Red State Scripts Vol. 5: Free Speech, Fuckos

Welcome to another edition of Red State Scripts, a resource for U.S. folks living in geographies represented by pro-Trump elected officials but who nevertheless feel inclined to have a bit (or a big) of a holler. These scripts aren’t meant to change any assholes’ minds — though it’d be nice, surely! — but are instead about finding a way to voice opposition, build community, and articulate grievances. Use 5Calls to find your reps, and give them a piece of your mind.

Sorry for missing the Red State Scripts dispatch last week! I have been busy as hell with other forms of fucking up fascist chicanery and also doing a lot of embroidery/needlepoint work while watching season 3 of the UK Traitors, the best television program of all time. If you need a distraction from ~ everything ~ it’s on Peacock.

Couple of things:

Via the Afiya Center, for Texas folks: it’s easy and free to send a letter to Cruz, Cornyn, and your local rep in support of the CDC’s HIV Prevention funding. Do this now. If you don’t live in Texas, you can use this script and adjust to your needs.
Buy a paid subscription to Marisa Kabas’ newsletter, The Handbasket, and follow her on Bluesky. If she was on your radar before Trump 2.0, it’s probably because she did great independent work on the George Santos beat. Now she’s breaking big Trump/federal news all the time.

On the hollering front: I am once again jumping on the 5Calls database and using it to give the what-for to my red-state reps. Here’s what I’m saying to Cruz and Cornyn:

I’m [my name] and I live in zip code [mine].

I have a lot to say, so I’ll talk slowly so that you can take notes.

I’m appalled at the wildly unconstitutional attacks on free speech carried out by the federal government in the past few weeks. The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is unconscionable, attacks on American universities are indefensible, and Trump’s petty retaliation against the AP over “Gulf of Mexico” language is simply embarrassing. And Elon Musk and DOGE’s occupation of USIP is nothing short of a fascist takeover.

The Trump Administration should be held, as anyone should be, to the rulings of the courts and to the Constitution, and every moment you spend not ensuring such accountability is a terrible stain on your reputation and an embarrassment to your constituents. You’re doing a bad job in support of bad people and you should feel bad about it.

The usual boilerplate: I’ll aim to post a new Red State Script every week, depending on the news cycle. If you have a script suggestion, leave it in the comments for others to use, and if you’re looking for an issue to comment on, let me know. And especially if you work for a state, local, or grassroots org producing such content for constituents, holler at me and I’ll share it, happily, with edits and adaptations made for diverse geographies — I’m grimesandrea@proton.me by email. (And if you have a script in mind and want to share it with the world, tag me on Bluesky or post it in the comments!)

As ever: Let’s holler into the void alone, together.

AND ONE MORE THING!

If you’ll allow me a non-“resistance” moment that’s still kind of resistance-y: I’ve been bad about promoting my work with The Flytrap, the feminist media cooperative I co-founded last year with 9 other stone-cold badasses. Earlier this month I looked into the fall of eShakti, the customized clothing online retailer that seems to have crashed and burned. Read it here, with an (IMO, pretty affordable!) subscription.

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