11 Things To Do Now That Trump is President-Elect
11. Mourn.
-Take some time to reflect on what just happened. Feel whatever horror, betrayal, pain, fear, loathing, fury, or anything else you’re feeling as deeply as you can.
10.Armor up.
-Actively pursuing progressive action, is going to get harder for most of us than it’s ever been.
9. Cheer up.
-We now have very little to lose.
8. Attend your city council meetings.
-Scary federal policies rarely look the same on the municipal level. And at that level, looking you in the face can make a huge difference on the policy is written, or plays out in life.
7. Tell your stories.
-As humans, we respond to story in a way that supersedes our conscious mind. Your story about fear, about hope, about love, about helplessness, these stories can create a space in which hearts are changed, because only then will the minds follow. So, write a blog, be a guest on someone else’s blog, find a podcast on which you can be a guest, start a podcast, write a letter to the editor.
6. Share other’s stories.
– Your passion for justice was probably inspired by a story. A film you watched, a YouTube video, a book, some story created a change in your heart which helped you change your mind…shouldn’t you get that out there?
5. Volunteer.
-Odds are whatever aspect of the progressive platform that inspired you, or whatever aspect of the Orange Meaney’s talk that scared you, some organization near you is fighting to create or expand that thing or to protect those things or people. Build that policy from the bottom up.
4. Befriend a Trump Supporter.
-Learn what drives them. Live your story in their presence. Break out of the ideological biodome and find the person below that red hat.
3. Put your legislator’s numbers on speed dial.
-Call your Representatives and Senators often. Tell them or their aides what issues are important to you. Then, call them again…and again…and again. Tell them when they do something you approve of. Tell them what their representation means to you.
2. Consider running.
-Find a seat, any seat where you can do some good, and run for it. Even if you lose, it’s a chance to steer the conversation. Even in defeat, Bernie Sanders changed the entire party platform. RUN.
1. Breathe.
-Recognize this for what it is, the vicious backlash by an oppressor to progress’s sunrise on the horizon. The end of slavery marked the birth of the KKK. Was, therefore the solution not to free the slaves? Of course not. Every time we take a step into the future it will be against the taloned hand of the powerful lashing out to drag us back.