This past Presidential election was a disaster, as I said in my previous Sound Off! essay. Republicans will control the House and the Senate, so Congress appears likely to rubber-stamp all of tRump’s whims. The nation’s horrible swing to the right has emboldened every marque and model of hatemongers. Blacks in several Southeastern states received texts ordering them to report to the nearest plantation and pick cotton. Demonstrators on the campus of Texas State University carried signs with shamelessly sexist and homophobic messages, such as “Women are Property.” A number of people in two Michigan cities waved Nazi flags while shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump.”
However, we are not finished – far from it. The forces of Good are down but not out. Besides, the election news is far from 100% bad. Voters in seven states protected reproductive rights, partially undoing the anti-choice victory in overturning Roe v Wade. Nevadans voted to end slave labor for prisoners. Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the US Congress, while Texas elected its first openly LGBTQ representative. Democratic State governors are forming a coalition to resist the threats of autocracy. And a Federal judge ruled that Louisiana’s law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools is unconstitutional. Thus, we still have some hope.
The time for grieving and wailing is over. The time for resistance has just begun.
We can stymie Project 2025 and the pseudo-Christian Right’s plans to pervert the USA into a theocratical dictatorship. We can hamstring any and all efforts to destroy democracy and freedom. If you think this will take huge masses of people, take heart in this quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that has.” Look at past movements that brought about positive change – the abolitionists, the suffragettes, the civil rights crusaders, the women’s liberators. They all succeeded even though only a small fraction of the general population actively supported them.
Already hundreds of organizations are making plans to resist tRump in his second regime: the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, People for the American Way, NRDC, Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign, the NAACP, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Common Cause, Indivisible, Southern Poverty Law Center, the Center for Inquiry, and many, many more. Civil rights, environmental, LGBTQ, reproductive rights, pro-science, pro-education, pro-immigrant, humanist, and other types of NGOs are preparing to stand up for what Project 2025 aims to destroy.
Resistance doesn’t have to be violent; in fact, it shouldn’t be violent. The civil rights movement in this country was all about peaceful protests. For example, the non-violent Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the desegregation of that city’s transit system. Even when freedom marchers were being beaten by vicious police, they did not advocate meeting brutality with brutality. A few people did throw rocks and set places on fire, but they were few and far between.
If you want to support the resistance, you don’t have to be another Gandhi or Dr. King. You don’t even have to take part in any protests or marches. You can donate money or volunteer time to any organization opposing tRump’s machinations. You can sign petitions, contact your elected representatives, and share on-line petitions and articles with others. You can raise plenty of hell from the comfort of your home. “Slacktivism” is still activism, and for some people it may be all they can do. As I write this, Biden is still President, and the Democrats still control the Senate; we can lean on them to do all they can to hamper tRump’s plans. We can – and must – urge Biden and all Democratic Senators to confirm as many judges as possible. And after the changing of the guard, we must lean on those Democrats who are still in Washington to throw as many monkey wrenches in Project 2025 as they can.
We probably won’t win every fight, but we can win enough to keep this country from toppling into oligarchic fascism and plutocratic authoritarianism. Besides, we will have elections in 2026, and all Representatives and a third of the Senate will be running. Remember, tRump did not get everything he desired in his first regime because millions fought back hard and steadily. We need to keep fighting, stand our ground, and maintain our own and others’ morale.
