Donald J. Trump is officially the 45th President of the United States. In response, there’s been a lot of talk about “not our President,” as if Democrats and Republicans are living in separate countries. This is nonsense, and it’s also the wrong way to approach dealing with President Trump. So here are some actions we can take over the next four years to ensure our progress continues rather than regresses.
Accept Trump As Our President
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As I said above, too many people are suggesting that President Trump does not represent them. This doesn’t help anyone and only serves to sow more seeds of division. Our goal should be to push President Trump in the direction we believe to be the correct one. That requires us to first accept him as the President. We don’t have to like him, we don’t even have to respect him (certainly not as long as he keeps behaving in the same abrasive and divisive manner), but we do have to accept him.
Root For Success
Another thing that’s commonly being said by the new President’s detractors is hope for his failure as a President. This, again, is the wrong approach to take. We all live in one country. The last result we should be hoping for is his failure. It’s one thing to predict that he’ll be a poor President. It’s another to wish it so. If all the fears about a Donald Trump presidency come true, our country – and all of us in it – will suffer. We should all be rooting for his success. We should all be hoping that he defies all expectations and lifts this country up to new heights. But that leads me to my next point.
Stay Attentive, Stay Active
As President Trump pursues his agenda over the next four years, we must not fall back to the usual inactivity between presidential election years. We must remain just as active as we were over the past year and a half. Keep an eye on him, and keep an eye on the House and the Senate. Keep an eye on your own local representatives. Make sure that he’s making good on his positive promises – cleaning up Washington, promoting good jobs, renegotiating/improving global trade deals, cutting away Wall Street influence, imposing term limits on Congress, ensuring all Americans have some form of medical coverage – and push back against those of his promises that were negative. Reaching out on Twitter is useful, but don’t do just that. Don’t just write letters either. Call your representatives on the phone! Attend local town halls and other events! Protest! The Indivisible Guide, put together by former congressional staffers, suggests that these four tactics are the most effective in reshaping your representatives' policies. (I'll leave a link to that resource at the bottom of this piece.)
Participate In Democracy
This one is short and sweet. Vote! Vote in local municipal elections. Vote in the midterm elections in 2018. Vote whenever you can. (Keep in mind that if we can take back the Senate and/or House in 2018, it will severely limit the potential negative fallout of a Trump presidency.) And in the next presidential election in 2020, make sure you're active throughout the entire process, from the primary season (only three years away) to the general election. Part of what got us here was a lack of voter participation. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again! And lastly, if you're so inclined, run for local office yourself! A government that's truly representative of America - filled with teachers, doctors, construction workers, managers, retail workers, social workers, office workers, etc... - is the best thing we could hope for.
Don't. Lose. Hope.
This is incredibly important. Elections come and go. We won't always win. We will win again, to be sure, but we'll also lose again.
In closing, I'll quote former President Barack Obama: "Sometimes you lose an argument. Sometimes you lose an election. The path that this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag, and sometimes we move in ways that some people think is forward and others think is moving back. And that's okay...That’s the way politics works sometimes. We try really hard to persuade people that we’re right. And then people vote. And then if we lose, we learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena. We go at it. We try even harder the next time...We all go forward, with a presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens, because that presumption of good faith is essential to a vibrant and functioning democracy. That's how this country has moved forward for 240 years."
So keep the faith, my friends. Keep fighting. Don't lose vision or focus. So long as we hold on to the promise of hope and change, I am confident that the long arc of history will continue to show a forward momentum.
(You can find the Indivisible Guide here: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/)
