Undermining your anti-bike or transit opposition
The scariest monsters are the ones you never fully see, so shine a light
In politics and scary movies, the monster you never fully see can be the most terrifying. A big, bad, seemingly-unstoppable boogeyman whose powers are nebulous and unpredictable can be a terrifying thing whether that’s the Blair Witch or local “Parking Defenders who speak for ‘everyone’ group.” As a passionate bike, transit or safe street advocate, you might be willing to go toe-to-toe with this mysterious and supposedly all-powerful opposition, but your local politicians might need help mustering up that same courage. In earlier pieces, I detailed how you can become the more powerful party and win over politicians that way, but today we’re going to look at the other side of the equation. Here’s an easy(ish) effort you can take on to undermine your opposition’s power.
I’ve waged a lot of different political campaigns and in almost every one, the opposition has claimed to speak for “everyone,” the “vast majority,” or some other broad, sweeping statement of its power. When you want a protected bike lane or a bus-only lane, your opposition will almost certainly say something like “on behalf of the business community…” or “We speak for everyone when we say…” or “everyone who has ever driven a car here believes…” They do it because 1) it sounds impressive & powerful and 2) maybe they even believe it is true. But it’s a lie and they don’t have the evidence to back up their false claim of universal popularity.
Undermine your opposition by actually talking to the people and groups they claim to represent and fact-check their claim.
Let’s say your local chamber of commerce claims they speak for the entire business community, and they falsely claim that bike lanes are bad for business (bike lanes are in fact good for business). You can (and should) refute their false claim about bike lanes. You ALSO can (and should) refuse their false claim that they speak for the entire business community! Doing it is pretty straightforward, politely ask every single business in the community if they are members of the local chamber of commerce. Ideally ask in writing so you get responses in writing, but you can do an in-person or a phone survey too.
How you want to message that outreach entirely depends on your situation, who is doing the outreach and how blatant you want to be. You can do it in a seemingly-innocuous way and conduct a “neutral” community survey. Or on the other end of the spectrum, you can do it in a more aggressive push-poll sort of way. Aggressively toned outreach that clearly shows your overall goal is a riskier strategy though. It could be worth it depending on your situation, but when in doubt, adopt a more friendly approach.
Do that and you’ll shine a bright light on your opposition and see how big it really is. I can almost guarantee you that if you survey all the people your opponent claims to represent, you’ll find a big chunk of folks who will say otherwise. Note– just because they aren’t members of your opposition does not mean they will inherently agree with you (they just might not want to go through the official membership process for your opposition or have some other reason for not officially joining). Also, just because someone IS officially represented by your opposition group, doesn’t mean they agree with the group on this issue.
When you do this survey, you’ll be able to divide up the respondents in a few categories.
The people who are actually members of your opponent group and are in agreement with them on this issue. E.g. the car dealership that is a member of the chamber of commerce and hates bike lanes.
People who are members of your opponent group and are in disagreement with them on this issue. E.g. the coffee shop that’s a member of the chamber but likes bike lanes
People who aren’t members but agree with your opposition. E.g. Random flower shop that hates bike lanes
People who aren’t members and agree with you. E.g. ice cream parlor that likes bike lanes
And critically– people who AREN’T members but have no opinion on your issue. E.g. Local antique shop who couldn’t care less
Undermine your opposition by highlighting groups 2,4, and 5. Your opposition isn’t nearly as strong as they try to show themselves to be, so show decision makers, media and the general public the truth to knock your opposition down a few pegs.
Of course, unless your opposition are total charlatans, you’ll find out that they do in fact have a number of supporters in agreement with them. That’s ok. This isn’t about showing politicians that there is literally no monster under the bed, it’s about revealing your opposition-monster as an M. Night Shyamalan one. They’ve got power and might be a little frightening, but they aren’t that scary.
As you push for the transit, bike and street safety changes you want to see in your community, you’ll ratchet up pressure on decision makers to do the right thing. These decision makers might be scared of saying “yes” to you for fear of an anti-bike/transit political boogeyman in your community. But if you do the community outreach yourself, you can show that your opposition isn’t nearly as powerful & scary as it pretends to be.
Want help to devise a strategy and build the skills in your campaign for better transit and or safer streets? I’m here to help! Whether you want a 1-on-1 training session or a group workshop, let’s talk. Email me at Carter@carterlavin.com to set something up. Here’s a bit about what training sessions are like.
Check out the “November To Remember” recap here of my overall activism training work done last month!
Free upcoming IN-PERSON (outdoor) events in Oakland!
Final event in the 3-part series of meeting some of my favorite candidates for California State Senate District 7!
Interested in sponsoring the training of an activist working on an issue you’re passionate about? Let’s chat. Carter@carterlavin.com