It's Patriotic to Stand Up Against Corruption: How Organizers Are Channeling Frustration Into Action
An interview with End Citizens United's National Organizing Director.
It feels strange to celebrate this Fourth of July. I don’t, though, want to give in to grief or nihilism or the idea that those of us protesting the current Administration aren’t patriotic. We are, very much so, and that’s what motivates us to fight back. It can be difficult as we’re watching the government violate core American values, and many people are suffering injustices, to know exactly what to do to channel our anger, hope, determination, everything we’re feeling.
This spring, Emily Frost joined End Citizens United as National Organizing Director to build a nationwide network of volunteers and activists to fight back against corruption in politics. To learn more about what patriotic actions means now, I spoke with Emily about what concrete steps we can all take to fight against oligarchy and for our democracy.
Meaghan: What are some of your priorities now as National Organizing Director of End Citizens United?
Emily: It’s not very controversial to say that Democrats have a branding problem. We have winning issues, but we're losing the messaging battle, right? We, by which I mean Democrats, are not going to win, in the midterms or in the presidential election in 2028, if we aren’t persuading the electorate on hard issues.
Many of the major things happening in politics today can be traced back to the overreaching influence of corporations or billionaires who have funded elections, handpicked candidates. Getting money out of politics is going to help improve healthcare, help education, help immigrants, so I can’t think of a more compelling issue right now than how money has corroded our political system from the inside out.
So, the question is: How do we change how people think about these issues, one step at a time?
A core part of my mission at End Citizens United is building a network of volunteers and activists and offering them resources, support, and messaging on how to talk about money in politics and the work against corruption that we’re doing— most importantly, with people in their own lives. You're more likely to listen to someone you know and trust, versus a stranger, right? So, winning starts with our neighbors, our communities, engaging with people who disagree with us, having the tools to have those conversations. We have to have the resources to win the argument. I’m focusing on equipping our supporters with the language and resources to talk about these issues.
Meaghan: How did you get involved in organizing?
Emily: I’m from Texas. After the 2016 election, I was living in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I went to college, and I was feeling really anxious and upset. I was listening to a podcast that was like, “Look, if you feel this way, just do something, just like, get involved locally, go touch grass. Go volunteer.”
I signed up to volunteer for my local mayoral race, which led to a job. It was my first foray into politics, and I was very moved seeing how much time and energy people were willing to put, for free, into a small-town mayor's race. People coming out to knock doors in August, 90 degrees, 95% humidity, just because they cared so deeply about the place where they lived, in our home, and their neighbors. And then we won. That feeling of being able to build something with your neighbors was so special. I caught the bug.
Since then, I worked in politics in Arizona, in Iowa, worked for the DNC during most of the Biden administration, helping build out an in-house organizing program, and I was in Wilmington working for the Harris campaign. A lot of learning came out of that loss, including that I learned that I’m not done yet. I want to win again.
Meaghan: What programs are you focusing on now at End Citizens United?
Emily: We’re helping folks lead where they are in their communities. One program we’ve been organizing is recruiting folks from all across the country to sign up to write a letter to their editor in opposition to the Trump/Congressional spending bill. We’re connecting people who want to write letters with our team and we’re helping them write the letters.
We’re doing this because there are tons of undecided, persuadable voters who will never be on an email list for candidates or organizations, and we don't have the resources to reach them all. The way we win is bringing people in and training them to share news and have conversations in their own communities.
Letters to the editor help raise awareness directly in your community. It helps show the elected officials that represent that community that folks are paying attention. The letter writer isn’t someone in D.C. putting an ad in the New York Times. This is someone in Missouri writing a letter to the Columbia Tribune saying, Hey, I see this. I'm unhappy with this, and I'm demanding you to be better.
We’ve been focused on mobilizing supporters specifically around the budget bill because the budget bill is dangerous. It's not just numbers on a page. It is a dangerous roadmap for slashing critical programs, and at the same time it’s handing out tax breaks to the wealthy and well-connected. So, our strategy is, let's flood the airwaves. Let's flood their phones, let's flood their local papers before, during and after the bill to show how corruption directly harms communities.
Meaghan: How else can people get involved in how End Citizens United is fighting back?
Emily: Step One is to sign up for our Slack community. There are currently around 700 active volunteers on the End Citizens United Slack alone. Every day, I drop in with social media toolkits, which include language to use, an easy to access document where you can share graphics, tweets, TikTok videos about the work that we're doing.
In the Slack group, we also let people know about opportunities and actions. Right now we’re encouraging all of our members to contact their elected officials to tell them to vote no on the Trump Republican spending bill. If you don’t have Slack, you can opt into receiving our emails with announcements.
End Citizens United volunteers are guaranteed to be told about a high priority, high impact action every week. We're doing messaging briefings for our volunteers every single month when we're going over data that we get from our pollsters and focus groups. We’re giving volunteers that data in easy to digest ways, so they can act on it, because we think corruption is a winning issue.
My goal as national organizing director is to lower the barrier to entry for how folks can take actions to fight back or be in community amongst fellow volunteers. What people all want, more than anything, is community. They want to feel like they’re heard. Donors, volunteers, voters, everyone feels like they gave it their all in 2024 and it didn't work out. People are frustrated; people are angry.
The antidote to all these feelings is to do something. Just come to do one training. Just sign up for one action, just get yourself in an ecosystem of people doing something, at bare minimum just do it for your mental health. Gone are the days where the only thing you can do is canvas on a 100-degree day to get out the vote. We all want to feel like we can be a part of something and make an impact and have meaning, and that’s what we’re building.
You can visit www.ecuorganize.org to sign up to volunteer with End Citizens United.