How to survive the next 280 days (and help America survive beyond them)
Putting your outrage to constructive use
Friends,
The 2024 election is 280 days away. How can we survive until then? How can we help America survive beyond it?
Many of you tell me or write in the comments section of this letter that you’re already filled with outrage. I am, too.
Trump is still not locked up, although he incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago, which resulted in several deaths and could have cost the lives of many more, including members of Congress.
He did it to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
If he’s able to delay his trials and he gets elected, he may never be held accountable.
He hasn’t stopped lying that the 2020 election was stolen from him, causing Americans to be more divided than at any time since the Civil War.
He’s on the way to winning the Republican nomination, and polls (unreliable as early polls are) show him beating Biden.
He has turned one of our two major political parties against democracy and toward neofascism.
He embodies moral squalor — bragging about sexually assaulting women, being found in a civil trial to have raped a woman, lying constantly about everything, claiming immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America, calling for a “termination” of the Constitution, describing political opponents as “vermin.”
And on and on.
All good reasons to be outraged.
But do me a favor right this moment. Take a deep breath and consider what you’re doing with your outrage.
Outrage on its own is exhausting (take this from someone who’s spent the better part of the last 77 years feeling outraged about one thing or another).
It can also lead to two disempowering states: despair and cynicism.
I know many who are in despair about the possibility of another Trump presidency. Their despair follows them around during the day and wakes them at night. It is robbing them of most joy in their lives.
I know others who have sunk into deep cynicism. The system is rotten to the core, they tell themselves. Why even worry about Trump? Nothing can be done in any event. They’ve stopped listening to or reading the news. Why bother?
Maybe you fall into one of these camps. I don’t mean to criticize you. I understand completely. Hell, I’ve been there myself.
But despair and cynicism can be self-fulfilling prophesies. They can stop you from taking political action. As such, they make it more likely that Trump will become president — and that neofascism will prevail.
Outrage can be a positive force if it fuels activism — if it gets people off their butts to do any number of things that individually don’t seem like much but taken together can have a big impact.
What sort of things? Forgive me if I’ve suggested this before, but for example:
1. Becoming even more politically active. For some of us, this will mean taking more time out of our normal lives — up to and including getting out the vote in critical swing states. For others, it will mean phone banking, making political contributions, writing letters to editors, and calling friends and relations in key states.
2. Starting now to organize. Even if you cannot take much time out of your normal life for direct politics, you will need to organize, mobilize, and energize your friends, colleagues, and neighbors. A number of effective groups can help you (I’ve added their names and web addresses at the end).
3. Countering lies with truth. When you hear someone repeating a Trump Republican lie, correct it. This will require that you prepare yourself with facts, logic, analysis, and sources.
4. Not tolerating bigotry and hate. When you come across it, call it out. Stand up to it. Denounce it. Demand that others denounce it, too.
5. Not resorting to name-calling, bullying, intimidation, violence, or any of the other tactics that Trump followers may be using. We cannot save democracy through anti-democratic means.
6. Being compassionate toward hardcore followers of Trump, but remaining firm in your opposition. Understanding why someone might decide to support Trump is fine. But you don’t want to waste your time and energy trying to convert them. Use your time and energy on those who still have open minds.
7. Not wasting your time complaining. Don’t gripe, whine, or kvetch about how awful Trump and his Republican enablers are. Or about how ineffective Biden and the Democrats are in communicating how bad Trump and his Republican enablers are. None of this will get you anything except an upset stomach or worse.
8. Asking everyone you know to vote for Biden and not sit this election out or vote for a third-party candidate. Even if they don’t especially like Biden — even if they’re tired of voting for the “lesser of two evils” or fed up not “voting my conscience” — they still have to vote for Joe Biden. He may not be perfect, but Trump is truly evil.
9. Demonstrating, but not confusing demonstration for political action. You may find it gratifying to stand on a corner in Berkeley or Cambridge or any other liberal precinct with a sign asking drivers to “honk if you hate fascism” and elicit lots of honks. But this is as politically effectual as taking a warm shower. Organize people who don’t normally vote to vote for Biden. Mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts in your community. Get young people involved.
10. Not getting distracted by the latest outrageous Trump post or speech or story. Don’t let Trump’s hunger for immediate attention or the media’s complicity with that hunger divert your eyes from the prize — the survival of American democracy during one of the greatest stress tests it has had to endure, organized by one of the worst demagogues in American history.
You probably have many other ideas (please feel free to add them in the comments).
My point is to use your outrage. Please don’t let it wear you down. Don’t try to smother it. Using it will make you feel and be powerful. And your power is desperately needed right now.
If you’d like more specific guidance on what you might do, check out these organizations:
Swing Left: https://swingleft.org/
VoteForward: https://votefwd.org/
MoveOn: https://front.moveon.org/
Indivisible: https://indivisible.org/
Data for Progress: https://www.dataforprogress.org/
Stand Up America: https://standupamerica.com/
Common Cause: https://www.commoncause.org/
Sister District: https://sisterdistrict.com/
Justice Democrats: https://justicedemocrats.com/
If you know of other highly effective groups, please alert us in the comments.
Thank you, Professor Reich, for acknowledging every single thing I have been feeling!! I have felt outrage because I felt hopeless that any thing I did would make any difference. My despair was keeping me awake and worried. I applied for a passport to get out of America! My cynicism caused me to snap and snarl at my family and friends. I felt I was on a roller coaster!! I did stop scrolling and engaging in political conversations and felt much better, but I know I have to do something. Your article was exactly what I needed to bring everything into focus. There are plenty of things I can do to help President Biden win and I have already begun to fight the good fight!! Thank you, too, for the list of organizations! That was most helpful. I am through letting the little orange man occupy space in my brain! I will work very hard to get people to vote and I will repeat President Biden's accomplishments like a mantra!! Goodbye trump, hello America!!
I understand your despair. We had to get Lula out of prison and vote for him, even though we had all the reasons not to, in order to get rid of Bolsonaro. Lula won by less than 2% of the valid votes (around 2 million) but we survived fascism in 2022. In less than one year, the courts ruled that Bolsonaro tried to temper with democracy and he is now forbidden to run for any public office ever again. Just wish you guys had done the same. Without Trump, Bolsonaro would never have existed. With Trump, civilization as we know it is over.