Resistbot is a chat bot—available on SMS, iMessage, Messenger, Twitter, and Telegram—created in 2017 to empower the resistance: a movement of people and grassroots groups that grew out of the U.S. Presidential election. With the expansion of the executive powers that has been going on for nearly a century, combined with a President holding the office with arguably more autocratic impulses than any of his predecessors, the need to lobby Congress—the branch of government created by Article I of the U.S. constitution and ostensibly the most democratic—hit a modern peak as vulnerable Americans felt threatened by attacks on their rights and freedoms. We exist today to give them the tools to protect the rights they have, fight for the rights they don’t, and to help them to create a fairer, and more perfect Union that works for all Americans.

We’re resisting the attacks on our common values, found in the Preamble of the United States Constitution:

• “We the people of the United States” (we are a democratic republic, not a dictatorship)
• “in order to form a more perfect union” (we are a work in progress dedicated to a noble pursuit)
• “establish justice” (we revere justice as the cornerstone of our democracy)
• “insure domestic tranquility” (we prize unity and peace, not divisiveness and discord),
• “provide for the common defense” (we should never give any foreign adversary reason to question our solidarity)
• “promote the general welfare” (we care about one another; compassion and decency matter)
• “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (we have a responsibility to protect not just our own generation, but future ones as well).

The United States was seen by its founding fathers as a bold experiment in self-government, but the voice of the people has steadily lost its potency in the last 40 years. Resistbot itself is an experiment, meant to turn the tide. Its users, modern-day minutemen—able to respond at a moments notice when called upon.

Resistbot is a combination of easy-to-use, simple, universally available tools to create impact, and users ready, able, and willing to use them. There are three pillars we bring together:

I. Level the Playing Field between Lobbyists and Citizens
II. Deliver and Amplify the Will of the People
III. Expand Voting Access and Turn Out Voters

It has the following uses:

Write to your elected officials
The original. For a concerned citizen who wants to speak out to their elected officials, Resistbot offers keywords to write to federal and state officials, and reminders to keep you writing regularly.

Find nearby events
There’s protests, rallies, volunteer opportunities and ways to engage in-person happening regularly. Resistbot allows you to look up various events, including town halls, and will push the most important ones proactively.

Join local organizations
Find a local resistance group to get more involved with other people like you in your community.

Call your elected officials
Resistbot can patch you through to your entire Congressional delegation one at a time, or just provide you the phone numbers to do it yourself.

Check your voter registration
Before you go to the polls, you should make sure you’re registered. Resistbot can do that, as well as notify you if something changes.

Find your polling place
You can’t vote if you don’t know where to go. Resistbot will tell you.

Register to vote
If you’re not registered to vote, Resistbot can walk you through the entire process and either mail you a form to sign and return (postage included), or you can print and mail it yourself.

Learn about your district/officials
A few current examples: see out how much the gun lobby as spent for/against your officials, the number of people with pre-existing conditions in your district, which officials received cable company donations, how often your officials vote with Trump.

Learn about the issues
Resistbot has a policy blog that covers big national issues, as well as smart alerts based on your district to notify you when something important needs your attention.

Submit a letter to the editor
Resistbot can take the last letter you wrote, and submit it to your local newspaper, where hopefully it will fire the Google Alert that every elected official has set up for themselves, as well as win more hearts and minds in your community.

Fetch your local front page
The front page of your local newspaper will give you a quick look at what’s important in your community and the country in a way that’s still hard to beat. Resistbot will text it to you every morning.

Run for elected office
Resistbot can now tell you which offices you can run for in your area, broken up into several categories: local, state, federal, and legal.