What You Can Do, Starting Today
By Samuel Warde
To watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY01JD9Okwc
The election is over and the time is nigh for liberals and progressives to stand up, dust themselves off and begin working on defeating President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-Obamacare, anti-woman, anti-pretty-much-anything-that-makes-us-proud agenda.
Firebrand
progressive Elizabeth Warren was one of the first to lead the charge, telling
Rachel Maddow last week that: “We are not turning this
country over to what Donald Trump has sold. We are just not.“
Below
is a list of 6 easy ways liberals and progressives can work to defeat Donald
Trump and his oppressive agenda.
Volunteering
time or money to organizations and groups supporting liberal and progressive
causes like Planned Parenthood gives them strength in numbers and helps build a
grassroots coalition to defeat Trump’s agenda.
All it takes is a few dollars or
a couple of hours of volunteer time a week. As Elizabeth Warren told Rachel
Maddow a couple of weeks ago: “Volunteering is a way to say we’re making these
groups stronger.”
2. HOLD YOUR
LEGISLATORS ACCOUNTABLE
Contact your
federal, local and state legislators and tell them the issues that matter to
you and remind them that as elected officials they work for us – the people.
You can also remind them that if they are not prepared to do battle against
Trump’s agenda you will remember that during the next election, when we can
replace them with candidates willing to stand up and fight for liberal and
progressive ideals. As filmmaker and activist Michael Moore wrote in his
morning after the election to-do list: “Any Democratic member of Congress who
didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way
Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must
step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in
stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.”
3. ADVOCATE
TRUTHFULNESS
Don’t idly stand
by while Trump supporters and Republicans make false claims about having a
mandate from the people, that we are sore losers. Use Twitter and Facebook,
email and phones to remind people that Hillary Clinton has won the
popular vote by over 1.7 million votes, and that margin is increasing as
absentee and provisional ballots continue being counted. Remind them that Trump
won the election due to an “arcane, insane 18th-century idea called the
Electoral College” that Constitutional scholars say
is a shameful remnant of slavery that must end.
Remind
everyone that Democrats picked up 6 seats
in the U.S. House of Representatives and picked up 2 seats in the U.S. Senate that a runoff election is scheduled
for Louisiana on December 10th –
that it is possible that Democrats might pick up another Senate seat there.
Challenge
that loudmouth at Starbucks, Twitter and Facebook spouting out his or her
illogical, unsubstantiated opinion.
4. SUPPORT
PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATIONS
Yesterday was
the time to lick our wounds and mourn for what could have been, but today it’s
time we regroup, we organize, we find the resolve to fight back; and we can do
this by supporting progressive organizations that are out there in the trenches
– with boots on the ground – fighting the good fight each and every day. Here
is a List Of Pro-Women,
Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigot Organizations That We Need To Support to get you started – today!
5. SPEND YOUR MONEY
AT COMPANIES SUPPORTING LIBERAL AND PROGRESSIVE CAUSES
This way you can
actually use your money to send a message that reflects OUR values and
priorities. There are millions of businesses in this country who are constantly
vying for your patronage.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you are contributing
to those who will use your hard earned dollars to fight for the left? Here is a
list of 10 Great Progressive
Companies Where We SHOULD Spend Our Money.
6. BE AWARE OF
COMPANIES SUPPORTING TRUMP AND THE CONSERVATIVE AGENDA AND BOYCOTT THEM
Identify
companies supporting Trump’s agenda and his efforts to undermine personal
freedoms, the rights of immigrants, women’s reproductive health access… Protest With Your Wallet!
Boycott These 28 Businesses Who Sell Trump Products!
Here is a recently updated list of 10 Right Wing Companies That
Every Progressive Should Boycott, and here is a more expansive List of Companies Supporting Right-Wing Causes To
Boycott.
Samuel Warde is a writer, social and
political activist, and all-around troublemaker.