Politics & Polls #26: “Indivisible” Featuring Ezra Levin & Angel Padilla

Jan 11 2017
By Julian Zelizer & Sam Wang (Produced by B. Rose Kelly and Edited by Bonelys Rosado)
Source Woodrow Wilson School

Since the election, Democrats have struggled with how to respond to a Donald Trump presidency. But one group is starting to get some traction - the authors of an online guide that is going viral: “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.”

Originally posted as a Google document, the guide was co-written by former Congressional staffers Ezra Levin and Angel Padilla, who both received their Master in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, Leah Greenberg, and others.

At the heart of the publication are two ideas: presidential power is not unlimited, and Congress responds to pressure when applied the right way. Levin and Padilla use their real-world experience with the Tea Party as a model for how citizens can keep the pressure on Congress and get results.

In episode #26 of Politics & Polls, Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang discuss the Indivisible guide in depth with Levin and Padilla.


Levin is D.C.-based domestic poverty policy wonk. He's served as associate director of government affairs at the Corporation for Enterprise Development, deputy policy director for Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and at AmeriCorps VISTA in the Homeless Services Division of the San Jose Department of Housing. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College and a Master in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Padilla works for an immigrant rights nonprofit on federal health care advocacy. Padilla previously worked as an immigration policy consultant at National Council of La Raza. From 2009 until 2011, he worked for Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), advising on issues related to health care and the Affordable Care Act, among others. Padilla also has interned with the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House. He is a graduate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 
Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has been one of the pioneers in the revival of American political history. He is the author of several books including, most recently, "The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society." Zelizer is a frequent commentator in the international and national media on political history and contemporary politics. He has published more than 600 hundred op-eds, including his weekly column on CNN.com

Wang is professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. He is known for his books "Welcome to Your Brain" and "Welcome to Your Child's Brain" and for his founding role at the Princeton Election Consortium, a blog providing U.S. election analyses. In 2004, Wang was one of the first to aggregate U.S. presidential polls using probabilistic methods. In 2012, his statistical analysis correctly predicted the presidential vote outcome in 49 of 50 states. He has also developed new statistical standards for partisan gerrymandering. A neuroscientist, Wang's academic research focuses on the neuroscience of learning, the cerebellum and autism.