A Crash Course in Making Political Change | Katie Fahey | TED

Summary

In this inspiring talk, the speaker recounts the grassroots movement they initiated to combat gerrymandering in Michigan. Feeling disillusioned by politicians' inaction and motivated by the Flint water crisis, they took to social media, inadvertently rallying over 10,000 people. Through collective efforts, they successfully amended the state constitution to establish an independent redistricting commission, proving that ordinary citizens can drive significant political change without needing to be experts.

Takeaways

• 😔 The Flint water crisis and the state of the world led to a sense of disillusionment for the speaker.
• 🚗 During a commute, the speaker learned about the lack of action on desired bills due to gerrymandering in Michigan.
• 🤔 Gerrymandering was identified as a major issue where politicians manipulated voting districts to ensure election victories.
• 🗳️ A Facebook post out of frustration led to an unexpected response and the beginning of a political movement against gerrymandering.
• 🔍 The speaker discovered that to end gerrymandering, the redistricting process needed to be changed to prevent politicians from choosing voters.
• 🔄 Michigan's political landscape was revealed as unrepresentative due to gerrymandering, despite being a 'purple state' with balanced party support.
• 👥 The speaker and a coworker, without political experience, began the process of a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution.
• 📝 The initiative required drafting constitutional language, gathering a large number of signatures, and winning a public vote.
• 🌐 A diverse group of volunteers with various skills came together to contribute to the campaign against gerrymandering.
• 🛠️ Resourcefulness and creativity, such as making clipboards for signature gathering, were key to the campaign's success.
• 🗣️ Listening to the public and incorporating their input into the constitutional amendment was a cornerstone of the campaign.
• ✍️ The constitutional amendment was successfully drafted with broad public support and aimed to establish a fair redistricting process.
• 🗳️ With over 442,000 signatures gathered in 110 days, the campaign demonstrated strong public support for ending gerrymandering.
• 🎉 On November 6, 2018, 61% of Michigan voters approved the constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission.
• 🏛️ The newly formed commission, composed of regular citizens, developed fair redistricting maps that matched voter preferences in the 2022 elections.
• 🌟 The speaker emphasizes that anyone can get involved in democracy without being an expert and that collective action can lead to significant change.

Q & A

What was the speaker's initial reaction to the Flint water crisis?

The speaker felt disillusioned with the state of the world and was concerned about the lack of action from politicians despite the public's desire for certain bills to be passed.

What industry did the speaker work in and what was their daily routine like?

The speaker worked in the recycling industry and spent most of their day crawling around in garbage cans. They had an hour-long commute to work during which they would listen to the radio.

What is gerrymandering and how does it affect elections?

Gerrymandering is a practice where politicians manipulate voting district boundaries to favor their own party, often resulting in uncompetitive elections and a lack of representation for certain voters.

What motivated the speaker to take action against gerrymandering?

The speaker was frustrated by the lack of clean water for children and the inaction of politicians, who seemed indifferent to the public's vote. They wanted to make a change and started a movement on social media.

How did the speaker's Facebook post lead to a political movement?

The speaker's Facebook post, which was made out of frustration, garnered responses from people who cared about the issue of gerrymandering and wanted to help. This unexpected support led to the growth of a political movement.

What is the redistricting process and why is it important?

The redistricting process is how voting districts are redrawn, typically every 10 years. It's important because it can determine the balance of political power and ensure fair representation.

Why was the speaker's initiative to end gerrymandering significant for Michigan?

Michigan is a 'purple state' with roughly equal numbers of Democratic and Republican voters. The speaker's initiative aimed to ensure that the state's political representation reflected this balance, rather than being skewed by gerrymandering.

What is the ballot initiative process and how did the speaker use it?

The ballot initiative process is a form of direct democracy that allows citizens to propose new laws or amendments. The speaker and their group used this process to propose a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering.

How did the speaker's group gather the necessary signatures for the ballot initiative?

The group organized volunteers to collect signatures across the state, using creativity and persistence to reach their goal. They ended up collecting over 442,000 signatures in just 110 days.

What was the outcome of the constitutional amendment vote in Michigan?

On November 6, 2018, 61 percent of Michigan voters voted 'yes' to the constitutional amendment, which established an independent citizen’s redistricting commission to end gerrymandering.

What was the impact of the new redistricting commission on the 2022 elections in Michigan?

The new commission produced the fairest maps in Michigan's history, resulting in the 2022 elections having an exact match between how people voted and how representatives were elected.

What message does the speaker hope to convey to the audience about their own power in democracy?

The speaker emphasizes that everyone has the power to create change in democracy, regardless of their background or expertise. They encourage the audience not to be afraid to take action and create the world they want to live in.

Outlines

00:00

😔 Disillusionment and the Spark of Change

The speaker recounts their feelings of disillusionment with the world, especially after the Flint water crisis. At 27, they were working in recycling and were frustrated by the lack of action from Michigan's legislature on bills the public wanted. They discovered gerrymandering as the culprit behind politicians' disregard for public opinion. A spontaneous Facebook post about tackling gerrymandering unexpectedly garnered a significant response, leading to the realization that many people cared and were willing to act. This initiated a movement that would eventually lead to a constitutional amendment and a restoration of faith in democracy.

05:01

🤝 Building a Grassroots Movement from Diverse Skills

The narrative continues with the formation of a diverse group of volunteers passionate about ending gerrymandering. The group consisted of individuals from various professions, including veterinarians, doctors, and even teenagers. They leveraged their unique skills to tackle campaign tasks, such as fundraising and signature gathering. The story highlights the innovative approach of using woodworking skills to create cost-effective clipboards for signature collection. This not only saved money but also served as an educational tool for the campaign. The speaker emphasizes the strength of their non-political background, allowing them to approach democracy with fresh eyes and a genuine desire for change.

10:03

🗳️ The Power of Collective Action: Signatures and Votes

This section details the ambitious goal of gathering over 300,000 registered voter signatures in 180 days to support a constitutional amendment against gerrymandering. The campaign mobilized over 4,000 volunteers who creatively engaged with the public to collect signatures, even in unconventional locations. Their efforts resulted in an astounding 442,000 signatures in just 110 days, covering all 83 counties of Michigan. The subsequent voter turnout on November 6, 2018, saw 61% of Michiganders voting in favor of the amendment, leading to the establishment of an independent citizens' redistricting commission.

15:04

🌟 The Impact of Citizen-Led Democracy and a Call to Action

The final paragraph describes the successful implementation of the constitutional law, which was written by the volunteers and陌生人. The newly formed commission, comprising a diverse group of citizens, held town halls and created fair redistricting maps that accurately reflected the voters' choices in the 2022 election. The speaker reflects on the personal journey from feeling powerless to realizing the immense power of collective action in democracy. They encourage the audience to overcome the fear of not being experts and to take steps towards creating the change they wish to see in the world.

🙌 Embracing the Courage to Create Change

In the closing paragraph, the speaker issues a final call to action, urging the audience to remain unafraid in their pursuit of creating a better world. The speech concludes on a high note with cheers and applause, signifying the audience's resonance with the message of empowerment and the potential of grassroots movements to enact significant change.

Keywords

💡Flint water crisis

The Flint water crisis refers to a water contamination scandal in Flint, Michigan, where the city's water supply became contaminated with lead. This incident is pivotal in the video as it catalyzed the speaker's disillusionment with the state of the world and motivated them to seek change. The crisis is a symbol of governmental failure and the catalyst for the speaker's activism.

💡Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering is the practice of manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor one political party or class. In the video, it is the central issue the speaker addresses, highlighting how it undermines democracy by allowing politicians to choose their voters rather than the other way around. The speaker's quest to combat gerrymandering is the driving force behind the political movement described.

💡Legislature

The term 'legislature' refers to a governmental assembly with the power to make laws. In the context of the video, the speaker expresses frustration with the Michigan legislature for its inaction on bills that the public wanted to see passed, which is a key reason for the speaker's engagement in political activism.

💡Redistricting process

Redistricting is the process of redrawing boundaries of electoral districts. The video explains that gerrymandering is closely related to this process, as it often leads to unfair district shapes that do not represent actual communities. The speaker's goal is to reform this process to eliminate gerrymandering.

💡Direct democracy

Direct democracy is a form of democracy where citizens directly vote on policy initiatives, as opposed to representative democracy. In the video, the speaker mentions the 'ballot initiative process' in Michigan, which is a form of direct democracy, as a means to bypass unresponsive politicians and bring about change.

💡Ballot initiative

A ballot initiative is a means for citizens to propose new laws or amendments to the constitution. In the video, the speaker and their group use this process to gather public support and signatures to amend the state constitution and end gerrymandering, demonstrating the power of grassroots activism.

💡Renaissance Festival

The Renaissance Festival is an event that the speaker mentions as an example of the diverse skills brought to their campaign by volunteers. A woman with experience in organizing such festivals contributed to the campaign's fundraising plan, illustrating how unrelated skills can be valuable in activism.

💡Clipboard

In the context of the video, clipboards are essential tools for gathering signatures during the signature collection phase of the ballot initiative. The creative and cost-effective production of clipboards by volunteer woodcarvers is highlighted as an example of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the campaign.

💡Town halls

Town halls are public meetings where politicians and citizens can discuss issues. The video describes how politicians were avoiding these meetings due to criticism, but the speaker's group organized their own town halls to gather public input for the redistricting process, emphasizing the importance of citizen participation.

💡Independent citizen’s redistricting commission

An independent citizen’s redistricting commission is a group of non-partisan individuals tasked with drawing electoral district boundaries. The video discusses the establishment of such a commission in Michigan as a result of the successful ballot initiative, marking a significant achievement in the fight against gerrymandering.

💡Fair elections

Fair elections, as discussed in the video, refer to elections that are conducted in a manner that is impartial and equitable. The speaker's ultimate goal is to ensure that elections in Michigan are fair, reflecting the true will of the voters, which is achieved through the reformed redistricting process.

Highlights

The Flint water crisis led to disillusionment with the world and inspired a desire to address political inaction.

Gerrymandering was identified as a major issue preventing desired legislation from being passed.

A spontaneous Facebook post initiated a grassroots movement to combat gerrymandering in Michigan.

The movement unexpectedly grew to over 10,000 people, leading to a constitutional amendment.

The importance of redistricting and its impact on political representation was highlighted.

Michigan's political landscape was described as 'purple,' with roughly equal support for both parties.

The redistricting process was manipulated to give one party an unfair advantage despite the popular vote.

The ballot initiative process in Michigan was utilized to enact change through direct democracy.

The process of ending gerrymandering involved writing constitutional language, gathering signatures, and gaining public support.

A diverse group of volunteers with various skills contributed to the campaign's success.

Innovative solutions, such as making clipboards for signature gathering, demonstrated resourcefulness within the campaign.

The campaign aimed to listen to the people of Michigan to understand their desires for a redistricting process.

The campaign successfully gathered an overwhelming number of signatures, exceeding the goal.

The constitutional amendment was overwhelmingly approved by voters, leading to the establishment of an independent citizen’s redistricting commission.

The new redistricting commission produced the fairest maps Michigan had ever seen, aligning election outcomes with the popular vote.

The success of the campaign demonstrated that non-experts can effectively participate in and influence democracy.

The campaign emphasized the power of people in democracy and encouraged others to take action on issues they care about.

Transcripts

When the Flint water crisis happened in Michigan,

I was already feeling pretty disillusioned with the state of the world.

I was 27, I had an hour-long commute to work.

I worked in the recycling industry, which I liked,

but I spent most of my day crawling around in garbage cans.

And I would listen to the radio on my hour-long commute

and hear about how there were all these bills

that the people of Michigan wanted to see passed,

yet our legislature wasn't doing anything about it.

And I found out that the reason they weren't

was because of a thing called gerrymandering,

which basically meant that when voting districts were being drawn,

our politicians would pick and choose which voters they wanted voting for them

to all but guarantee that they were going to win the election,

or that their political party was going to win an election.

I kept thinking like: How is this the world we live in?

Kids don't have clean water,

politicians aren't doing anything and aren't afraid of our vote.

Like, doesn't anybody care?

And why doesn't somebody do something about this?

And I didn't realize that soon, by accident,

I would figure out that actually a lot of people do care.

That next morning, before going to work,

just kind of out of frustration,

I made a post on Facebook, and it said:

"Hey, I want to take on gerrymandering in Michigan.

If you want to help, let me know :)"

And -- the emoji was very key.

And I didn't think that this would actually do much of anything.

I thought maybe I'd find a couple other friends

who thought this was a big deal.

Maybe we'd volunteer somewhere.

I certainly didn't think that it would lead

to a political movement of over 10,000 people,

that it would lead to amending our state constitution

or actually restoring faith in democracy in our state in general.

But when I went to work

and then at lunchtime, checked social media,

I started to see that people were responding.

And they were saying things like,

"I've cared about this issue for such a long time.

I'm so glad you're doing something about it."

"Please let me know how I can help."

"Katie, let's do this thing."

And that's when it struck me like, oh no.

(Laughter)

These people think I know what I'm doing,

and I did not.

So I quickly Googled: “How do you end gerrymandering?”

(Laughter)

And it turns out that it's all related to a process

called the redistricting process.

And if you wanted to end gerrymandering,

you had to get the politicians to stop being the ones

getting to pick and choose who their voters were.

And that made a lot of sense,

because when politicians would draw these lines,

instead of keeping communities together,

we would get districts that look like this.

In no way does that represent an actual group of people.

(Laughter)

And why this was particularly important in Michigan

is we're a pretty purple state.

And what I mean by that

is that about half of us vote for Democrats

and about half of us vote for Republicans.

And that should mean

that about half of our representatives should be Democrats

and about half of them should be Republicans.

But depending on which political party would be in charge

of that redistricting process,

they would actually have a majority of the elected representatives,

or sometimes even a super majority,

even though they might have received less than half of the votes

or exactly half.

And that would then mean

that they don't even have to talk to anybody on the other side of the aisle,

when passing any kind of laws.

And the other important part

is that redistricting only happens once every 10 years.

So you have half of the state being locked entirely out

of the decision-making process for 10 years at a time.

It did not seem like a good way to be doing democracy.

So we went to the politicians and we were like,

"You guys should change that."

And they were like, "No."

(Laughter)

They were not interested in giving themselves less power.

But thankfully, we figured out

that in Michigan we had a form of direct democracy,

and it was called the ballot initiative process.

And so I turned to my coworker Kelly,

we were at our recycling job,

and we started getting to work to figure out,

OK, what is this ballot initiative process?

What can this actually do?

And we broke it down into three different steps.

One, we had to write constitutional language.

Didn't know how to do that.

Two, we had to gather a lot of signatures

and we didn't know how to do that either.

Three, we had to get about half of our state to vote "yes"

on wanting to amend the constitution to end gerrymandering.

And guess what?

We didn't know how to do that either.

But we had this Facebook post

that then we turned into a Facebook group,

and we started seeing all of these people coming in who were absolutely amazing.

A lot of them were just like me, they voted consistently,

they cared about the world's problems,

but they weren't really interested in volunteering for a political campaign

or one party or the other.

But these people are amazing.

I mean, we had veterinarians, doctors, birthing doulas.

We had butchers and veterans

and even 16-year-old kids who couldn't vote yet

but wanted to be a part of creating a change

so that by the time they could vote, it would actually be legit.

So what we started to do was figure out, OK, what are all these campaign tasks?

And then what are all these skills we have?

And how do we start bringing them together?

For example, we had a woman

who had been in charge of the Renaissance Festival

for years in Michigan.

And she actually started creating our first fundraising plan.

And the reason she did that

is because she had experience raising money for kind of weird stuff.

(Laughter)

And we had another woman who is absolutely amazing,

her name was Jamie,

she was an engineer and a retired high school math teacher,

and she was basically the only person

who had actually volunteered for a political campaign before.

So she had gathered signatures,

she had knocked on doors,

and using her skills in engineering and math,

she figured out, how could we take thousands of us

to actually end up reaching millions of voters.

And that all was really exciting.

And then I had a volunteer, Rebecca,

and she came up to me and she's like, "I really want to volunteer.

I have time to do it, but I don't think there's any way I can contribute."

I was like, "Alright, well, what do you do?"

She was a stay-at-home mom.

And I said, “First of all, that comes with a lot of skills.

So we've got a lot to work with. But what are your hobbies?"

She said, "I'm a Jazzercise instructor and a woodcarver."

Great, great.

We're going to find a place.

So we started thinking, how could we apply these skills?

Well, it turns out, in order to gather a bunch of signatures,

you actually need a bunch of clipboards.

And buying clipboards, even in bulk, is super expensive.

And we started from a Facebook post, so we did not have a lot of money.

And when we went to our Facebook group and we said,

"Hey, can you guys help us figure out what we might be able to do,"

it turns out we not only had one, but several wood carvers.

And the woodcarvers said, "Hold on, give us a second."

They went away, made a plan and came back.

And they had decided to create gift registries at Home Depots and Lowe's

across the state,

reserving wood so we could cut our own clipboards.

Then they found warehouses where we could then cut those clipboards

and start assembling them.

Then they were thinking a lot about these clipboards,

so they started to think about like,

how do we make them longer so they can hold both a petition

as well as gathering contact information from people.

And then they wanted all of us to be able to be recognized as volunteers.

So they added a nice little red stripe

so that people could know that we're part of the Ending Gerrymandering campaign.

And they even thought about how could we turn this clipboard itself,

if we're going to make such an investment in them,

into an actual tool to educate people on the process in general.

They ended up being able to make these clipboards

for only 33 cents each instead of 11 dollars.

Yes.

And the only reason we were able to do any of that,

so that everybody could have a professional tool

that made them feel confident when talking to strangers about civics,

was because we had a wood carver as a volunteer.

And that was one of the first moments when I started to realize

that like, us not "doing politics" as our day job was actually our strength.

We were looking at democracy as how we hoped it would be

instead of the brokenness that it already was.

And so when we were looking at writing the constitutional language,

we wanted to take that spirit and apply it.

At the time in Michigan, politicians were refusing to hold town halls.

They didn't want to meet with their constituents

because they were getting a lot of criticism,

because they were writing laws that nobody wanted.

And so at a time when we weren't being listened to,

we thought, OK, let's go listen to each other instead.

So we made a plan to go and ask people

what would they want in a redistricting process,

what would one that works well

and that we could have trust in actually look like?

We set a goal of going to every congressional district,

and we weren't sure if people were going to show up

because we were brand new organization, just starting.

But to our surprise,

it was standing room only at almost every single location.

And we would hear all of these people saying, you know,

“I have lived in this community my whole life,

and a politician has never even visited our city once.

And yet here you are, a random stranger from across the state,

not only listening to me,

but making sure that my opinion is going to be used

in a constitutional amendment."

And what my favorite part was,

is you would have people coming in really skeptical of each other,

never having really had a conversation with a Democrat or a Republican

or an Independent.

And they would start to talk to each other

and realize that we had a lot more in common

and all of us just wanted a political process that worked.

And so instead of focusing on those differences,

we were able to focus on actual solutions.

So once our beautiful language written by the people of Michigan

was ready to go,

we then got to gather those 315,654

registered Michigan voter signatures in 180 days.

But thankfully, we had that math teacher, so ...

(Laughter)

We figured out that if we could get about 1,000 of us

to gather about 17 signatures a day,

we'd be able to meet this goal.

But because we had gone around the state

and we had listened to people about what they wanted,

they all wanted to make sure that this constitutional amendment passed.

We ended up having over 4,000 people

who were willing to come and gather signatures.

And they had tons of creativity about how to talk to people about gerrymandering,

And they were willing to do anything to gather those signatures.

They went into parades and even literal cow pastures

in order to make sure

that we were getting the people of Michigan to sign.

And we ended up blowing that goal out of the water.

We were able to gather over 442,000 signatures.

(Cheers and applause)

In only 110 days, may I add.

And although there is no geographic requirement

of where those signatures came from,

we actually gathered signatures in each of Michigan's 83 counties,

truly making it for, by and of the people of Michigan.

So then we just needed people to vote on the darn thing.

And on November 6, 2018,

2.5 million people, 61 percent of the state,

overwhelmingly voted "yes" to end gerrymandering

and to enstate an independent citizen’s redistricting commission.

(Cheers and applause)

Shortly after that, we got to see

did this constitutional law, written by a bunch of strangers, actually work?

And so our commission started to come together.

Thirteen strangers were selected.

Four Democrats, four Republicans and five independent voters.

They couldn't be politicians,

they couldn't be lobbyists,

they just had to be regular people.

Those people were then invited to represent the state.

So there was a lottery to make sure

that the demographics actually kind of matched who the people of Michigan were,

making it one of the only decision-making bodies in Michigan

that actually looks like the people of Michigan.

They then had the task of going around the state

and gathering input from people,

asking them what they wanted to see in the redistricting process.

And they held town halls that also had standing room only,

even though it was only very shortly after COVID.

This commission ended up passing maps

that are the most fair maps that Michigan has ever had.

And in the first election they were used in, in 2022,

how people voted was an exact match

for how elected representatives were elected.

This is my personal district in the "before" and "after" picture.

My favorite part about all of this

is that because we actually changed the constitution,

it means that in future redistricting processes,

this is going to have to be the same process that's used,

which means that future voters will be guaranteed to have fair elections

from here on out.

I'm sure that each of you guys

have something that keeps you up at night,

that makes you feel like, man,

I really wish somebody would do something about this.

And maybe you feel like you aren't qualified

to be the one to do something.

Or maybe you feel like nobody is listening or cares about this issue.

And I used to feel that way.

One thing that I did not remember

but ended up popping up on my social media

is I made almost the exact same Facebook post about a year earlier.

And it said like, “Hey, let’s end gerrymandering.

Who wants to help?"

And nobody even liked it.

And more importantly, I also didn't do anything about it.

And I think that's because I felt alone.

I felt like, man, nobody's even liking this.

Like, I must be the only weirdo who wants to end gerrymandering.

But by the time I made that second Facebook post,

what I realized was that actually,

like, a lot of us were feeling the exact same way.

We were sitting, feeling like nobody cared.

We really wanted this issue to be dealt with,

but we felt like there must be somebody else whose job it is.

There must be an expert out there.

But what I have completely learned

is that you do not have to be an expert to get involved in democracy.

You don't need a fancy title or a PhD,

you don't even have to ask permission to try.

You never know where one little step will end up leading you.

It might change your entire life.

And I think that's really important to remember.

I mean, there’s a place for experts, too.

I definitely should not perform open-heart surgery on any of you.

I would not be good at it.

But we are the ones who are closest to these problems.

Our communities and our kids

are the ones who do not have clean drinking water.

We have the most incentive to want to fix these problems,

because we live with its brokenness every single day.

And we see our communities as actual communities.

They are our homes.

They aren't red or blue.

They are just us.

So I hope all of you remember that when it comes to democracy,

all political power is inherent in the people.

We all are those people, and this is our power.

I hope you don't forget that.

And you remain unafraid to create the world you want to live in.

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)