Trump 2.0 Resistance++ (Part II)

In Part I of this series, I started to sketch what fighting back might look like.

I said we “must embrace a clear sense of the abject failures (including our own) that led us up to now, capture the public’s imagination, and move us into the future we need.”

I also noted this is no time for cowards:

This means we need to put transformative leaders in place, people who will get real with themselves and us and who aren’t afraid to fight. Let’s face it–cowardice in the Republican party has turned it into an insurrectionist, increasingly fascist party with dictatorial ambitions. But cowardice in the Democratic party has often prevented the public from seeing a distinction between the parties, even if it should be obvious. Cowardice has also prevented Democratic politicians from generating the attention needed to draw the contrast.

We need what AOC called “brawlers for the working class.” She shared that the people who told her they voted for both her and Trump “see two people that are fundamentally anti-establishment, two people that do not respect a rule if the rule does not lead to an outcome, like a positive outcome.”

Finally, I encouraged us to bring the best of ourselves that we can.

The battles to come will be difficult, and probably painful. We are going to have to bring the best ourselves that we possibly can. This means we need our feet as firmly planted and our lives as rooted as possible. Because when we are unmoored–we are less clear and less capable.

Today, I turn to more practical matters: how to resist and take the fight to them. 

In this case, I’m talking about you, not your state and local government. In the next installment I’ll address what our communities as represented by our government need to do –and certainly we will have to get them to do that. 

The Three Rs - Resist, Refuse, Ridicule.

But today I’m talking just about what we ordinary people can do. I’m going to borrow heavily from Anat Shenker-Osorio's plan to beat fascism. She summarizes it as “resist, refuse, ridicule.”

I love this because it is applicable where we operate–whether we are posting on social media, or saving our schools from anti-trans activists. 

I think of resistance as using the normal rules and levers of power to make things hard for MAGA. Raise the cost of every action–protesting at Tesla stores and congressional town halls, voting against them, or putting them into an endless procedural hellscape in the courts wherever possible. That’s the first step, but it is far from sufficient.

Refusal is more aggressive–feel free to stonewall and break a few rules to make sure they cannot advance their fascist agenda in our communities. A nice example of this was when former NFL player Chris Kluewe protested a city council meeting where a MAGA plaque was set to be approved for the city library. When enough people sit down like Chris–they cannot carry us all away. Even the baddest of the bad guys use the refusal tactic against one another–because it is extremely effective when we do it together. We need to show the world that despite the cowardly capitulators out there–Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and now the law firm, Paul, Weiss–tens of millions of Americans will not be cowed.

Ridicule works differently. It is not particularly effective when targeted at MAGA voters - because nobody changes their mind when they are being ridiculed. People need an excuse to distance themselves from these fascists, even if they don’t deserve that excuse. Whether or not they deserve ridicule is beside the point. The point is beating fascism. 

Their leaders, on the other hand–should feel the full strength of our derision. Ridicule their leaders, without implying they are harmless. This is the easiest path to showing that the emperor has no clothes. Tim Walz hit this on the head, but sadly, the campaign shut him down. Deflate the bubble that implies they are powerful. They didn’t win a majority, barely have a majority in congress, and their approval is underwater. If they tried to get anywhere without cheating and breaking the law, they’d be done. 

Also, they are a bunch of soft, sniveling, creepy losers who couldn’t cut it in a fair fight anyway. People need to see this. 

Take those three Rs with you, wherever you go in the fight.

Make sure people know that they are not the only ones who feel this way. 

Make sure your community knows how you feel–that normal Americans reject this garbage. It cannot just be social media posts, because the algorithms sort us into like-minded communities. Put up a sign, wear a hat or a t–shirt, talk to people. Shenker-Osario suggests paining “fuck fascists” on the side of your barn. Any of us can do this sort of thing.

This kind of social signaling is key - because when people have a sense that “everyone else is starting to feel this way” - it actually shifts public opinion. In fact it is much more persuasive than any clever message by a messaging strategist–we are social creatures much more than we are rational creatures.

If you are a creative type–write songs, pen parodies, make tiktoks. Shenker-Osario shares her own creative idea: make a video with a MAGA couple trying to buy food that doesn’t rely on immigrants. What about trying to get healthcare without help from immigrants, or Medicaid? Try treating cancer without NIH funding. Bring these horrors to life. Now is your moment! 

Go Local:

I cannot emphasize this enough. We alone cannot do much about the fascists in the White House at the moment, but we can frustrate their plans, their party and their people at the local level. That is a place we have power, and when we exercise that power, it hurts their movement. And since we are not alone–if we do that in enough places, we win.

Local politics might seem like an uninteresting place where people go to talk about potholes–but it is also where most of the fight is–unless you are a member of congress or the judiciary. 

Even here in blue Seattle, we have politicians fighting against affordable housing and for lower taxes for corporations, trying to take away affordable housing funding from black neighborhoods politicians fighting against the expansion of voting rights, politicians engaged in self serving projects that put the community in danger and suggesting we should collaborate with Trump, and politicians that have actively recruited alongside insurrectionists for MAGA. 

Pick an Issue or two: 

Typically, most people cannot sustain attention, expertise, and network building if they try to help with everything. Pick a place you have the motivation and capacity, and run with it.

This means find your issues! Housing, childcare, access to reproductive medicine, policing, education–whatever it is, pick it and dig in. You don’t have to be a policy expert. Just find other like minded people in the fight in your community (or if there aren’t any, start recruiting) and get caught up on the main threads. The bad news is there is crappy white wing ideology infecting all of these, and so there will be plenty for you to do.

Thicken Your Community Ties Through “Organizing.”

In your chosen area, engage in some good old fashioned organizing. That means getting in contact with the youth group leaders and girl scout troops, PTA organizers–or whoever else, building a relationship with them, and making sure they understand why the issue is relevant to them and their people. You can activate these folks if an acute need arises.

Be the reciprocal version for others. Don’t worry about mastery of everything or helping everyone. But make yourself available to spread the word when the call comes from someone working on another issue that you are sympathetic to. 

Thicken Your Community Ties In General

Join a union! Volunteer with groups of people. Get involved in a book club. Be a voice of reason on that ridiculous homeowners association board. Be active in your church. Make sure you are engaged with other people over a mix of political and nonpolitical issues. Try to work to activate others in these circles without being too annoying!

Ned Resnikoff wrote a great piece shortly after the election with some practical ideas about how to strategically rebuild civic life. He argued that the Democratic Party and other left leaning funders should fund community centers in key voting precincts. These centers would be open to the public and managed by a combination of local volunteers and paid staff from the community. 

These would be open to the public and might include events like:

• Free meals and social gatherings such as potlucks.

• Happy hours and other social outings for adults.

• Free childcare and after-school programs.

• Free meals for children, especially during the summer months.

• Volunteer opportunities, such as park beautification projects and visits to food pantries.

• Board game nights, trivia nights, and intramural sports leagues.

• Watch parties for movies and major sporting events.

The centers would be clear about their political orientation. But the social events themselves shouldn’t be overtly political. “Demanding that someone sign up for a fundraising list as the price of getting childcare would defeat the purpose. Volunteers and staff would, of course, be free to discuss politics if the subject comes up naturally. But they would rarely attempt to “activate” anyone who doesn’t specifically ask to be activated.” Political events could be held there too.

Humiliate The Rich Enablers

Shenker-Osorio also suggests something she calls “Mangione without murder.” (Please do not engage in violence!). Find out where the rich enablers are–show up in their church parking lot and then “sing hymns that are actually about what Jesus preached. When they get out of church, say it to their faces.” But make sure it’s on video, and their embarrassed reaction is seen on tiktok 30 million times. 

Prepare for Mass Mobilization

Given the intensity and violence of the lawlessness of the administration, and its clear aim to dismantle any checks on Trump’s power or corruption, we need to prepare for mass mobilization–millions of people in the streets, work stoppages and the like. The guidance above is designed to push back on the thieves in the White House and to shift public opinion. But it is also designed to make us more ready for when Musk and Trump’s criminality finally is too much for a critical mass of Americans. 

Hungarians are finally getting fed up with Victor Orban acting like a tyrant.

You Have Power

You may not have direct power over Donald Trump. But you do have agency in your own world, in your own community. When enough of us thicken our ties in our home towns, and fight to improve them, when we adopt the resist, refuse, ridicule posture. I don’t meant to say we shouldn’t be worried or uncertain–these are terribly trying times. But I do know that only together we can make it impossible for them to advance their fascistic agenda.