LD17’s Civil Resistance Forum
The Issues Forum on Civil Resistance sponsored by LD17 and the Pima County Dems on August 30 drew an attentive and engaged crowd of 70+ people. The six panel members were informative and passionate about our responsibilities as citizens to protect and defend our democracy through peaceful but forceful methods.
The panel consisted of:
Lauren Beall, Attorney, ACLU of Arizona
Harrison Redmond, Attorney, ACLU of Arizona
Tony Archibald, Tucson Police Department
Jim Driscoll: Vets for Peace
Patrick Diehl, Life-long Activist
Margrit McIntosh, Indivisible
The key organizer of the meeting, LD17’s First Vice Chair Cathy Davis, gave inspiring opening remarks:
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Louis Brandeis, a former Supreme Court Justice said, "The most important political office is that of the private citizen." What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy? What is our responsibility to make sure that we keep this republic?
What I have come to believe is that our job as citizens is to restore and promote the promise of America. This is a massive undertaking requiring strategy, coordination, commitment, and confidence that this is a righteous undertaking.
There is an analogy used to explain how in human behavior, gradual, imperceptible changes can lead to harmful outcomes. The story goes that a frog sitting in a pot of water, with gradually increasing heat, will not notice and be boiled to death. Turns out, it’s not true. If the water gets too hot, the frog will jump out. My not-too-scientific conclusion is that maybe people are not as smart as frogs. The heat is reaching the boiling point; we really need to jump out.
If we break down this administration’s threats into three basic categories, it’s easier to understand the attacks on our well-being.
Autonomy is the right and ability to self-govern. Safety is the responsibility of the government to assess risk and protect its citizens. Economy is the system by which a country organizes and manages its limited resources. In all categories, in only nine months, this administration is well on the way to destroying these foundations. But this effort, that gradual ever-increasing heat, has been in the works for decades.
Autonomy
Our autonomy is being threatened in so many ways. Military invasion in cities like LA and DC. Withholding federal grant funds allocated by Congress for public health, environment, and education. Illegally firing federal workers. Blackmailing universities, business, and law firms. Purging voter rolls, gerrymandering, attacking mail-in voting, which has been used by 75% of Arizonans for nearly three decades. Close to home, our Republican state legislators have introduced hundreds of bills designed to restrict voters access to the ballot.
Safety
The bill is coming due when it comes to our safety. A fundamental job of a good government is to assess and avert risk. Unfortunately, our cabinet positions are filled with loyalists without experience or competence. Think Pete Hegseth and Robert Kennedy Jr. firing federal workers who had important jobs like inspecting for invasive species that could destroy our food sources or monitoring cyber-attacks on power grids or investigating consumer fraud. Health & Human Services is undermining vaccine development and trust. Medical research funding is gutted, and the slashing of environmental regulations will make us all more susceptible to disease. The cutting of research and funding on climate change and the reneging on funds for renewable energy will make us more susceptible to climate disasters even as FEMA is dismantled.
Tariffs, threats of imperialism, postering, meaningless negotiations, are all leaving America isolated and destroying our core alliances and diminishing our access to intelligence.
The Economy
Even though a much greater number of jobs were created under Democratic administrations, neither party addressed that ever-increasing wealth gap that started in the 80s under the Regan administration.
Although conditions improved during the Biden years, pandemic-driven inflation prevented the bottom half of the population from benefiting, widening the disparity. The potential for growth through programs such as the Infrastructure Bill and the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts—designed to support the working class, rural communities, and underserved populations—has been largely eliminated by the current administration. By passing that Big Beautiful Bill, the Republicans have insured that the wealthiest members will continue to profit at a cost to the rest of us. The inhumane cutting of Medicaid is the actualization of those death panels originally concocted by Republicans to foment fear of the ACA. The cruelty, illegality and racism of mass immigrant kidnappings has the intention of forcing low paying jobs on citizens who may have little recourse as the economy becomes less manageable, as food become scarcer and more expensive and as social and economic warfare put an ever-increasing burden on taxpayers.
The way we’re being defrauded is obscene; billions of dollars annually to fund ICE, lost revenue from tax-paying immigrants, a significant drop in tourism, Americans footing the bill for tariffs while giant tax breaks go to the wealthiest Americans.
It seems surreal that this is all by design – but it was laid out in Project 2025. If you’re looking for true Batman-like villains, Peter Theil, Russell Vought and Stephen Miller fit the bill. The oligarchy class in collusion with the Republicans are moving as fast as they can to create an Orwellian United States.
We are beyond messaging about policies. At this moment, the stories of our connection are more potent. For instance, take the story of Kathy Sullivan, the Chief Scientist at NOAA and Administrator, who was the first woman to walk in space, a Naval officer with a PhD in geology. NOAA’s mission is to analyze the weather and mitigate risks. Kathy Sullivan was a federal employee, an American hero, among the thousands of federal employees who were vilified by DOGE and Republicans. These Americans do not seek wealth or power but have a desire to use their skills to help their fellow countrymen. This is a story of cause and effect. This is the story of connection. The connection between Kathy Sullivan and the victims of the floods in Texas and Arkansas, wildfires in California and tornados in Kentucky.
With lies, racism and fear, spread and amplified through our media systems, this administration seeks to sever the connection between us. In partnership with billionaires, enabled by congress, fortified by complicity, they are working quickly to strip away our autonomy, jeopardize our safety, and legislate poverty and despair. This is a betrayal.
It is our job as citizens to stop them. Democracy is a tool crafted to keep us free, to promote innovation, justice and science. But like any tool, we have to be taught how to use it, maintain it and reimagine it to fit our changing needs. We still have agency, rights, and responsibilities. It’s time for every citizen to do what we must to defend democracy. There are many resources online to study and practice civil resistance. The LD17 website provides information and opportunities. Join your friends, neighbors and fellow citizens in practicing civil resistance, because every action counts.