Y'all, I'm a former local government person, and I want to talk about the things that I saw that did move the needle. (I was pushed out of government due to fighting racism, but before that, I was able to push meaningful things through.)
In normal times, it's enough to call your senator or representative. However, right now, we aren't in normal times, and it may become necessary to take advantage of the limits of Federal government power.
1/12
The Federal government is only a small piece of a complicated machine. Due to a focus on "deregulation" and "shrinking government", the current Federal workforce is smaller than it was during the 1990s.
They have the staff to make rules and oversee processes, but the work of implementing laws is passed down to States. Then, they pass it down to cities or counties, and then cities and counties fight over the money.
2/12
You may not think of your city/county government as being very important, since when they work well, it's possible to forget that they even exist.
However, when shit's going wrong at the Federal and even the State level, these local city/county governments are your last line of defense.
I'll talk more generally about this and then I'll go into specifics -
3/12
When I worked in local government, a single resident showing up to talk about something was enough to get phone calls made and change or influence Federal policy.
When you call a Federal representative, you're one of, potentially, millions. When you show up to speak at a City or County Council meeting, you are one of a very small group.
You don't need a big group in order to do this. You can go solo.
4/12
City and County politicians are deeply connected to their Federal counterparts. They don't just work in government together, they often know each other personally.
As a result, a single person, with a good two or three minute pitch at a council meeting, can change how a budget is allocated, how plans are made, and how policies are implemented.
And, that's the thing - these meetings are open for public comment from residents.
5/12
Local elections are often both more competitive and won by less votes, so quite frankly, councilors tend to be anxious about anyone that could potentially mobilize opposition to them when they need to run for election again.
If you care enough to show up and talk to them, then they're going to think about what you have to say very carefully.
6/12
Without doxing myself, I'll just say that I've been able to push things from the inside when the community brought it up, and change happened that made positive impacts in the community.
There are people just sitting there that can be given a reason to act through your actions. However, local government employees are typically (at least on the surface) apolitical.
If you don't show up, nothing happens.
7/12
Speaking in front of a Council for your City or State can seem intimidating, so I've got some bullet points that I've put together from what I've seen.
Keep in mind, these aren't points for arguing with them. I've seen that it can be helpful to ask the questions, request a response, and then follow-up mercilessly through email.
So, these are questions to ask. The point is to get your local government to start worrying.
8/12
If you're concerned about ICE, then you'll want to show up at your City or County council and hit the following points -
* Are local police cooperating with ICE?
* Are they following due process?
* What happens when due process isn't followed?
* If ICE isn't following due process, and local police are still coordinating, then how will they keep residents safe?
9/12
If you're concerned about what's being done with Federal spending (DOGE, etc), then you'll want to show up and hit the following points -
* Is the local area going to get all of their tax (federal pass-through) dollars?
* What will happen if the Federal government reverses funding like they did in New York?
* Are they ready for the recession that will come from Trump's economic policies?
10/12
If you're concerned with what's happening in health services, then show up with the following -
* How are they going to keep your community safe from disease?
* Will they be prepared if another COVID outbreak happens?
* What happens if they lose federal funding during an emergency?
11/12
For other things, you'll want to use the same strategy. By asking the questions and requesting follow-up, you're making it so that some bureaucrat gets to do the research to answer you.
That last part is important. I can promise you, right now, even a lot of conservative cities and counties won't like all of the answers that they get when they start making calls.
Make them make those calls.
12/12
This may sound like a pointless exercise. However, the truth is that this is how we reached this point to begin with.
Throughout the decade that I worked in government, I sometimes felt like I was under siege from the rightwing. They show up at Council meetings over even small things that they don't like. They push for answers, they request records, they made changes happen.
If they didn't see what they wanted? They ran for office.
13/12
On the left, I've noticed that there's a hyper focus on Federal politics. However, the Federal government generally doesn't have the people to *implement* policy. They allocate funds and they generally oversee processes, but it's State and Local staffing that has expanded to meet demand.
14/12
Of those two, local governments are extremely vulnerable to activist movements, and a good blueprint for decentralized activism is hammering those local governments with your concerns.
15/12
This feels obvious. But I also was unable to put the next step with "local politics" in a succinct way. Thank you. That this is exactly what we need to do. This is a great post. Even if you are mousey and get called "a liberal" all of the time by the cool kids this post still contains things you can and should do. Let's go!
@futurebird @scarlet
I haven't read through the thread yet but I was thinking about if US police were acting in accordance with the wishes of their local communities as there are elections for your local police department heads.
So is it possible to recall them or vote them out?
@scarlet phenomenal read, to the point where I used a hotel room notepad (for the first time in my life) to take notes.
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and knowledge!
@scarlet This is actually the thing I kinda love about politics.
National politics are big and scary.
Local can get deeply personal, deeply specific, and ironically deeply effective because real people have real issues that can be directly addressed individually.
I once door-to-doored for the Tim Kaine campaign (mayor, not VP). Lots of folks were supporting him. One man was vehemently opposed. The reason? "He made me neuter my dog." City law, man moved into the city, had to neuter his dog. He insisted I tell the Kaine campaign, personally.
When people opine to me about this or that phenomenon "swaying the voters" or claim to have some crystal ball on mind-reading the polity, I think about that man who would never support his mayor because they made him neuter his dog.
@scarlet My dad was on the city council for awhile. Someone tried to fist-fight him.
God bless New Jersey.
This is excellent. Everyone should read all your points.
@scarlet it is great to hear this from someone who has experience with it. This is the way we are trying to do it here, and it’s surprising how many people dont get it.
I started to question it myself so thanks for the encouragement!
superb, thank you!
@scarlet a lot of the states have a system online where you can weigh in support or oppose new house bills, and then again when they go to the Senate.
I don’t know how it works in the other states but in NH we were able to crush a bunch of really bad bills just by showing up in person for committee to testify against them or by going online and clicking oppose.
We had an abortion ban that had 800 supporters but 10,000 people were against it so they withdrew it.
Then we had an anti-education bill, 30,000 people opposed that. The committee actually moved to a different building because they were worried even 10% of those people would show up to testify in person. A whole bunch of people showed up. Only 64 people supported the anti-education bill. It was withdrawn, obviously.
I started out supporting a house bill 606, then I decided I wasn’t going to weigh in anymore because they removed the elective sterilization part which is what my story was regarding. But then I watched the testimony in front of the Senate and the two people who opposed it pissed me off so much that I wrote a whole testimony in support and emailed it to the senate. I was going to stay out of it because I was mad about it, but we needed to win those people were ridiculous.
Since January everything that people said was in project 2025 my state representatives have been trying to push in the state. It’s brutal. But they’re not winning. As long as people pay attention and show up they get shamed when faced with how unpopular their stupid ideas are.
Great thread, thank you @scarlet ! 
Plus: even anarchists can participate in local governance. Sounds weird to anybody? I can recommend Murray Bookchin, hehe 
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