How to Move People from Outrage to Activism with Shannon Watts
I began advocacy work for the first time in my life in 2018 after the shooting in Parkland, Florida.
It was Valentine’s Day. I’d just had a particularly troubling conversation with my mom. I wanted to talk about America’s gun violence epidemic and its allegiance to the NRA over the safety of school-aged children. My mom wanted to sweep it under the rug.
So that night at the fancy Valentine’s Day dinner my husband had booked, I sat absolutely fuming. As he listened patiently, agreeing with everything I said, I realized I couldn’t just rant any longer. I had to do something productive.
I found my local Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America chapter and walked into a meeting, despite not knowing anyone. I quickly signed up to volunteer and within months I was in Washington, D.C. for Gun Sense University as a state volunteer leader.
I’m telling you this because there are plenty of people just like me, who can’t take it anymore. They see what is happening in the world, and they’re angry and terrified. They want someone to fix it. And they need you to remind them they have the capacity to be their own heroes.
If you give people a place to put their anger and their energy, your movement will swell.
That’s what I learned from Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts when we spoke a couple of weeks ago. Watts said the same formula that worked for Moms Demand Action can be applied to any grassroots movement — in particular our effort to keep Project 2025 from destroying our democracy.
Project 2025, alternatively named the “Presidential Transition Project” by the right-wing think tank that authored it, is a policy wish list that would irreversibly destroy the functionality of the U.S. federal government if Trump is re-elected.
Watts offered practical tips to successfully move people from outrage to activism.
Fight for people you’ll never meet.
Watts said when she hears people say they’ll leave the United States if Trump is elected again, she grimaces because “As America goes, so goes the world.” Meaning, there isn’t a presumption of true safety anywhere if Trump is president. He’ll install his legion of sycophants, which he’s already interviewing on Project2025.org, and there will be a list of people they want to retaliate against. Hell, I might even be on that list just for typing this newsletter.
Trump has promised “ultimate and absolute revenge” in 2025 and beyond.
Even the most wealthy and well connected among us are in danger.
But it’s possible the people who will be most harmed by Project 2025 are people you’ll never meet. Many of them live on the margins of society — they’re immigrants, single mothers, people who live in poverty, LGBTQ+ individuals, BIPOC Americans. Many of them are working too many hours to join your book clubs and coffee dates. They’re too entrenched in the throes of life to go to your Democratic Central Committee meetings and postcard parties. There are language barriers and cultural differences, but even if they don’t socialize with you, they deserve your care.
“If you give up, you’re ceding this unbelievable privilege you have to live in a democracy, and you’re endangering people who are marginalized,” Watts said.
Give people a reason to joyfully connect as they do the hard work of advocacy:
Watts said Moms Demand Action volunteers often tell her they feel like superheroes when they don the organization’s signature red shirts.
“They can stand up to men carrying semiautomatic rifles at state houses because they feel empowered. When they feel like they found their people, not only do they feel natural joy and hope and incentive to keep going, they feel obligation to keep going.”
That’s why I’ve been considering a rebrand of Project 2025 Takedown, and why I’ve been ending every newsletter with the phrase, Onward Democracy Defenders! I want you to know you’re not alone in the fight to preserve this great American experiment. You’re a Democracy Defender!
Start with close friends and family.
The easiest people to talk to are the people who support you endlessly. These are the people who would buy a ketchup popsicle from you. As you receive positive responses, your courage will grow and you’ll expand further outside your circle of influence. The more you talk about the dangers of Project 2025, the more you’ll begin to develop an instinct for who is worth the effort and who isn’t.
Know who to convince and who to leave behind.
One fundamental principal you should always remember: You don’t have to change the hearts and minds of extremists or random trolls on the Internet.
Watts said she learned quickly that she learned extremists are a very loud, obnoxious minority.
“The majority of Americans support common sense. That’s where you find places to have conversations, and people you can have conversations with.”
She gave the example of her father — who she describes as “right-wing MAGA Republican” who considers himself pro-life. Watts is staunchly pro-choice. But she’s never given up on their relationship, and never stopped working on her dad. Which leads to her next point:
Find a shared value.
Watts parlayed her dad’s pro-life convictions into an argument to support common sense gun laws.
“I kept sharing data and anecdotes and information, and kept showing up in an educated way. I found a way to make it fit into his moral framework.”
Now, she says, her dad shows up to advocate for common sense gun laws, proudly wearing his red shirt alongside all the moms.
Tell the story of the future.
Paint a picture of what America will become if Trump wins and Project 2025 is enacted.
The people who are saying, “If you don’t like this country, then leave,” are going to be the ones who hate America the most.
Social safety nets will be eliminated, and with corporations controlling everything, unfettered capitalism will mean more middle-class people will need help.
But that help will be hard to find. Everything they know about our government will be inverted. Without a Department of Education, their local public schools, the heart of their communities, will crumble. Without a functional Department of the Interior, public lands will be padlocked for everyone but the rich. Their tax dollars will no longer be used for safe roads and bridges, but tax cuts for billionaires. Trump is already promising those in exchange for a $1 billion donation from oil and gas executives.
The story of America under another Trump presidency is bleak. Make sure everyone knows it.
Never give up.
“Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet.”
Alice Walker
Watts likens democratic participation to caring for a sick child at night.
“It’s 3 a.m., you’ve been up all night, and you’re exhausted, but you don’t get to decide you’re not enjoying it anymore so you’re walking away to go back to sleep. You stay up, holding your child’s hand until they feel better.”
Activism is the same way: You don’t get to give up because it’s hard and you’re exhausted. You have to keep pushing. This is hard work, but it’s lifelong work, so you might as well get good at it now.
I want to close with some inspiration about our capacity to change:
Another of my heroes, Ryan Busse, worked as a gun manufacturing executive for 25 years. But Busse’s unease with the increasingly radicalized gun industry alongside sales of semi-automatic rifles, which were popularized by what he calls “couch commandos”. Over the years, as school shootings proliferated and gun manufacturers profited off the ginned-up claim that Democrats were coming to grab guns, Busse’s views changed. In 2020, he left the gun industry for good, cementing his departure with a whistleblower book he wrote called Gunfight.
That book buoyed Busse until the national spotlight. He became a speaker, consultant, and ultimately a gubernatorial candidate in his home state of Montana (which is how we know each other).
My mom no longer donates to the NRA. Shannon Watts built an army of parents who are ready to take on the gun lobby in city council chambers, school board meetings, state houses, even Congress.
Watts warns against cynicism: “If you become cynical and close off all those conversations, it really cuts to the heart of our humanity. We need that right now more than we’ve ever needed it.”
Whether you find more people who will eagerly join your cause or slowly convince that skeptical relative that you know what you’re talking about, you’ll learn that people have a remarkable capacity for good when you believe in them.
Onward Democracy Defenders!
P.S. If you want to read more of Watts’ wisdom about having hard conversations, pick up her book Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and How Women Will Save the World.