swell and crash loudly through our newsfeeds and timelines-- until they soon disappear.

They realize that our hashtags and campaigns and marches are events, they are not movements, and all they need to do is weather a little noise and bombast for a few hour-- and then they can continue eroding our freedoms, compromising our safety, and winning the war.

And they are winning-- while we’re flexing on social media.

In Hong Kong and Lebanon and Barcelona, people are reminding us that there is a cost to freedom, a price to be paid for fighting injustice, there is collateral damage to pushing back against tyranny. There is more required than a few keystrokes and a new status update. We need to get into the trenches and put skin in the game. We need to incarnate our convictions.

In the face of unprecedented corruption and human rights violations and legislative overreach, Americans are going to need to sacrifice more than two-inch space on our timelines.

We’re eventually going to have to show up.

We’re going to have to speak in one unified, sustained voice.

We’re going to have to be present and unmovable, and place ourselves in harm’s way-- and I’m not sure we’re up for that in America.

We used to be. Our nation’s history is filled with courageous, sacrificial people who decided that their lives and the lives of people who would follow them here (people like us), merited their inconvenience and their loss of income and their received injuries and their bold movement into the path of police dogs and firehouses and bullets.

There are people here today who can marry and vote and live in the country, because someone gave enough of a damn to resist, not with words but with their bodies and their presence and their lives. The fact that we haven’t been moved enough to move yet makes me worry that we will never be. I fear we don’t care enough to say enough is enough.

I feel like we’re the frog slowly being boiled alive, while unaware of the temperature steadily rising around us. I’m afraid that we’ll sit here and simmer until it’s too late, and all we’ll leave behind are the black and white words we imagined would save us.

I hope we can wake up enough and find enough energy to make our presence here be felt enough so that those who follow us will inherit something worthy of them.

Hashtags are not activism.


They will not save us.


We need to save ourselves.

I spoke with some of the Blue America-endorsed congressional candidates who are real activists and not just twitter warriors. Texan Mike Siegel was the first to respond. "What gets me out of bed in the morning is not raising money, or expanding my social media reach or cultivating influential supporters," he said. "For me, this is about using a Congressional campaign to accomplish real things in the world. How can we use the apparatus and infrastructure, the staff and communications tools, to advance movements for progressive social change? In 2018, it was fighting for the voting rights of students at an historically-Black university, Prairie View A&M. I joined with local folks to protest a vote suppression policy, that was making it hard for students to vote; when I sent a staffer to deliver a demand letter, he was promptly arrested. The incident brought local and national attention to the issue, and when Rachel Maddow had us on her show, officials decided to reverse their decision. In 2019, a year before the 2020 election, we've been hard at work on similar projects. In February we mobilized to oppose the confirmation of a Texas Secretary of State who had attempted to purge 95,000 Mexican-Americans from the voting rolls. In March we knocked doors to keep open a hospital in rural La Grange. In June we got out the vote for a Democrat running for City Council in rural Bastrop County. And in September we held the first Texas town hall on the Green New Deal. Through these actions, we should what real, progressive representation looks like. My pitch is not, 'I'm so great, put me in office.' Rather, it's 'this is how we build power, this is how we build a movement, and when we win this seat, the movement will have a voice in Congress.' Through this type of campaign, we are earning the support of organizers and activists-- people who may not be on the DCCC donor list, but who can get out the vote. And it is with these people-- the engaged, concerned citizens of this district-- that we will beat the reactionary, elitist Rep. McCaul, and elect a real progressive in Texas 10."

Rachel Ventura is another through-and-through activist. A member of the Will County board, now she's running for Congress in a Chicagoland district occupied by multimillionaire New Dem Bill Foster. "When," she asked rhetorically, "is enough enough and have the American people been completely duped into believing the words on social media will change anything? I recently found myself explaining why a climate strike isn’t supposed to be convenient. No one should have to explain this. I’ve protested against wars, marched against Monsanto, marched for women’s rights, rallied for our state to pass a budget, stood on the picket lines with teachers and union workers, fought against warehouse expansions, stood up to city hall and our police, demanded we abolish ICE, joined hundreds in multiple climate marches and strikes, rallied for Medicare for all, knocked thousands of doors, and sent money for the fights I couldn’t attend like the protest in North Dakota against the pipeline. Some of these fights we are still fighting.

When people physically show up it sends a different message then an email, phone call, or tweet. It says I was moved enough to do something. While social media has it’s uses as a mass communication tool with some engagement, it does not replace the importance of showing up, nor does it leave one with the sense of empowerment. If you have ever been in a large group you have probably felt the collective energy it creates. That feeling has the power to move mountains and change political landscapes. If you have never felt this it is time to step out your door and organize.

You can step out your door and step into our people-powered campaign. We are always willing to give you your first opportunity knocking on doors. Ventura for Congress is a training ground for future activists and candidates. If you want to learn how to run a winning grassroots campaign, this is the place to do it. If you want to talk to wealthy donors so you can hear their perspective on the world and then buy TV ads, this is not the campaign for you.

Margaret Mead said it best “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Jason Butler, a Wake County, North Carolina progressive pastor and long-time grassroots activist, quoted Frederick Douglas: 'Power concedes nothing without a demand.' Those in power will not let their power go because of a hashtag. They will only change when they see that they are met with a demand from an equally powerful group of individuals that threaten their status. That is why we must organize for the common good. We must organize people and organize money in order meet those who are holding power with a demand from the masses that gives the powerful little choice but to react to us. Organized people have power that creates reactions and once the powerful begin to react-- then change is possible. But, just as organized labor must sometimes strike to affect change, so too will we have to strike-- march-- raise our voice-- come together and struggle for the flourishing future we desire."

Tacoma Washington affordable housing activist Rebecca Parson knows what she's talking about. "Activism and organizing in our communities," she told us, "is so important, because it lets us create the change we need. The Tacoma Tenants Organizing Committee formed out of a shared struggle after a real estate developer evicted an entire apartment building. Myself and other tenants have organized to win stronger protections for tenants in Tacoma, protections that went on to influence state-wide protections that the legislature passed as well. These changes have real, material impacts in our lives, but the struggle continues. As Congresswoman for Washington's 6th District, I will fight for national rent control, national just cause for eviction, massive construction of social housing, and the elimination of homelessness. But I won't be able to do it alone, and neither will other progressive members of Congress. We need the grassroots pushing for change, like when the Sunrise Movement occupied Speaker Pelosi's office. With organizers on the 'outside' and legislators on the 'inside,' we can win."

Eva Putzova was an activist who got elected to the Flagstaff City Council. Now she's running for a congressional seat occupied by "former" Republican Tom O'Halleran who you could call the opposite of an activist. "Real activism," said Eva, "comes out of fighting to improve the lives of ordinary people with deeds, not just words. I began my activism in Flagstaff as a member of community organization called the Friends of Flagstaff's Future whose goal was to protect open spaces and advocate for city development and housing policies that were environmentally sustainable and social equitable. Organizing members, strategizing around the local policies, and spending countless hours in front of the City Council led to another time-consuming, 5-year service on the city’s Regional Plan Committee. Realizing that city officials could ignore the recommendations expressed in the Regional Plan, I decided to run for city council to be in a position where I could represent those whose voices are too often ignored. In my year-long campaign for the council I went door to door to talk to voters. I won because I was upfront about my values and positions and clearly identified my top priority. Everyone knew what I stood for when I talked about shared prosperity and living wages and they responded by voting me in by a large margin. Then I worked on delivering on my campaign promise. The conservative Council I joined wouldn’t raise wages legislatively, so I decided to lead a citizen initiative campaign to raise Flagstaff's minimum wage in my spare time. I met with workers regularly to learn about the hardships they faced working for low wages and being cheated by their employers on a regular basis. Our initiative was framed in a way that offered a solution to their exploitation and they voted overwhelmingly for the initiative. In all my organizing activities in Flagstaff, I learned that to be a successful social-political activist one must be clear about their values, engage with people constantly to listen to their concerns, and then develop a plan that will accomplish the goals. There is no shortcut to bringing about radical social change. Armchair philosophers and twitter warriors can only interpret the world. The point is to change it."