One of the reasons I don’t have a clear map for upholding the good during the coming four years is that we don’t know yet how bad it will be or what form the bad will take. Case in point, Elon Musk is really throwing his weight around, not just here but in other countries (which fits with this thread on Bluesky). He could end up much more influential in the next administration than I imagined; while Trump might not like that (or all the Co-President Musk jokes flying around online), Musk’s super-wealth may mean he can’t be kicked aside as easily as other players in a more subordinate position. I’ve no idea how that will play out.
Then there’s the shutdown. While Glorious Supreme Leader Trump and Vance are trying to blame the Democrats, the Dems were on board with an earlier bipartisan deal; Trump didn’t like it and with Musk’s support, killed the deal. The new bill is significantly worse and Mike “Biblical Worldview” Johnson couldn’t hold his party together to pass it. What happens next, I don’t know, though as Paul Campos says, shutdowns are one area where the media and the public have no trouble blaming Republicans (good!).
While it’ll be great if The Felon’s administration keeps tripping over its own feet, I doubt it will trip so much as to be harmless. As this article discusses, lots of innocent people will suffer. And Trump clearly wants to use his power to shut up or punish anyone who defies him, protests or offers “accurate descriptions about him, or equal application of the law to him.” He’s vicious and he has plenty of power to act on his petty urges. And while Dems refused to sign off on the funding measure, I agree with Jamelle Bouie and Jennifer Rubin that now that Trump’s won, Democrats seem way too willing to be cooperative team players.
However, as Bouie also says (I lost the link), it isn’t hopeless. People have protested and challenged tyrants in the Communist Bloc, China, the Middle East and South America. In our own country, black Americans fought segregation in an era when the law offered them no protection. They fought for years before the federal government showed any interested in backing them. Some of them died, some of them were brutally injured, some of them were forced to flee their homes. But they won. No guarantees we’ll succeed in preserving American democracy but Trump returning to the White House doesn’t mean we have lost and will never win again. As Courtney Milan says, “The fight for freedom is never over. It is just sometimes harder than others.”
First, what do you want to fight for? There is, unfortunately no shortage of issues: immigration, keeping families together, voting rights, protecting schools from right-wing school boards, abortion rights, freedom of religion. Figure out what cause and causes you want to support and fight for.
Next, go looking for organizations that work in that field, local or national. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel and doing so would waste a lot of energy we can put to better use. There are organizations working on every issue imaginable. Find one to work with. Ask them what you can do.
Third (another suggestion on BlueSky), if nothing else give them money. You may want to do more and we’ll probably need to do more (even if I don’t know what, yet) but money helps. Money matters.
Fourth, Teen Vogue makes the added point that “A better show of our political identity is how we make changes in the world around us, not our slogans and mission statements.” Or as Goethe said long ago, we know ourselves by doing, not by thinking.
This month, mindful of point three, I donated a little extra. Next month — well, I’m still working on that. But read this article from The 19th about people who are already working it out.
