At a post-election show I did, an audience member asked me what he could do, in the next four years, to counteract the damage Trump will do to the country. I loved his question, because it reflected an eagerness to move past despair toward action. I don’t have a complete answer to it, but here’s a first draft. I hope it helps.
1. Political activism. Support candidates at the local, state, and national level who oppose Trump’s agenda of racism, misogyny and anti-Americanism. That means doing the hard, often boring work of political campaigns. (Note: changing your profile pic or sharing a hashtag is not political activism. It’s typing.)Those are my ideas. You probably have better ones. Please share them. And remember: no matter how depressed you have felt since the election, you are neither helpless nor hopeless. LET’S GET TO WORK.
2. Education. Help address our educational system’s decades-long collapse that has produced millions of people ignorant enough to vote for Trump. You can start by getting involved in your local school and school system to improve education from the ground up. If you are retired, or otherwise have free time, volunteer as a tutor. Help our children learn to read, write, and develop critical thinking. We get the politicians we deserve, and an uneducated, illiterate, ignorant nation will get more Trumps (or worse).
3. Information. Boycott the new outlets that pursued profits at the expense of their civic duty during the 2016 election. Are you angry with CNN for helping elect Trump by relentlessly creating false equivalencies between the two Presidential candidates? Don’t just be angry – unsubscribe. (I did.) We get the news media we deserve, too.
4. Set an example. Let’s say you don’t have the time to work on a political campaign or be a tutor. There’s still something else that everyone can do: starting today, ask yourself the question, “What would Trump do?” – and do the exact opposite. Trump wasn’t created in a vacuum; he is the inevitable product of a coarsened culture that rewards bullying over kindness, humiliation over respect, hatred over love. So, from the moment you wake up, be the anti-Trump in all you do. And if you have a child who is exhibiting Trump-like behavior, set him or her straight -- now. Otherwise, a narcissistic nine-year-old in your kitchen could someday be a narcissistic nine-year-old in the White House.
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