Ask Your GOP Rep: "Would you stand up to Trump if you knew you were retiring?"

By Stephen, 13 October, 2017
pic of human spine
Encourage politicians to find their spines.

Do you have a Republican representative or senator, who toes the party line instead of doing what they themselves believe is good for the country? And writing them — telling them facts they already know — always feels like a hopeless exercise? Try this, to see if you can reconnect with scraps of integrity they or their staff are hiding in the Trump era.

Write them asking simply:

Would you stand up to Trump if you knew you were retiring?

Don't add team identifiers to it. Get some friends to do it with you, and push for an answer. Hand written postcards would be great. Ask it very, very politely in public places. Leave the conclusion open, it's obvious, you don't have to say it.



Inspired by Robert Reich's introduction of which "Republicans are willing to stand up to Trump"

to Susan B Glasser's For Trump, “Consequences Are Piling Up” with Republicans in Washington.

Cognitive Politics techniques: leading with facts backfires, where questions can get people thinking outside their normal patterns. Remind people of their own values, and it's often most powerful to set up the conclusion while letting them take the last step.

We need politicians with more integrity across the spectrum. Do you have suggestions: what can you ask progressive politicians, what can you ask conservative politicians, that reminds them or their staff to reconnect with their own values?