On Being in Community

Sunday night, I mentioned that Stacey Abrams and I would be speaking together at a Fair Fight event today. We just finished up, and for those of you who weren’t there—the audience was 1500 strong and from all across the country, including Alaska—it was exhilarating. We were honest about the challenges the country faces and our fears, but it was also a night to discuss the reasons for us to have hope and optimism. Most of all, it’s a reminder to me that all across the country, there are people who care deeply about what is happening to our democracy and want to make sure we hold onto it. We have no intention of going quietly.

For those of you who weren’t able to join us, our chat will be on Fair Fight’s YouTube channel in the next day or two. I’ll post a link when it’s ready.

Stacey and I share the belief that the way we get through Trump 2.0 is together. We don’t get through it by pretending it isn’t happening or hoping it will go away. It’s time. Time for us to get up and be loud about our opposition to Trump’s view of America. In Stacey’s words, “resist, persist, and insist.”

What can you do? Show up at school board meetings, work on a community garden, read to school kids, protest at your state capitol, let your elected representatives hear your voice, work on a campaign, volunteer as a poll worker, and run for office. Whatever it is that matters to you the most, do your research about how to have an impact and get to work. Nothing beats back fear and anxiety over our future like exercising the muscle of democracy.

Today, Donald Trump posted this on Truth Social. Apparently, it’s no longer enough to be a dictator on day one. Now, he wants to be king. It’s no surprise.

Donald Trump’s success at forever changing our democracy is not inevitable. He wants you to think it is, but it’s not. Already, he is starting to sink in the polls. Reuters reports that Trump’s “approval rating has ticked slightly lower in recent days as more Americans worried about the direction of the U.S. economy.” It’s a small, measured decline from an approval rating of 47% in January to 44% today, but it’s a start.

The hard reality is that we are not going to get a quick fix. We will not wake up one morning this month and find that Trumpism is over. And we can’t throw our hands up in the air in disgust and walk away in the absence of instant success. The fight for democracy is going to be long and hard and slow, and there are going to be setbacks along the way. Our job is to commit to the fight, even and especially when things look bleak. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

As a community, we can work all the angles of democracy. Some of us will focus on our city councils and school boards, others on state government, and some on the White House, Congress, and the courts. Some of us will work to support the free press and other democratic institutions. We will keep up the fight for fairness and justice at federal, state, and local levels of government. We will continue to demand that our civil rights be protected. Democracy occupies a lot of space, not all of it on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Make some of it yours. Build a community around you that supports democracy.

It’s been a long and serious few weeks, so I’ll leave you with this picture of the friends who greet me every morning when I walk outside. Don’t forget to surround yourself with a supportive community.

We’re in this together,

Joyce