Nine Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for Trump, The Sequel
This morning, in the early dawn while my children slept, I made a list here at my desk.
Lists are one way I cope. I make to-do lists. I write lists on post-its that are stuck up en masse on a white board next to my desk. Every day before ResistanceLive goes on the air on YouTube, I make long, long lists of topics to cover. I love lists.
But today’s list is a little different. Today’s list is a list for strategy. It is a list, candidly, for how to survive and prepare for what’s coming.
I’m sharing it with you today because, in looking it over, it occurred to me that if we each choose even four or five of these things to implement in our daily lives, whole communities will come together, and we will not only save ourselves but also save others.
Here, humbly, is a list of Nine Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for Trump, The Sequel.
Grieve the loss. I know this goes without saying, but the loss of this election was horrendous, unexpected, and beyond painful. However, if we don’t process the grief in real time, we won’t be able to move to action. Grief can be stultifying, paralyzing, and drown us over time if we don’t allow it to be fully felt. It’s ok to grieve now. Feel all the feels. And reach out for help if you need it.
Understand who they are and why it happened. This is the time to truly come to grips with the fact that we are dealing with an absolutely toxic brew of white supremacy, misogyny, narcissism, sociopathy, and fascism– both in Trump’s inner circle and also in most of his voters. Educate yourself about white supremacy, patriarchal structures, malignant narcissism, and the history of fascism. It will prepare you for what’s to come, and also help you get clear on how we arrived here, and how we could eventually overcome it.
Learn to self-regulate. I said many, many times during this election cycle that after learning how to mobilize where you live, the most key skill for now and into the future was learning how to regulate your own emotional responses. This includes learning how to manage post-traumatic somatic responses, how to calm your central nervous system when needed, and how to direct your anger in healthy, productive ways. Compartmenalization can be an asset now, as I said yesterday. So can deciding whether a given emotion needs to rule your choices in any given moment or on any given day. Sometimes, deciding to press on and set an emotional response to the side can be healthy, and sometimes not. Become familiar with your emotional reactions and how they impact you, and consciously choose your actions.
Practice boundary setting, gray rocking, and blocking on the regular. We are going to be coping with loathsome degrees of gloating and trolling online and in our own lives for the foreseeable future. Now is the time to protect your peace. Cutting off relationships with toxic people is not always easy, but I strongly encourage you to not engage with anyone (either completely or by giving them the pleasure of your emotional response) who brings Trumpian nonsense into your life or social media feed. Where you can’t, set boundaries that you do not breach, engage in the practice of gray rocking (refusing to respond to narcissism with anything other than single sentence, non-emotional reactions), and say no to all engagement that doesn’t serve you and those you love.
Want to learn more about the topics in this article?
We have a new program called The Dual Power Accelerator: A Ten Week Training for Disruption, Community Building, Solidarity, Safety and Survival that is currently open for registration.
Learn more here. Scholarships are available to those in need.
Support alternative sources of media (so long as they’re reliable), consider your social media engagement, and be on the lookout for disinformation. One reckoning we have faced this year is the absolute wreckage and abominable failure of mainstream media to treat Trumpism as the threat to America that it is. We’ve also faced an unrelenting degree of disinformation and propaganda online. Be choosy about who you listen to, and where you engage. Make sure the news sources you seek out are qualified to speak, ethical, and truthful, and that they’re not just in it for outrage and clickbait. Honest alternative media is critical now (and my daily YouTube broadcast is one option). And also, don’t allow yourself to be gaslit by Trump and his people. Trust your intuition, and know that what you see, feel and hear is real, especially when it comes to Trump’s actions.
Build community where you live. More than ever before, we need to be in and establish circles of care and survival on our home turf. Get to know your neighbors. Share resources with them. Host a community event in your home to talk about what’s coming and how you can be there for each other as Trump begins to carry out his plans. What can you do to make sure vulnerable and marginalized people survive? What can you do to get support where you need it? And if your neighbors are terrifying MAGA types, find your local Indivisible chapter, Red Wine & Blue chapter, or Working Families Party people.
Plan for disruption. Trump and his Project 2025 cronies have some pretty big ideas for how to enforce their worldview on the nation. The problem, however, is that they need people to do it, and they need compliance. 70 million people and counting voted for Harris/Walz, and we do not have to roll over for fascism. How will you respond if Trump tries to send a few thugs into your neighborhood to “round up” your brown neighbors? How will you respond when an abortion ban drops nationwide? What will you do where you live to stop his efforts to hurt and harm vulnerable people? We are not powerless, and sometimes disruption is loud, but often it is quiet and local.
Take care of your safety and health. With the threat to an end of vaccination by the brain worm guy, and a potential end to the ACA and Medicare, now is the time to get any medical support you need, and also to take care of any outstanding issues that could be impacted by the incoming administration’s actions. Do you have a local farmer’s market or CSA? You may need that when food production is impacted by the deportation of migrant labor. Do you need long term birth control? Go get it. Are your kids up to date on childhood vaccinations? If not, now is the time. And don’t forget to rest, exercise and calm your mind as much as possible. We have a long road ahead of us, and staying healthy and prepared will be key.
Plot your joy. This may sound counterintuitive, but joy is resistance, and it is one thing that cannot be stolen from us. Do something daily that brings you joy. Maybe it’s sitting outside in the sun, or playing games with your kids, or snuggling a pet. Maybe it’s doing something with your hands, like knitting or gardening. And don’t forget to find joy in collective– your friends and loved ones need it just as much as we do.
I’ll say again what I said yesterday: We are not alone. You are not alone. The road ahead will be very, very rough, but in community we can find solace and fight back.
Thanks for reading and see you soon.
Want to learn more about the topics in this article? We have a new program called The Dual Power Accelerator: A Ten Week Training for Disruption, Community Building, Solidarity, Safety and Survival that is currently open for registration.
Learn more here. Scholarships are available to those in need.
ECM - although my wife and I (and many friends) listen to your YouTube show every day and are Patreon subscribers, we are so happy you are writing here as well and we were thrilled to support your Substack. Everything you write is helpful, none of it wasted. Thank you for taking that time, despite all that you do every single day. ❤️
Great list. I like taking the Disruption tactic and using it against them. We ARE 70 million strong. Only our own apathy and withdrawal can defeat us.