Social Activism in the Age of Trump: What To Do and What We Are Doing

Staying active or getting more active at the local and state level is paramount, especially since many/most of the biggest assholes in the GOP, from Ryan to Cruz, operate under the smug umbrella of promoting "states rights." Even Trump has been doing this, and he probably can't even name all 50 states. If more state governments and in particular governors go blue, that's probably the best bulwark against vindictive Republican moves at the federal level.

Yes, and it also develops the "bench" of candidates for future congress, senate and presidential runs.

Liked what Anil Dash wrote just after the election, so if you didn't see it already here it is again:

1. Show up, in your community.

Whether it’s issues like marriage equality, fighting climate change, or welcoming refugees and other immigrants, much of the progress we see starts at the local level, in our neighborhoods and cities and states. We’ll need to support and grow the organizations doing the work, and commit our time and energy to helping them accomplish their goals — simply donating our money will not be enough. There are a few key things to remember:

Organizations fighting for civil rights and social justice already exist in your community. Take the time, now, to research who is providing for essentials like food and water security, education, shelter, legal representation, and policy advocacy on behalf of people at risk.
Commit to showing up to help. We all have an overwhelming number of obligations to our lives, our families, our friends and to our work and careers. It’s hard to give up the one night a week we might spend hanging out, watching Netflix, but if that’s the night of the City Council meeting, or when your local elected official has a public hearing, it’s time to show up. Building real, sustainable infrastructure to protect those in need is a job that can’t only be done virtually, or remotely. We’ve got to show up.

Start fundraising, now. Once you’ve found the organizations doing the work in your community, commit what resources you can to supporting them, and begin helping them come up with ways to be sustainable over the long term. Local businesses are going to be key to providing necessary resources (whether that’s in-kind offerings or simply funding) and the time to capture their good intentions is right now while they’re still feeling the full weight of Trump’s win. If companies in your community say they want to do the right thing, give them the chance to.

2. Make stopping Trump a regular habit.

There are a few key steps we’ll all need to follow to prevent the gradual acceptance of Trump’s extreme and dangerous rhetoric.
Fight normalization in media. We’ll start to see the morning shows doing fluffy profiles of Melania and Ivanka almost immediately, along with “humanizing” articles and profiles of Trump following closely behind. These will be part of a concerted effort to make it seem as if Trump fits into a normal pattern of political practice in this country. We need to steadfastly, aggressively call out this threat by reminding media of his outrageous behavior and holding them accountable.

Build time into the schedule to undo Trump’s effects. We cannot stop the dangers of Trump’s presidency if we are reactive, only responding after he does something outrageous. We need to be proactive in preventing harm before it happens, and that requires a rhythm of civic participation, where we regularly do basic community-building acts like connecting with others around direct action or advocacy campaigns. Put it on your calendar, and pick 2 days a week where you set aside your lunch or forgo watching TV in the evening to contact elected officials, support candidates who will run for office, work with community organizations to support those in need, or simply talk to your friends and neighbors about the work that needs to be done.

If you can’t lead, then support those who do. Once President Obama’s term in office has ended, we’ll be blessed with getting back one of the most effective and respected community organizers who’s ever lived. But his work alone won’t be enough — we’ll need a thousand more leaders like him. Find the people in your community who are leading the charge, and ask them what they need. Nobody can do it alone, and not everybody has the time or interest to be the face in front of the crowd, but we can support those who do choose to stand up.

Pursue a strategy of containment as we make progress. There are a few narrow areas where Trump’s stated policies aren’t inherently destructive, such as his promise to rebuild American infrastructure. While we have to be hypervigilant for traditional inequities like redlining and destructive “urban renewal”, we can work to direct his efforts in such areas towards productive ends, so that the momentum and attention of Trump and his supporters is channeled toward the least dangerous goals possible. This strategy will also benefit from Trump’s illiteracy or incompetence in other areas of policy, which might draw him to focus on initiatives related to construction and infrastructure, where he is least weak. This doesn’t diminish his danger overall, but offers a possible productive outlet for what he’ll clearly see as a mandate to act.

3. Take care of yourself and others.

This is going to take years of work, and there will be other demoralizing moments along the way. We’ll get tired and afraid and exhausted, and when we’re not, we’ll have to help those around us who are.

But the work to be done in fighting Donald Trump is not unprecedented. All of us who are targets of his rhetorical attacks and his proposed policies can look back at history and see times when we’ve faced down similar threats—and won. It is only because progress has been made that we feel so gutted by this loss. And this is not, as some would say, the last gasp of old oppressions, it is simply another dark milestone in a fight against injustice that will never end.

Today, though, I’m ready to get to work, and I’m committed to this fight for as long as it takes. I owe it to my child, and to my family, and to yours. I hope you’ll join me. We’ve got work to do.

This is on my reading list right now:
https://www.versobooks.com/books/1991-crowds-and-party

Crowds_and_party-cover-max_221 more images
Crowds and Party
by Jodi Dean
How do mass protests become an organized activist collective?
Crowds and Party channels the energies of the riotous crowds who took to the streets in the past five years into an argument for the political party. Rejecting the emphasis on individuals and multitudes, Jodi Dean argues that we need to rethink the collective subject of politics. When crowds appear in spaces unauthorized by capital and the state—such as in the Occupy movement in New York, London and across the world—they create a gap of possibility. But too many on the Left remain stuck in this beautiful moment of promise—they argue for more of the same, further fragmenting issues and identities, rehearsing the last thirty years of left-wing defeat. In Crowds and Party, Dean argues that previous discussions of the party have missed its affective dimensions, the way it operates as a knot of unconscious processes and binds people together. Dean shows how we can see the party as an organization that can reinvigorate political practice.

That's really great, nashwan. Thanks for reposting.

I'm trying to be realistic about what I can do because a) I want to commit to contributing both time and money on an ongoing basis and b) that commitment means that I'm basically going from zero to sixty in terms of my actual civic/community involvement. But I'm intending to go 'live' immediately after the holidays. I have to make an actual budget (gasp) so I can figure out the total amount I have to play with, but I'm going to be splitting a monthly charitable contribution between 8-10 groups. I'm going to start regularly attending city council meetings, etc (I'm going to the aforementioned candidate meet and greet tomorrow night and then attending a launch event on Saturday for the city clerk candidate I mentioned in the race thread...already a pretty unprecedented level of involvement for me) and try to find a committee that seems like the best use of my energy. In terms of just community involvement, there are some ongoing after school tutoring opportunities starting at the beginning of the public schools' spring semester that I'm hoping to participate in. I think just mixing it up with people who are already engaged will give me a little more focus re: how best to serve.

And when you've reached your conclusions, could you post them on your blog and not here?

― Andrew Farrell

i don't have a blog, you're just going to have to complain about my pronoun usage here.

This is a really useful article on how protest helped unseat GOP governor Pat McCrory in NC, even in a year that a republican won the state at the presidential level.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/12/why-pat-mccrory-lost-and-what-it-means-in-trumps-america.html

The upshot: when politicians promote despicable legislation, do everything you can to draw attention to it, start early, and keep hammering. This especially works at the local and state level, e.g. if you live in a congressional district where your congressman supports slashing medicare or something like that.

― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive)

on the other hand we did the same sort of thing in indiana with pence and he's now vice president, so my recommendation is that if you live in indiana, you should strongly consider getting the fuck out.

And that also sounds good, man alive. It's always so disheartening to see people on the left who generally agree but get bound up in relatively petty squabbles. Nothing is ever going to change if we can't figure out how to resolve that.

if you live in indiana, you should strongly consider getting the fuck out.

― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Tuesday, December 6, 2016 9:37 AM (fifty-one seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Been trying to relate this sentiment to my family for ages.

And when you've reached your conclusions, could you post them on your blog and not here?

― Andrew Farrell

i don't have a blog, you're just going to have to complain about my pronoun usage here.

― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy)

for the record, i've been doing this since i was a child, and my parents would always ask me if i meant the royal we or the schiozphrenic we. which is just horribly ableist of them, but for anyone looking for guidance, bet on the schizophrenic we.

Listening to this, which is an informative? Dispiriting? Elucidating? interview with Mariame Kaba, who done a lot of organizing to end mass-incarceration, esp around Chicago

She talks about what to do now in the immediate short-term

http://deleteyouraccount.libsyn.com/get-your-people

Her work on prison abolition and anti-violence strategies is TOP NOTCH. <3 <3 <3 MK

Also seems relevant, a post-mortem on Occupy from the POV of one of the organizers, posted last year.

As the folks at Ayni’s Momentum trainings will tell you, all movements have a DNA, whether it’s intentional or not. When movements take off and decentralize, they spread whatever their original DNA is, and while it’s possible to adjust it as it goes, it’s sort of like swimming against a tide. Our DNA was a mixed bag. The title had the tactic (Occupy) and the target (Wall Street) baked into it, the 99% frame demonstrated some level of shared radical politics, and the assemblies represented a commitment (an obsession, perhaps) to direct democracy. But we didn’t have too much more than that. As Occupy grew and spread, its DNA evolved to its natural conclusions: On one hand, a real critique of capitalism, powerful mass-based direct action, a public display of democracy. On the other hand, an infatuation with public space, a confusion of tactic for strategy, a palpable disdain for people who weren’t radical, and fantasies about leaderlessness. And then there were the questions we had never answered at all, which were begging to be explained now that we were growing: How would this transform into something long-term? Who were we trying to move? What were we trying to win?

And that also sounds good, man alive. It's always so disheartening to see people on the left who generally agree but get bound up in relatively petty squabbles. Nothing is ever going to change if we can't figure out how to resolve that.

― i need microsoft installed on my desktop, can you help (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 6 December 2016 15:38 (four hours ago) Permalink

I really think we need to constantly emphasize the concept of "coalition." One segment is more hardcore socialist, one is more liberal-oriented, but they can both show up for a protest on a specific issue they agree on, they can both turn out for a candidate that's the best option at the moment, etc. Also there's activism and there's politics. Activism can be absolute and uncompromising on a single issue, politics is compromise. Fight for 15 says don't settle for less than 15. Maybe sometimes the political result is 12. The candidate that supports 12 is better than the candidate that supports no increase, when those are the only two options.

So it looks like Injustice Boycott has daily actions planned to send out to those who are on the mailing list (today's is calling for the termination of the officer who killed Eric Garner). It seems like a good strategy, keeping the cards close to the vest like this and surprising the protestees with what looks like spontaneous action. At least until the establishment gets wise and signs up for the e-blast.

this all seems very grandiose and delusional to me, a secret boycott where only the operatives know until the last minute! I guess we'll know soon enough if it's effective at all.

it's like a woke improv everywhere

excuse me... an even more woke improv everywhere

clarification: i have no opinion on this i just wanted to make a funny joke and tbrr in that respect i feel as though i have succeeded

When did it get so hard to provide positive feedback? I want to give my appreciation and support to Adult Swim for cancelling Million Dollar Extreme and somehow the default response is "how do I give them money". I'm not entirely convinced that they did what they did so I would give them money, but dropping a polite Emily Post-approved thank you note, in my experience, tends to get kind of lost when it's surrounded by 95 extremely explicit rape threats (I'm kind of assuming here based on what I see on Twitter).

That's a dumb default response. Why the hell shouldn't you give them money once they've corrected the action that would've prompted someone to withhold money from them?! The flipside of the boycott coin is positive reinforcement. Reward those who align themselves with your values. Or hold a stupid grudge, I guess, for all that achieves.

ok, fuck it, i just ordered the complete "boondocks" on dvd. would've grabbed "off the air" too except that's not out on dvd apparently.

a secret boycott where only the operatives know until the last minute!

I am not at all sure that this added fillip will add anything to the effectiveness of whatever boycotts are proposed. If the purpose were to deluge an entity with messages of protest, the element of surprise might help, although if it overloaded their servers it might also be construed as a rather sinister Denial of Service attack. However, this is being framed as boycott(s), not as a flood of protest messages, so I am at a loss how this advance secrecy could make any boycott more effective.

iow, a boycott can't be run like a flash mob. a real boycott requires months or years of patient effort.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/resisting-trump-from-inside-the-government

never heard about that, interesting.

http://www.resistsubmission.com/store/p2/BUY

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/resisting-trump-from-inside-the-government

― El Tomboto, Tuesday, December 6, 2016 10:22 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just met him, but had no idea about this!

The Liberal O.C., a progressive blog, nicknamed him “the Controllernator.” Chiang’s resistance became a case study in how a bureaucracy stymies the requests of an executive who offends its professionalism and sense of mission. When General Dwight D. Eisenhower was preparing to take office, Harry Truman predicted, “Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”

There's a sci-fi series somewhere that posits that it's incredibly important to maintain complicated, inefficient bureaucracies, that if they become efficient it only destroys civilizations, and in which the reigning culture has a whole secret department like a CIA devoted to keeping their bureaucrats inefficient. (Is it Iain M. Banks' Culture series? I can't remember.)

I have a co-worker who is skeptical Trump and/or Ryan can do as much damage as they want because "it's like turning around a battleship." I'd certainly like to hope that's true, but shit, still pretty worried.

Chiang struck me as a really decent and smart guy. Don't know whether he can pull off a win against the celebrity-like competition, but I hope he stays in government.

There's a sci-fi series somewhere that posits that it's incredibly important to maintain complicated, inefficient bureaucracies, that if they become efficient it only destroys civilizations, and in which the reigning culture has a whole secret department like a CIA devoted to keeping their bureaucrats inefficient. (Is it Iain M. Banks' Culture series? I can't remember.)

In the US, at least at the federal level, this is called the Office of Management and Budget, and more specifically the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Not "Oh Ira" - OYRAH.

in orbit's series sounds like frank herbert's bureau of sabotage stories: whipping star, the dosadi experiment and a couple of short stories whose titles i don't recall -- their chief sabotage operative is caledl jorj x. mckie

YESSSS IT IS THUS

Fighting at the bureaucratic level isn't going to fix the belief system and framework that's led to what we have with Trump. This has been in the making for a long time now, a garden seeded and cultivated for decades. Obama was only like a half-step away from Trump. People act like this is a huge coup, but it's just slight forward movement in the same direction things have been going in.

People talk about Trump moving a battleship in a different direction, but it's really just charting the same course it's been set on. Hence why the media and political establishment are acting pretty damn OK about all of the things we're outraged about here. They were all complicit in this because Trump makes perfect sense in this system we've been living in. We're all products of it, too ... we can examine our own beliefs we've been raised in as Americans and we can see it in ourselves. Look in the mirror and we can see this system staring back at us; we look and Trump appears and gives us a wink.

To really change anything, imo, people have to attack this at the systemic level, each component of the system that has allowed this to happen. How that's possible I have no fucking idea... it sure isn't going to happen in one generation. It's taken at least two generations for this to come to fruition and it had incredible amounts of wealth, expertise, and power behind it.

The last time anyone made a dent they got gunned down and their skulls split open, and this was during a time when people had much higher thresholds for discomfort and lived in a more communal version of the country, and with even less concentrations of power that challenged their actions. I know this is a hot cynical take, and I welcome any hope to cool it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmB3gVOceB0

I want to really encourage posts regarding the second half of this thread's title. For me, hearing what people are actually doing (even if it may seem like low-level drudgery or whatever to you) is both inspiring and motivating. Like, just knowing that people are doing stuff helps make stuff feel more doable.

I'm saying this stuff because I think it helps knowing the reality of the situation in order to develop strategies that are actually effective. Not that my take is even the right one necessarily, but that level of thinking is pretty much required to start doing anything. The situation looks a little bleak, obviously, considering where we're at right now, but that's just how things are. If you want to clean up a room full of dog shit, you have to look at it first.

I cannot emphasize enough that people need to spread awareness of NPVIC and pressure your state legislators and governor to enact it: http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/

thx Tombot

Old Lunch, so far my wife and I are:

- doing monthly ACLU and PP donations
- digital WaPo sub
- Nation sub
- calling our Congress reps, but they are solid blue so I feel like they're right there with us (Oregon)
- lots of petitions, who knows abt that
- I signed up for the Injustice Boycott but have not tried to wrap my head around it yet, we don't spend lots of money or travel

I imagine we'll need to get out into the streets and protest at some point as well

has anyone used the Buycott app?

as in orbit mentioned upthread, small donations to good organizations seems like a good way to go (if you can)

We have recurring donations for

ACLU
Southern Poverty Law Center
National Immigration Law Center
UNHCR
Planned Parenthood Foundation

Along with giving to two local food banks and the local affordable housing organization.

Time wise, gah. We have small people, including a pretty demanding special needsy guy. We have demanding jobs and our own personal limits. So we don't currently have as much time/energy to do hands-on volunteer stuff as we used to (and hope to have again in future). Personally, I admit I'm utterly exhausted at the end of every day just keeping up with normal life, so I'm not inclined to add to the stress with non-constructive "SHOULD I HAVE DONE MORE!?!?!?!?! SHOULD I BE DOING MORE?!?!?!?!" self-ass-kicking.

Also, my wife and I are both longtime activists with professional experience in the nonprofit world. When I was doing nonprofit work, I know that my organizations craved money and professional help vastly more than we craved volunteers. Much of the work to be done is the work of serious and trained professionals. This is not to diminish the contributions of well-meaning volunteers, but simply to put it in perspective. If someone shows up at a food bank willing to help, they can stock shelves. If someone shows up at a professionally run advocacy group, willing to stuff envelopes or whatever, it's actually not all that useful. I can spend my morning orienting you and telling you what to do. Or I can just use, y'know, MONEY to hire a mailing house to make it happen.

Yeah, beyond the itch I'm feeling to volunteer I'm starting to think I need to figure out a way to transition my frankensteined hodgepodge of skills into an actual nonprofit career. I'm growing increasingly frustrated about wasting my time and energy and halfway functional brain on a dumb bullshit job that doesn't mean a damn thing. And I don't have any dependents so a potential pay cut won't make that profound a dent on my life. You can contribute the money I don't have, Puffin, and I'll put in the legwork you don't have time for. Everybody does what they can and nobody has to kick themselves!

frankenstein hodgepodge can go a long way in a nonprofit, especially a smaller one. generally your job description is only part of what you end up doing

i'm going to work "frankensteined hodgepodge" into my next cover letter, thank you.

Wasn't he the bad guy in Mystery Men?

We have recurring donations for

ACLU
Southern Poverty Law Center
National Immigration Law Center
UNHCR
Planned Parenthood Foundation

This is great. I'd like to also put in mentions for the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Brennan Center, two really great and slightly less well known organizations that do a lot of important work on voting rights, among other things. Really important right now.

frankenstein hodgepodge can go a long way in a nonprofit, especially a smaller one. generally your job description is only part of what you end up doing

― global tetrahedron, Thursday, December 8, 2016 9:42 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hi, I know SQL and how to use an oxy-acetylene torch, what do you need me to do today?

hi i'm a squid who eats dough out of oxy-acetylene torches!

i just read about micro-volunteering the other day, seems like a good way to put specific skills to work while keeping your dayjob.

btw folks i'm partway into a smart, rousing book: This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt is Shaping the Twenty-first Century, by Mark & Paul Engler (2016 Nation Books). Looks carefully at the craft of nonviolent resistance, and the complicated relationship of "movement" vs "organization-building" activism.

Yeah, I'm starting that book, too.

Also what I've done: donate here and there. Went to local organizing/group chat meetings for everything from Matt Hern talking about his book on modern city planning and displacement at the local neighborhood business assoc to a friend's social justic reading group she started up.

I figure; we're still at the starting point for a lot of this so just showing up to meetings is the best we can do.