As corporate media focus on the dramatic impeachment hearings being conducted in Washington, D.C., another impeachment story is unfolding: Activists around the country are preparing to mobilize on the eve of the U.S. House of Representatives’ vote on impeaching President Trump. As witnesses testify in the nation’s capital, activists are making signs, getting protest permits and drafting speeches.
On the night before what will be a historic vote, people throughout the country will pick up their signs, grab their megaphones and head to the nearest office of their House representative or senator, or to their state Capitol building. There, they will rally, calling on lawmakers to support impeachment and sending the message: Nobody is above the law. Nobody.
Actions are planned in more than 270 cities in 43 states and Washington, D.C. They include cities in red and purple states — even cities and counties that voted for Trump in 2016, such as Boise, Idaho (the state voted for Trump by 59 percent to 27 percent); Gold Canyon, Arizona (the state went for Trump by 48 percent to 44 percent); Sherman, Texas (the state went for Trump by 52 percent to 43 percent); Springfield, Missouri (the state went for Trump by 56 percent to 38 percent); Muncie, Indiana (the state went for Trump by 56 percent to 37 percent); and Greensburg, Pennsylvania (the state went for Trump by 48 percent to 47 percent).
Still, we need to make sure people mobilize in all 50 states. Yes, the logistics are daunting. No one knows exactly when the House will vote. It’s hard to commit to doing something on a day yet to be determined. After all, while impeachment hearings go on, people still must go about their lives, schedule doctors’ appointments, plan kids’ soccer games and RSVP for work functions.
But mass action works, and we’ve done this before. With a coalition of more than 50 groups ranging from MoveOn.org and the Women’s March, to Daily Kos and People For the American Way, we at Public Citizen organized people for months to mobilize at a moment’s notice to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
So when Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions last November, more than 100,000 people throughout the country took to the streets to protect Mueller’s investigation. People came out and protested by tens of thousands soon after that when Attorney General William Barr refused to release the Mueller report.
Now, people are driven to take action because they are horrified by the mounting evidence that the president of the United States engaged in mobster-like behavior. They know that nobody is above the law — especially the president.
The facts are well-established. Trump bribed Ukraine; he withheld $400 million in desperately needed military aid to force the country’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, whom Trump perceives as a threat in the 2020 election. Trump, in short, pressured another country to interfere in a U.S. election, and then he tried to cover it up.
Even as the hearings were going on, Trump was tweeting, making threatening statements targeting former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Meanwhile, Republicans are hunkering down, protecting Trump by making outlandish claims and attacking the government workers who are speaking truth to power at the hearings.
That’s why we need more people in the streets. Lots more. Enough to make lawmakers realize that it is untenable for Trump to remain in office.
Get involved by RSVPing for a “Nobody is Above the Law” event at impeach.org or sign up to host one yourself.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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