You Can Stop the Collapse of Democracy by Finding Your People
When Trump ascended to the presidency in 2016, there was a call to support existing institutions. John Oliver, on his show Last Week Tonight, urged viewers to donate to nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, as well as to subscribe to newspapers like The Washington Post and The New York Times (see Season 3, Episode 30: President-Elect Trump).
A lot of people did that: there was a considerable increase in newspaper subscriptions and philanthropic giving in 2016 (note: I am not suggesting John Oliver is singularly responsible for this). It was an across-the-board bump. Even groups on the left, such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), had their membership swell. These institutions were supercharged as bulwarks to protect American democracy.
Yet here we are—Trump has once again ascended to power. All that stands in his administration’s way is an ineffectual Democratic Party, a nonprofit scene beholden primarily to wealthy donors, leftist influencers building up their brands, grassroots groups holding on by the skin of their teeth, and, god willing, Donald Trump’s own incompetence. It’s safe to say that this strategy of strengthening liberal institutionalism has failed us in stopping the rise of right-wing authoritarianism.
In the following weeks and years, many groups will sell you on the idea of joining their organizations, subscribing to their newsletter, and volunteering for their efforts to stop our slide into fascism, and I am here to urge caution before you do that. While joining a group is ultimately necessary (you can do more with others than alone), the most recent election has proved that the work of these groups does not lead to success.
We need to ensure that we do not funnel our money, and most importantly, our time, into the same ineffectual organizations, institutions, and groups that failed us the first time.
Don’t throw yourself at the first thing
When it comes to selecting an organization or group to support with your time, money, and reputation, impulse alone cannot be what seals the deal. The groups with the most appealing ad campaigns and the largest number of influencers online are rarely the ones with healthy and sustainable communities.
There are a lot of popular liberal and leftist groups that have had various leadership scandals. Several years ago, then-president Alphonso David of the Human Rights Campaign — a huge LGBT+ organization — had to resign in disgrace for allegedly helping former Governor Andrew Cuomo cover up a sexual harassment scandal. Sexual harassment scandals are sadly quite common among many center-left nonprofits and have affected everyone from Oxfam to the Humane Society.
However, it’s not a problem with just the center-left. For example, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) has long dodged allegations of sexual harassment within its organization, including infamously the case surrounding the alleged sexual assault by member Steven Powers.
Be mindful of what kinds of leaders these groups are attracting.
Furthermore, even if their leadership is squeaky clean, every longstanding group has an approach that you may not entirely agree with. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) values all citizens being able to exercise their rights equally and therefore defends groups you may disagree with, such as authoritarian provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and even Donald Trump from his temporary Facebook ban. Some have accused the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) of being too electorally-minded. Food Not Bombs tends to follow a methods-oriented approach over a top-down direction. Depending on your outlook, these approaches are either terribly inefficient or the best way to structure things.
What, if any, of these approaches appeal to you?
Again, it’s vital to research these groups before you hit that membership or donate button. Learning a baseline about how these groups operate is critical work that needs to be done before joining them.
Some helpful questions to ask:
How do these groups make decisions?
Do you agree with that structure?
How can a knowledgeable insider take advantage of that structure?
What have these groups’ mistakes been?
How have these mistakes been rectified or buried?
Your donations, time, and efforts will be used by these groups in their next fundraising email or maybe even their leaders’ next escape from accountability. It’s better to start asking these questions before an inflection point is reached, not after.
Finding a community might take some work
Furthermore, you might have to accept that the group for you — the one that clicks everything into place — might not come up on a simple Google Search. It might not even have a website. Your people might not currently be coherently organized at all.
And so, how do you find these people? Or, how do you let yourself be found?
Paradoxically, I don’t think self-appointed political groups that put out “Stand Together” ads or have clipboards preaching about the “coming revolution” are what you should seek out. My political home — the radicals still with me and whom I call family — wasn’t found at an ideologically progressive or radical organization. I found it at a board game night and a writer’s group. These were communities built in between the cracks—places where queer nerds felt safe. Physical and sometimes virtual spaces where we talked about our traumas and baggage, and slowly, politics started to spring up. We would talk about what we wanted, which quickly morphed into what we should do.
Finding your people involves seeking out something similar, but not the same: a local fan group for an edgy, leftist musician, an online buy nothing page where people giveaway and ask for things in their local area for free, a Discord server about a comedian trolling people on the far right, a book club on radical politics, or an in-person trans support meeting at a coffee shop. Places where community, not just campaigns to pass specific policy, already exists, even if it’s tenuous — even if you might be needed to keep it going.
It’s these spaces you have to find because they will lead to more direct political action. The things you like and the spaces you seek out are not apolitical. When you find your people amongst the geeky video game conventions, local hiking groups, and punk concerts, you will quickly realize that many people who like the things you do happen to share some of your values.
These communities, especially ones linked to a particular geography, are not just consumer preferences but potential constituencies—groups with needs that many members may be willing to fight for.
Get together with these groups (preferably in person), and you will be amazed by what arises from it. You start chatting with your Star Wars nerds about some of the sexism they’ve experienced at a local con, and that conversation becomes the basis for a panel the following year. Your buddy complains about never having enough to eat, and your friends start putting on a local potluck. You gripe to your best friend about a leader you can’t stand, and out of that conversation, learn that an anti-ICE coop is protesting said leader and decide to go together.
Political actions should not be something you do alone, like some extracurricular activity, but actions you do with and evolve from your interactions with the people you respect and love.
An active conclusion
A lot of people take a policy-over-community approach. They put all their hopes into a policy they think will save them (e.g., Medicare-for-all, the Green New Deal, a Universal Basic Income, etc.) and hope that a community will evolve around it—a wonkish group of nerds that harangue politicians and key figures until the thing is passed.
Yet you build community—not by supporting a top-down policy that you’ve decided will work — but by joining and participating in it. You learn who your people are and what they need (preferably by having a f@cking conversation with them), and then do something about those needs.
It’s these communities—not a newspaper owned by a billionaire or a nonprofit funded by one—that need to be found, supported, and built over the next few years.
And you are vital to making that work happen.