It’s felt like losing a loved one in a shocking national tragedy, only this time the attack came from within our country, and the attack will be prolonged for 2, 4, or more years, depending on how successful we are in resisting it, or how successful they are at eliminating the democratic methods of resistance. Since the election, my wife and I have been in a dark place, moving back and forth between denial, anger, and deep sadness about what the result has exposed about our country. It is not just about losing an election; it is that utterly disgraceful people have been rewarded for being truly despicable, and they are coming after all of the positive aspects of our country. I expect I will shortly come to full acceptance of the reality of the situation, but I know that I will never accept that scum of the earth as our President. I respect the office of the Presidency too much to ever associate his name with it.
So far we’re having bad and ok days, with one that actually felt actually happy and ‘normal’ as we were able to put all of this out of our minds for a short while. But the challenge will be before us all for years, as the attacks on all that is good about America will continue relentlessly. I don’t know how it will play out, but as they say, sometimes the only way out is through, and we will fight our way through it one day at a time. We will fight to regain our personal equanimity, and we will fight the Trumpublican agenda and attacks at every turn.
There will be many things we will all need to do, but here are the small steps I am starting with. I will share the text of any written communication on Daily Kos, so that others can use them to save time by copying, customizing slightly, and sending if they wish. The more critical mass with any of these, the better.
- Demand resistance: Call my Democratic senators and Chuck Schumer, and my Democratic congressional rep, and urge them to resist every part of the Trumpublican agenda that they can.
- Demand resistance again: Write to these same people with the same message, since it is said that for every letter or email they get, they assume 100 or more wanted to write but didn’t find the time.
- Support actual Journalism: Write to reporters such as Kurt Eichenwald and Eric Farenthold, thanking them for their actual journalism, and urging them to continue investigating Russian ties, self-dealing, and every other scandal this administration has and will have. Re-subscribe to Newsweek, who gave Eichenwald the platform to report. Contact my hometown Boston Globe Spotlight investigative team (the ones that blew open the Catholic Church scandal) and urge them to dig into Trump’s current and future scandals.
- Pressure weak journalism: Contact the NYT and WaPo and let them know I won’t subscribe until I hear reports that they have turned away from both-siderism and normalization of Trump. Contact MSNBC and let them know I have stopped watching/listening to any of their coverage before 8PM ET due to their part in normalizing Trump, giving him free air time, and promoting false equivalence.
- Petition the AG and DOJ to investigate Trump’s Russian ties before the inauguration.
- Support those at risk: Stand up for the targets of racism, bigotry, and misogyny. My wife and I have had a serious talk about safety pins recently, about the fact that if we wear one we need to be prepared to face potential violence against us as well as the original target. We take no pleasure in violence, but we agree that we must do what we have to do to stand up to hate.
- Support local races: Local board of selectmen. State senator and rep. I’ve never not supported these races in the past, but now more important than ever. Hopefully – if the MA Democratic party mounts a real challenge to Republican Governor Charlie Baker – support replacing him with a Democrat. Just because, and also because if Elizabeth Warren moves to a bigger job sometime, we need a Democratic Governor to appoint her replacement.
- Donate to organizations keeping the flame alive: Here are some great ones we support:
- Show up: Continue to volunteer in our community, and where we can, join in peaceful demonstrations in support of a progressive agenda and against the Trumpublican agenda.
- Troll: Freep Trump’s “How should we make America great again?” site page with progressive agenda items. I know there’s minimal chance this will do anything, but maybe Trump is so ‘poll-fixated’ and so hungry for adulation that if he thought maybe even more people would like him he’d implement some of these items. And if not, it will feel a tiny bit better to troll them with what a decent human being would do as opposed to the agenda they want to enact. Caveat: you need to give your name and email so they may start spamming you for donations and with other emails — hopefully it’s not as hard to unsubscribe as it supposedly was from their donor lists.
- Find inspiration: Enjoy inspiring books, poetry, quotes, and music – we’ll need to feed, and often heal, our spirits for this long fight. I’ll likely start a separate diary where we can share suggestions.
- Support each other: I will hug my wife even more often than I ever have, truly cherish moments of pleasure and peace, and support all others of good will, as we provide each other strength to go forward in the fight.