Post-Election Plan for 2022 (Shift Report #1)
How We Can Realistically Navigate Instability, Revitalize the Democracy, & Change Our Trajectory Even As Risk Intensifies
Howdy Everyone!
These two kids in the picture above are a perfect image for how it feels to be working on this shift. The picture is two blonde kids sitting on some steps with a clipboard; scheming. Also the photo might look a bit like my childhood — we were always up to some stuff.
First — if this post resonates given the threats before us, please share it widely to all of your friends, family, connections, groups, mailing lists, and activist organizations.
That can also serve as a good excuse to reach out to everyone you know to make sure they’re voting, and for the pro-democracy candidates (i.e., Democrats) this election.
This post is our first “Shift Report.” Shift the Country will post occasional updates like this with a big-picture summary of what we’re working on. They will have updates, challenges, status of actions, and plans that should theoretically transpire on close to the planned timeline… assuming new chaos doesn’t throw off the plan. In which case we’ll send a new Shift Report with an updated plan.
The idea is to share more behind-the-scenes of what it will take to create this work so we can get folks more involved, invested, and active in helping us bring it into reality.
Vision and planning are critical to collectively charting out and moving toward a different future than where we’ve been headed.
We Can Navigate Instability, Revitalize the Democracy, & Change Our Trajectory
^^ That sub-header right there is our new website headline.
We’re coming into a time of increasing intensity (more here and here, and at the end of the post). The risk landscape indicates that things could get crazy and unstable in the US like really any minute; they already are. We have a growing authoritarian (and increasingly fascist) movement in the US that threatens our national security, our democracy, and the world order. We can get through it while we support each other, hold the country together, catalyze change, and also counter and reduce the threat.
Shift the Country is a unique, new organization put together to help with exactly this risk landscape. This moment was predictable; we’ve been getting ready. Here’s our background. Here’s a risk analysis — why we need this shift. Here’s what happens if US democracy fails.
Join us. Share this. Because no other group has put together a 5-part framework built exactly for this risk… with such potential to drive and influence the local and national narrative while also re-weaving the frayed social fabric that contributed to the authoritarian movement in the first place. This work helps us build resilience and strength while we’re countering the threat, empowering the majority, and shifting the future of this country in a different direction than where it’s been headed.
Authoritarianism — or worse, fascism — isn’t good for the economy, for businesses, for families, for worldwide competitiveness, for innovation, for problem-solving, for addressing climate change, for our health, for diversity, for equity, for equality, for our shared future, or for freedom.
Shift the Country is a recipe to counter authoritarianism; grounded in history and sociology and so much else.
History shows that a strong, unified majority coalition of opposition with a powerful vision and agenda can counter authoritarian movements. This is a reachable and achievable plan to get started with our 5-part approach that does exactly that.
Every great thing we’ve done in human history has happened when we had the vision for it, made a plan to make that shift happen, and then did it.
So let’s get started.
The Post-Election Plan For 2022
We’re Getting This Shift Going Immediately After The 2022 Election — We’ve had about a zillion false starts for this work; that got us this far. Time for a real start… involving lots of people. We start immediately after the 2022 election, and work forward from there.
Vision — If we’re serious about growing this shift, we (Shift the Country) need to share the vision… and then grow it together. November and December 2022 will be about getting the vision and the blueprint out, building a volunteer base, growing connection, creating gathering space for connection and strength, and getting teams as working groups together to start building this shift in the real world. The two event tracks will facilitate forward progress.
Recruit Volunteers & Participants — We’re using Facebook ads to recruit people to online events (to be announced 11/9/22) or to volunteer to get this shift going (Contribute here). We can start running political ads on Facebook on November 9 after the election restriction period ends. Teamwork events start November 14; five days after ads begin to allow time for ads to run to get people to events. More ad reach = more participation = the more shift we get going. Funds help. Events will get us into active teamwork, connection, networking, brainstorming, ideas, & action to make big shift happen.
Substack, Now — We’re already doing more frequent posts on Substack as we ramp this shift up. Posts will include perspective on the state of things, threat analysis, empowerment, insights, occasional Shift Reports such as this, and Stories such as yesterday’s first Stories post. As of today, we have 501 (!!) subscribers, 17 of those as paid subscriptions that support this shift, and an average 25% email-open rate. You can help grow our following, reach, & community by sharing this post with your friends list, by subscribing, or by upgrading to a paid subscription.
Substack, As An Anchor — Substack is our primary event announcement and info distribution channel. It’s a key anchor point, and more reliable than depending on social media algorithms to keep up. This shift will grow as we all bring more people, connections, and organizations into it & what we can make it.
Substack, Coming Soon — We have our first guest post coming in a few days, and we’re open to others. We’re setting up a process for that on this Substack over the next several weeks. It will include an approach for sharing stories from people making shift happen; or sharing their fights, pain, vision, dreams, or struggles. Substack now has apps for both Android and iThings. As soon as the brand-new as-of-yesterday chat feature is enabled for Android (chat already works on the other app), we’ll set it up for Shift the Country. We’re already approved for video (our example here). Once we bring in enough funds to produce a podcast, we’ll host it on Substack, too.
Other Social Media & Platforms — Substack is the anchor social media for content including posts, video, announcements, community, & a podcast to come. We also have Eventbrite for event registration; YouTube, for video uploads and livestreams; Facebook for content, community, & ads; Twitter (for now); and LinkedIn (Shift the Country page & founder profile). We’re considering Discord for community for longer term, and the website also has community features that we can start using once we learn them & get more activity. We’ll consider other platforms & content types (like short videos) as we grow capacity and funding.
(Internal) Build Out Events on Eventbrite — By November 9, we’ll have built out a 6-8 week event schedule on Eventbrite (and Zoom) for registration and participation through mid-December 2022. We’ll be ready to run Facebook ads to promote all events to drive participation starting November 9. Events begin on two tracks starting November 10 (Solidarity & Strength) and November 14 (Teamwork for the 5 Things).
Online Events Track; for Solidarity, Strength, & Synergy — We’ll start free shift check-in types of events to plant seeds, check in, share in connection, share information, share and amplify, and pass along strength and courage. Synergy is behind everything. These events will begin on November 10 or before; and continue as we grow this shift. There will be several per week; planned weekly for Monday afternoons/evenings and Thursday afternoons/evenings. People can jump in as availability and interest allows. These can help us navigate, act, and keep our collective sanity if things ramp up fast in very unfortunate ways after the election.
Online Events Track; for Teamwork — Online teamwork to build this shift will start after the 2022 election. Teamwork events (free) are expected to start November 14. The point is to collectively develop and build the 5 Things out to action plans and action that will grow traction and a movement. As ideas coalesce and solidify, these will become longer-term volunteer working groups. We won’t know exactly what all of that will look like until we get together and start figuring this shift out.
Recruit Volunteers To Make This Shift Happen — We’ll need to find people willing to volunteer in different areas with skillzzzz or with motivation or both. Signing up isn’t a commitment; it’s saying you’re willing to consider helping out in a particular area. The volunteer sign-up list is to help us easily reach people with particular interests, specialties, or availability.
Start Leveraging Our Networks & Contacts To Build This Shift — Everyone involved in this shift can get going on this bit, including our internal team (founder, advisors, board) and our growing group of followers and volunteers. Once we have events posted on November 9, it will be time to socialize this big time. A key part of this shift is the synergy, amplification, and energy that can happen if we do more with the huge landscape of fired-up people and groups in this country. Let’s take what we’ve all build to get this far… and do way more with it. Bigger ideas, bigger coalitions, more fights, more moral courage, more advocacy, more attention, more driving of the narrative and of policy. We can. Our post-election events will help with more of this, but you can get started now by sharing our stuff around and getting people signed up to volunteer, subscribe, and donate.
Get More Sustainable Funding — Our initial funding for this work ends this November. That funding has allowed me to work on this full-time for several months to get everything ready for this launch, and to get through a few weeks of it in November. If we want this unique shift to continue and grow, it needs real money. As we build a following and ramp up activity, that should help us crowdfund more regular donations. If we don’t pull in enough to sustain the work, we’ll have to set it aside and I’ll need to work full-time elsewhere. If we can grow it enough, I can keep working on it and also hire contractors to help us grow this faster, put more things in place like video and podcasts, handle data, do proper bookkeeping, and do better marketing. If you have ties to larger funding sources/opportunities, please let us know (email Vanessa Burnett, at team@shiftthecountry.com).
Expand Funding To Reach a Larger Audience & Build Bigger Shift — Funding helps us grow this shift as noted above, but it also helps us promote the work so we bring in participants, volunteers, and amplifiers. It can also help us promote (amplify) content and stories that begin to come out as we start really doing this work. The more of an “influencer” this initiative becomes, the more chance we have of spreading this shift.
(Internal) For Funding, Set Up ActBlue — We may be able to bring in more funding by using the clearly Democratic-leaning fundraising vehicle ActBlue. While our website uses NationBuilder technology (the other big giant in the campaign business), it’s not clear to the public through that site that our organization has been verified as reliable, legit, legal, and supporting Democratic-side causes. We’re working on the ActBlue process over the next week to get verified as a 501(c)(4) working to energize, reach, and mobilize a pro-democracy coalition of Democrats, independents and ex-Republicans to vote, to hold this country together, and to change the direction it’s headed in.
(Internal) Website Tweaks — As of this post, four items are being written/rewritten on the website following the recent October revision of the 5 Things… including the Donate! page (now done); Thing 1: Connect With People (now done); Thing 2: Do More With Community & Coalitions; and the overall website PDF document that will include the updates to the 5 Things. These changes should be implemented prior to the election and before starting ads on November 9.
(Internal) Legal Filings & Bookkeeping — By the end of 2022, we need the funding and a source for a nonprofit accountant, bookkeeper, or lawyer who can help us finish the first-year IRS filings required for a 501(c)(4). If you have appropriate contacts, please let us know (email Vanessa Burnett, at team@shiftthecountry.com).
Bring Your Flexibility & Big Ideas
Shift the Country intends to help navigate the risk, intensity, and chaos that are out there. If you’re walking on this journey with us, it will help if you can roll with some of the uncertainty and chaos. Resilience and flexibility will be super helpful. In a time of transformation, brittle structures won’t hold… and we’d do well to let them go where we can in our own lives, in our rules, in our expectations, and in our systems.
Navigating instability means having some instability while you do it… but we can also help build grounding and anchors together. We can work out from those as we grow this shift. Connection, community, and coalitions will help.
Even in the midst of fast-unfolding change, plans are helpful for successful execution and project management; especially at scale. That’s true even if you have to keep evolving the plans. Shift the Country will work to make realistic, implementable, agile, somewhat fluid plans. Getting this nascent nonprofit to this point has already required persistent iteration; a few highlights on that are in the “Ever-Morphing Plan” bit of this post.
Our founding team’s background in national programs, big disasters, nonprofit work, education, and project management will help us build this work, find our way through instability, and respond and iterate fast for influence and impact as everything is changing. What you bring will help, too. We need it all… and our big brains, big imaginations, open-mindedness, teamwork, and sense of cooperation.
To face the unprecedented and effectively re-route it, we’re going to need to do the unprecedented. We don’t know what that looks like yet, but we’re damn well going to find out.
Backdrop: Intel & Risk
Whenever I’ve worked in environments set up to handle big stuff fast in well-coordinated ways, it’s worked well to have some agile structure and protocols to help the involved people and groups make shift happen effectively (the “About” section of my LinkedIn profile highlights a few of those big initiatives).
Regular check-ins for teams help with coordination and synergy. Updates and intel on plans, threats, challenges, and progress can help everyone involved in the larger effort make their own decisions; given their role and location.
We all need decision support information — especially in the midst of crises. Shift the Country will create a framework and operating environment where we do what we help with that; especially as it relates to growing this shift.
For background, our Shift Reports are based loosely on an old job I had as a Fire Intelligence Coordinator in the big wildfire world of the southern half of California. One piece of my job there was to collect intel on daily fires in order to put out a regional “Sit Report” or “Situation Report” for the region to help prioritize resource mobilization and to support decision-making at every level. I submitted daily contributions of data and intel for the national daily sit report for the same reason. In that fire intel job, we also put out resource status reports (like about the stuff needed for firefighting or disaster response), and incident threat potential intel like fire danger; for example in Southern CA or nationally. In the big-disaster world, incident threat potential is anything from a terrorism threat assessment to a seasonal wildfire outlook to a hurricane track forecast. The mission of Shift the Country is the shift not the intel itself; but we’ll always keep the intel, situation, resources, and risk landscape in mind.
Our US threat landscape now includes that active authoritarian movement in the US; with no organized, clear, committed opposition from the US government or from any other political party or coalition. As such, one of our greatest national security threats is domestic violent extremism (DVE) tied to the authoritarian MAGA movement and white supremacy. Other threats abound. The rule of law is tenuous; for a wide array of reasons. Our former president has conducted what’s likely the largest and highest-level intelligence heist in the history of the country and the public narrative treats it like a bunch of stolen paperwork. The US Supreme Court is removing well-established precedents; thus throwing the entire established power and system of precedent into question and leading Americans to wonder what else might be thrown out. Elections are being undermined through an array of measures playing out actively now. Extremists and election-deniers are running for public office in thousands of elections. We’re having a hard time discerning shared truth.
For us up in this country right now — the incident threat potential is, well, huge. And intensifying. There are reasons why I say that things could get a bit crazy and unstable in the US. This tweet represents just a sliver of the risk; as the risk landscape has evolved since this happened in August:
All that being said, we can navigate instability, revitalize the democracy, & change our trajectory. Even in the midst of threats and chaos.
Together.
Let’s get to it.
I'm glad to see the upcoming plans. Definitely interested in doing more, my ability waxes and wanes. Moving towards being to do more before long, maybe just not right away.
I've been hoping to see more interaction on Substack. You already have good traction on Facebook, Vanessa. But in many ways Substack is more flexible and provides additional opportunities not present on Facebook. I trust that you have been thinking about this! I typically try to respond...and like this time, I am often the only one (or one of two) who comment here.
Anyone who has followed you for a while knows what you want to accomplish...this post provides the highest level of detail about how you envision doing it. More of this, please! And I sincerely thank you for your tireless efforts that have brought us to this point. There's a slog ahead of us. So much rides on the outcome of the midterms. One step at a time. Happy to be here.