Week Two: What Can We Do?

January 31, 2025

This is the thing I am hearing from a lot of people: “I want to help, but I don’t know what to do?”

A few days ago, Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias came out with a list of "10 Things We Can All Do to Protect Democracy.” For the most part, he is advising folks to stay positive, remain focused on the problem (Trump and his agenda), and make your voice heard. Paul Krugman has also urged people to speak up loudly. Speaking up is essential right now. Failure to do so in the face of fascism has had terrible consequences in history.

I will echo some of Elias’ points below, but I do not think that his list is what people I talk to have in mind when they ask what they can do to make a difference.¹ Some points are partisan in a way I don’t think is very useful right now. When we have a special election or in the 2026 midterms, we can worry about Democrats.² In the meantime, let’s move forward working with mutual aid projects and progressive minor party movements. These are two of the three prongs of activism I wrote about here.³

We are going to have to do the actual work of organizing and mobilizing people. There is some reason to believe that a lot of Democratic voters are so upset at how they swung from Trump being an existential threat to working with him that a leftist version of the Tea Party could threaten incumbents in 2026. The reaction to Luigi Mangioni suggests that a lot of Democratic supporters are angry at the neoliberal system; and shows that even Republicans have underestimated how anticapitalist much of their base actually is.⁴ Democrats’ embrace and defense of neoliberalism is what alienated voters. Anyone that thinks that fascists did not find it much easier to whip up anti-immigration sentiment among workers because Democrats had focused on supporting a system that prioritizes the interests of investors and capital has not been paying attention.

In the end, as long as we have this archaic, racist, and politically naive two-party system, we will have to form coalitions with Democrats at election time. A feckless centrist capitalist party is better than fascists. And we can continue to try to push the Democratic Party towards more egalitarian and socialist policy positions.

Elias tells us to focus criticism on Republicans, not Democrats. He is not wrong. Republicans are in control of all three branches of the federal government and they have been committed on concentrating the wealth of the nation in the hands of very few oligarchs. But Democrats should not be free from criticism. Their 30+ year effort to make the party acceptable to Republican’s natural constituency - the investor and capitalist class - has led them to embrace an economic system that hurts regular people. Sure, Democrats are always the ones suggesting and enacting reforms to make life easier under neoliberalism, but it is the system that is the problem.

The idea that Democrats are punished for not being able to message that they passed the ACA misunderstands the issue that Democrats’ message that our economy is great is the real problem. The ACA, for instance, should be an incremental step (remember when the Clintonites used to tell us that that was what they were really doing?) not an end in itself. Medicare for All was the next step - and Democrats should embrace the fact that it is a rejection of neoliberal capitalism (so what if it’s socialism? so is the fire department). Neoliberal capitalist ideas are why your boss closed the factory and moved it to a cheaper place to do business and in the process gutted your community.

If Democrats are going to offer anything to those hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of working people of all races who sat out the election or, worse, voted for fascism, then it will have to be something more radical and tangible than offering tax incentives to investors. But, Elias is correct to the extent that we cannot engage in this battle to the detriment of the war against fascism. That has to take priority. Our issues with the Democratic Party must remain internal to our coalition and take a back seat when the time comes to stand up to the authoritarianism embraced by Republicans in power. We have to win that fight with a popular front before we can turn to debating what our post-fascist future will look like.

While Elias’ list contains important advice for you can stay generally engaged and participating in democracy, it offers few tangible ideas on what you can do to participate in making a difference. So here are some:

1. Volunteer and donate to local mutual aid efforts in your community. Mutual aid is a collective and participatory effort to provide relief to neighbors and communities instead of waiting – perhaps in vain – for “official” channels (government or charity) to step up. Food Not Bombs is a good example of a relatively well known mutual aid group. The best way for you to find a mutual aid group near you is to google “mutual aid [your community].” You should find at least a regional network you can contact.

2. Create one if none exist. There is nothing to it, to be honest. You don’t have to set up an elaborate operation. Simply organize your friends to gather winter clothing you can deliver to people living in shelters or encampments in your community. That’s a start. And it matters. And, yes, it is political action.

3. Become active in your union. You don’t have a union? Organize one! You don’t need to contact an existing union to have one in your workplace. Federal law protects the rights of any two private sector workers (with some exceptions) to organize collectively. Affiliating with an existing union may make sense once you get started, but you are under no obligation to do so. Is there is a reason you cannot join a union? Some people (like me) are self-employed; others perhaps cannot risk retaliation from an employer (yes, that is a real – albeit technically illegal – thing). Then work in partnership with labor! There are many nonprofit labor affiliates. One of my favorites is Worker Power in Arizona, which has led massive GOTV efforts in recent elections.

4. Run for office. Don’t concede local offices to right wingers, and be especially careful of the “moderates” running for office who are backed and funded by right wing interests. There are thousands of local elected offices in this country, from school boards to water districts to city councils. Run for Something can help you get your campaign up and running.

5. Get active in a minor political party that does organizing work at the local level and when Democrats are nowhere to be found, such as the Working Families Party (WFP), the Green Party, and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). I know a lot of people think minor party organizations are filled with unserious hyper-ideological people, but that is not always the case. WFP is a very strong and serious organization that does good political work, and offers all sorts of volunteer activities you can do from home. The Green Party is all over the place; your local group might be problematic or it might be doing really important work. You’ll just have to find out whether it works for you or not. DSA has its challenges with ideologues, but generally it does good work and has an excellent political education program. One reason that more people do not join these organizations is because of the inexorability of the two-party system coupled with an absolute lack of political commitment from either party outside of electoral politics. But it is in this second element, that WFP, Greens, and DSA find traction. They are doing the political work year-round. And they often focus on local matters.

Here is some advice for dealing with adversity when you get involved in the work:

1. Do not tolerate gatekeeping and unnecessary ideological pissing matches (spoiler: they are almost always unnecessary). If activists in your area are more interested in fighting with potential allies, form your own group and do serious work without them. Do not engage in that kind of negativity or allow it to stop you from participating. Think of how a few loud jerks have made enjoying Star Wars such a misery; don’t tolerate them doing that to your political commitment.

2. Likewise, don’t put up with centrist and liberal bullshit from Democrats. Progressives did not cost us any elections. Defending a neoliberal economy that works only for the wealthy did. We are not going to defeat fascism by conceding issues to them as if they are normal, rational people operating in good faith. Democrats seem to be slow to understand that, and have historically been slow to accept progressive ideas while taking advantage of progressives as volunteers. Stand your ground, but play nice. There is no reason to be fighting with anyone over how we got here right now. There is work to be done.

3. If you are new to an organization, be respectful of the work folks have done there. Listen, work hard, be useful. Don’t expect to be a leader or the team expert on anything the minute you walk in the door. No one has been waiting for the day you decided to show up. Your participation is essential, but your talents - while important - are not unique.

4. Do not feel compelled to do too much; do what you can. Burnout is a real thing. It’s as important to the work as it is to your mental, emotional, and even physical health that you do not bite off more than you can chew.

As Liza Featherson has argued, it is solidarity that will get us through this. So, no matter how dismissive I might sound about Democrats here, it’s only because I want to emphasize that there is so much more you can do than merely supporting them. We all have to work together to get through this, so let’s be good to ourselves and each other.

1. That does not mean that I do not think Elias’ ideas are unimportant. I urge you to read it and take his advice. My point is that I do not think his list is actually responsive to what I hear people wanting to hear when they ask what they can do to help. But his ideas are very important as well.

2. Special elections are already happening. I will be writing about this next week.

3. The third prong was working with Democrats to win elections. Unless we see Democrats and their major donors putting money into local community organizing efforts right now and on an on-going basis, I don’t see any reason to bother with them outside of elections. If you are working on policy, you might feel differently, but I am writing about building power and democracy for the long-term.

4. Note how quiet Trump has been about the assassination. He appears to see that a sizable portion of his base is not sympathetic to health insurance companies.