Politico
By Gabriel Debenedetti
March 15, 2016
Leaders
of more than 20 leading liberal groups supporting both Hillary Clinton
and Bernie Sanders are set to release a scathing letter on Tuesday that
serves as a progressive call to arms
against Donald Trump, imploring Americans to undertake a unified set of
concrete steps to oppose the Republican front-runner — from protesting
to organizing large-scale voter turnout efforts.
“This
is a five-alarm fire for our democracy. A hate-peddling bigot who
openly incites violence is the likely presidential nominee of one of our
nation’s two major parties. It is alarming
and dangerous. Donald Trump’s candidacy is a threat to the America we
love, and we must respond to him and what he is stoking as such,” reads
the letter, which was obtained first by POLITICO. It is signed by top
officials of Sanders-backing groups like MoveOn.org
and Clinton-backing organizations including the Services Employees
International Union.
Many
of these groups have primarily focused on mobilizing their millions of
members — and spending significant sums of money — for their preferred
candidate in the Democratic primary thus
far. The letter recognizes a significant shift in thinking among them,
with leaders in the party’s left wing now setting their sights more
squarely on Trump rather than the protracted battle between Clinton and
Sanders. The signatures are acknowledgments from
leaders of those organizations that the time has come to more seriously
confront Trump — who could, they warn, actually win.
“Today
we are calling for a massive nonviolent mobilization of working people,
students, immigrants, children of immigrants, great-great-grandchildren
of immigrants, people of color and white
people, the unemployed and under-employed, people of faith, retirees,
veterans, women, and men — anyone who opposes bigotry and hate and loves
freedom and justice — to stand up to Trump’s bullying and bigotry,” the
note continues.
Other
high-profile signers of the letter — which was set to be released in
the opening hours of voting on Tuesday as Ohio, Illinois, Missouri,
North Carolina, and Florida go to the polls
— include Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club; Ilyse
Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America; Annie Leonard, executive
director of Greenpeace USA; and May Boeve, executive director of 350
Action. The text encourages more groups to sign
onto the effort.
Anticipating
the possibility that the billionaire real estate developer essentially
locks up the Republican nomination on Tuesday — and that he subsequently
pivots to a more widely-acceptable
message — the letter lists multiple examples of Trump encouraging
violence at his rallies. To fight back, the group proposes a
three-pronged response ahead of November’s general election, regardless
of the Democratic nominee.
First,
it encourages non-violent organizing, which the letter says could take
the form of community rallies, large-scale marches, teach-ins, and
social media campaigns.
Its
second recommendation is that members directly ask media outlets,
public officials, and companies whether they will actively “condemn
Trump’s racism, misogyny and xenophobia.”
And
third, the roughly 900-word missive proposes a voter mobilization
effort to drown out Trump’s supporters come the fall — recruiting
volunteers for phone banking and door-knocking.
“If
the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump for president — and the
odds are it will — there’s every reason to believe he has a serious shot
at winning the general election,” note the
progressives involved in the effort.
“We
cannot afford to underestimate him until it’s too late, as many
Republicans now regret having done during the primaries. If we wait to
see how things shake out to make our plans, it’ll
be too late and November will come sooner than anyone thinks."
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