Helping Michigan to Hold the Line

Photo by Kristen Mink/Center for Popular Democracy

Late Thursday evening I got word via the Center for Popular Democracy that there was to be an action on Friday morning at DCA airport in Virginia. Two Michigan lawmakers had been invited to the White House, Mike Shirkey, GOP Senate Majority Leader in the Michigan State legislature, and Lee Chatfield, GOP Majority Leader in the Michigan house. The action consisted of meeting them at the airport and asking them if they believe Biden is the President-elect, and if so, why have they not acknowledged that publicly, and why are they suddenly meeting with Trump at the White House? A crew of about fifteen to twenty activists greeted them noisily, both with questions, chants (“Certify the vote!”), and signs (‘SHAME”).

Sarah Murray, from Eleven Three’s Slack channel, proposed the following talking points for conversations with these lawmakers. I am posting them here as they are quite useful for a variety of circumstances:

“Sound the themes that will have some emotional resonance with Republicans—tradition, upholding the Constitution, more than 200 years of peaceful transitions of power and respecting the will of the voters, even during troubled times […]. They don't want to be on the wrong side of history, on record as destroyers of the longest-running democracy in human history. And once they start undermining people's belief in elections, where does that leave them, if they ever plan to run for office again? Where does it leave all the Republicans who won (or appeared to win) Senate and House seats while Biden and Harris won the Presidency? Are they suggesting we should challenge all of those wins as well? Should Democrats be going into the streets to challenge the Republican wins—is that what they are asking for? Are they saying that their elections to office were possibly not legitimate and should be re-examined?”

Good to keep in mind!