Get Loud

Don't let anyone tell you your voice doesn't matter.

Photo by Alena Jarrett on Unsplash

Last week was a true object lesson in the challenges facing the pro-democracy team as we do our best to stymie Trump’s relentless, chaotic bigotry and corruption. The ongoing saga of Trump’s trade war with Mexico and Canada shows just how hard it is to settle on a consistent message. The tariffs are on, but only on China. The tariffs are off, but only for a month. The tariffs are on, crashing the stock market, raising prices and antagonizing allies. The tariffs are off, but once again, only for a month. The tariffs might get turned on again, unless someone can figure out what the hell Trump wants and then give it to him. The tariffs might get turned off again, if the administration is unable to stomach the consequences and accompanying polling shift. By the time we’ve gotten a statement out, told our friends, posted to instagram, the policy has changed. You’d almost think Trump was doing it on purpose, if you believed he was capable of that much strategic thinking.

And while rising prices, economic chaos, belligerent firings, and the specter of even more disruption to Social Security, Medicaid, and the Department of Education are bringing Trump’s approval numbers down, they aren’t coming down as much as we’d like. It’s a constant reminder that Trump not only won the Electoral College this time, but also the popular vote, with gains in almost every demographic group. It’s not just that his chaos makes it hard to settle on a message, it’s that it’s hard to figure out a message that people actually want to hear.

At the State of the Union last week (technically the first SOTU of the administration is actually just a Joint Address to Congress but it’s a bit of a silly distinction) Democrats exhibited how these challenges are fracturing our response. Some Democratic women wore hot pink to show some unified opposition. Some Democrats held up signs and walked out. Representative Al Green was thrown out for yelling back at Trump. And just a couple days later ten Democrats joined Republicans and voted to censure him for that behavior. This is just an example, but it showcases pretty succinctly how much differentiation there are among elected Democrats on how to respond to this new administration.

The New York Times, in their Morning newsletter last week, broke down the Democratic response to Trump into four categories - compromisers, resisters, lawyers, and pragmatists.

It will probably not shock you that I have no time for the compromisers, who the newsletter says “have given some political ground on issues where surveys indicate popular support for Trump’s position [like] immigration, tariffs and transgender athletes on girl’s sports teams.” For one thing, this won’t work. Neither Trump, nor Elon Musk have ever demonstrated a willingness to compromise - the phrase ‘give and take’ might as well be a foreign language to them. And for another thing, the Trump administration’s positions on immigration and trans rights in particular are cruel and wrong. They are scapegoating trans people and immigrants, using the immense power of the federal government to bully kids who want to play sports and people who came to this country out of fear and poverty to try to build a better life.

To the pragmatists, the New York Times assigned the avatar of James Carville, who wrote an op-ed recently that I will not link to, that suggests Democrats roll over and play dead. Rather than fight the administration on their relentless attacks on everything we hold dear, we let them execute their unpopular policies and hope that it’ll sink them. If you’re wondering how this is different from compromising, you’re not alone. If you’re wondering how people across the country will know their lives are getting worse because of Republicans unless someone says that out loud, you’re not alone there either. And if you’re wondering how we stop facism by letting it run rampant through our streets - well, you get the idea.

So that leaves us with the resisters and the lawyers. To the lawyers, keep doing your thing. I’ve said before, and I’ll say again - we have to use our democracy if we want to keep it. If we assume that Trump is going to find a way to become president again for a third term, if we act like it’s a given that he’ll ignore the Supreme Court, then we’ve given him permission to do so. If lawyers on the side of democracy hadn’t sued the administration to resume the USAID funding that had already been allocated by Congress, then we wouldn’t have gotten a Supreme Court decision that ordered them to resume that funding. And while Trump may still ignore that Supreme Court ruling, prompting a Constitutional crisis of massive proportions, he won’t be able to do so quietly. I’d much rather join a vicious fight for the power of the voters, the power of Congress, and the power of checks and balances than hand over power without fighting because I’m afraid I might lose.

What remains are the resisters - the ones storming out, the ones shouting back.

There’s a statistic going around pointing out that, amidst fears of what will happen if the federal government divests from vaccines, there are more people in this country right now with measles than there are trans women athletes. I have to admit that I hate this statistic, because there’s not a version of this story where there are thousands of trans women athletes and thus it’s suddenly okay to bully trans people. But it does show that so-called compromising Democrats are allowing Republicans to set the narrative, to shepherd them into bigotry against a small group of people because they think that’s what the voters want. It may very well be what the voters want, but the voters also wanted Trump and we’re not going around conceding that was a good idea. Sometimes voters are wrong. And when they are wrong we don’t roll over and play dead and we don’t give them what they want. We convince them. We change their minds. And then we win.

Because while it may seem like Republicans are all powerful, that the fragmentation of the resistance amongst Democratic politicians is evidence of some superior strategy or significant upper hand on the Republican side, that is simply not the case. Across the country Republican members of Congress are hosting town halls only to find themselves berated by angry constituents - people who have lost their jobs or their funding, who are afraid for their grandparents and their kids and their communities. These town halls are causing so much commotion that Republican leadership has told members of Congress to stop hosting them. Democratic politicians of all stripes, from AOC to Tim Walz are offering to host town halls in Republican districts - because someone in the government should be responsive to the needs and desires of the American people.

Resistance is messy and hard. It means acknowledging the breadth of the problem we face, the deep cracks in the system on which we’ve built our lives, and the fallible and flawed with which we take our stand. Resistance is also built on contradictions - it means listening when we’d rather yell, asking questions when we’d rather make demands. It means we stay alert, we stay angry, we stay fighting, but it also means we take care of ourselves, we find softness and joy.

Resistance makes mistakes sometimes, presses the wrong buttons, says the wrong thing. Resistance also might mean different things for each of us - for some it’s organizing, and others its marching. It might mean just showing up to work when you’d rather not, and it might mean making phone calls or writing or cooking or sharing or painting or yes, yelling and demanding. We don’t always have to know the right thing to do or the right thing to say, and we don’t always have to get it right - but we do have to do something. To say something. And to show up again the next day, no matter what happened the day before. What resistance needs most from us is to believe in something, and to fight for it.

You want to know what I believe in? I believe in people. I believe in us.

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Here’s How to Save Democracy This Week

1. March recess is coming soon! Representatives and Senators will be back in their districts/states the week of March 15. Some will be holding town halls, some will not! You can find town halls, or empty chair town halls hosted by local organizing groups like Indivisible here. Plan to attend one! Bring a friend, ask questions, take video, and share with your whole network. As always, let me know if you have questions.
   
   If you do sign up to go to a town hall let me know! I’d love to chat with folks who attend one, get some info about your experience, and share it in this newsletter.
   

2. Give me some feedback! I’ve made a few things in the past few months since Trump was elected (and tbh some are even older than that) about how to call Congress, a dispatch to ask the group chat to take action, and a list of ways to push back against Trump. What are some other resources you’d find useful? Are there tools/documents/social media ideas you’d like to see? Let me know!