by Joe Courter
As the shit-storm of the MAGAization of our country manifests in so many ways, the obvious question arises, how do we overcome this? Social media has given us the ability to create big protests, but as with the protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, or during Occupy in the US showed, then what? What’s the next move? How do we build a movement?
We now know there are a lot of us willing to turn out, No Kings was a great success, but back to the streets again and again can seem futile. The fantastic win by Zohran Mamdani in the NYC Mayoral race is really inspirational, with social media aiding the organization of a fantastic grassroots campaign. The idealism of working toward a better world motivated all those canvassers and voters.
Idealism is powered by hope, and it is the life blood of progressive organizing. We keep on the task, not knowing if it will work, but knowing it is the right thing to do. Despair and defeatism rationalize inaction. And frankly too much optimism can also let people rationalize inaction. But we have now seen each other out in the streets, and know we have power to fight back.
How the resistance develops remains to unfold, and each of us can play a role, opportunities will come. Curate your news intake to sources and dosages that work for you. Keep living your life and be positive with others, bring them along in awareness. Share relevant information with others, we have that power like never before. Preserve the right to vote and support good candidates down the ballot.
This won’t be easy or quick. The motivators of this authoritarian ideology have built up the machinery of this takeover for decades while Democrats have been bland, middle of the road compromisers. The Heritage Foundation was founded in 1973 and took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s. They saw their opportunity to expand their power under Trump and quite openly crafted Project 2025 and the lesser known Project Esther (see page 8). Their game is to move fast, everything all at once, and overwhelm the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place. We are up against a fear-based ideology that sees us idealistic people as a threat to their precious established order. We want people to have more rights, more opportunity, more truth. These Christian Nationalists, social reactionaries and the ultra-rich feel we are taking things from them, threatening their rigid beliefs and traditions. They are using fear tactics as an effective motivator, and social media works great to cultivate that, as with the irrational anti immigrant hysteria justifying snatching people off the streets. When we try to keep up with all this (because we can and it draws us in) it can lead to information overload that serves to paralyze us too, make it all seem hopeless.
Well, here we are. The Bill has passed. When it is enacted, there will be serious impacts from Federal funding cuts. (And don’t even get me started on the elimination of USAID funding around the world! That’s a whole other story.) There will be a need for damage mitigation, support for immigrants and those kicked of healthcare, standing up for impacted neighbors and friends, and being sure we are heard by our elected representatives. Are the states supposed to fill the gaps, or will people just be dying? And adding to the horrors is the massive increase of funding for ICE and the building of detention centers.
I hate to say it, but it is the truth that our country as we know it is slipping away. “A republic, if you can keep it,” was Benjamin Franklin’s warning, and we are seeing the result of ignoring and trampling the cherished ideals we were founded on. How in the hell have we normalized and accepted the genocide in Gaza? Accepted the kidnapping of immigrants by masked thugs? Eliminated the rights of women to bodily autonomy? Accepted the censorship and whitewashing of our history?
Yes, we see it happening every day, but our idealism must say NO, that we can build a better world, and we must lay out those hopes clearly! We must reject the ideology of greed and fearmongering that powers the MAGAs and their White Christian Nationalism in every way we can, and find allies wherever we can.
Be strong, stay healthy, keep hope alive.