Effective grassroots anti-war advocacyt

[Sorel]

INTRO & EXAMPLE: I don’t hold out much hope for general political solutions within the present system and maybe the whole edifice will have to collapse before things get seriously better. Still, I’m not really an accelerationist or Bannonite “Leninist” (the worse, the better) either. I’ve long been quite impressed at the effectiveness of grassroots advocacy on certain issues such as that of NumbersUSA on immigration. Believe me, I’ve seen it from the other side in my DC lobbying days when they would light up the switchboard and put the fear of voters in many a wavering congresscritter. Obviously they haven’t stopped the flood and their agenda is more moderate than mine (i.e., moratorium, deportations, etc.). Still, they have halted every major global amnesty in its tracks since Simpson-Mazzoli (the 1986 Reagan amnesty). Not perfect, but the U.S. would definitely be in worse shape without their efforts. (Tl;dr: join NumbersUSA–No need to reinvent that wheel here!)

ISSUE: But what I’d really like to see is some kind of similar focused, targeted, grassroots advocacy mobilization (complete with congressional scorecards and primary recommendations, etc.–which, unfortunately can’t be 501(c)(3) tax deductible) that focuses on threats of war, military-industrial complex spending, and U.S. sanctions and intervention in the internal affairs of other countries in general. I’m not a pacifist in general but I wouldn’t mind making common cause with some principled leftists (e.g., the Quaker AFSC). It certainly wouldn’t address every pro-White concern but stopping a U.S. intervention in Ukraine, Iran, Venezuela, etc. or getting U.S. forces out of Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Niger, Libya (betcha didn’t know we were in all those places!) would be a straight up good in itself. And let’s face it, there will be no future for the White or any other race after a nuclear conflagration. Again, even if I can head such a thing off by myself or with others, I’d feel better going to my maker having at least done what I could and raised my voice against it.

Antiwar.com is a good website for information but they don’t recommend focused actions on legislation, appropriations, executive actions, or primarying warmongers. I’ve raised such with them and gotten no response. I suppose they don’t want to endanger their 501(c)(3) status.

SAMPLE ACTION: Anyway, just to start things off, let me recommend that everyone on this list write to the White House at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ (you don’t have to use your real info) and say something like:

“No U.S. war with Russia! We have no legitimate interest in any dispute between it and Ukraine. In fact our intervention in the 2014 coup that overthrew Ukraine’s elected government is largely responsible for the tension ever since.

Please withdraw all U.S. forces (including contractors, intelligence operatives, and Private Military Companies) from the region and lift all sanctions against the Russian Federation.

Thank you.”

I’m always tempted to go on and on with demands/recommendations but I think it’s better to keep it as simple and direct as possible with each letter … and then just write more letters later. I suspect that, if these are read at all it is by a lowly clerical staffer that is just looking for a box to check–which is fine if we can run up the tally in one direction. I do understand, however, from the inside that some letters do make it to higher staffers in the policy pecking order. Still, you don’t have to wax eloquent–if your message is clear enough, quantity is worth more than quality and there are new issues almost every day and there’s no limit but I would recommend keeping the content original and non-spammy. (Sometimes I include links to more-or-less mainstream sources that make the point better than I could.)

If this got bigger, we could develop congressional strategies based on individual states and districts but for now, what do folks think? If anyone likes it, I’ll suggest more actions in the future.

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