Resources for Resistance

Welcome.

Five

[HOPE]
10 Ways to Ground Yourself

This exceptional article, originally published before the November 2024 election, discusses how to personally navigate the insanity of these times, preserving your own emotional health and capacity to act. It is essential to take care of yourself first; without that, you cannot take care of the world.

🔗 Read here.

[ACTION]
Indivisible Action Guide

Indivisible.org was founded by two Congressional staff members who know how to work the system. Their action guide is a good resource to review and keep on hand.

🔗 Read here. (PDF, Google Doc, or audio)

[UNDERSTANDING]
ACLU’s Director Breaks It Down

This New Yorker interview with Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director since 2001, is quite illuminating, and in some ways encouraging — well worth reading in full.

🔗 Read here. (PDF, 6.7 MB)

[UNDERSTANDING]
​Defeating Authoritarianism:
​How people and media can stand up for freedom now

This one-hour discussion held on Feb. 27, 2025 features Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist who helped defeat dictatorship in the Philippines and is the author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, along with freedom fighters from Hungary, Poland, and the United States.

🔗 Watch here.  (YouTube video, 1 hour)
(You might have to watch or skip a short ad first.)

[UNDERSTANDING]
​Don’t Believe Him:
Look closely at the first weeks of Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different from what he wants you to see

Ezra Klein makes the case that the White House’s actions reveal weakness, and are headed toward failure.

🔗 Read or listen here.

[HOPE]
​​Overwhelm… Overreach… Overthrown:
How Trump Is cooking his own goose

I disagree with this essay by Michael Moore on a couple of points: The idea that there is very little we can do right now, and the implication that the current administration will collapse on its own. But overall, this piece is encouraging, as it lays out some hopeful scenarios.

🔗 Read here.
[UNDERSTANDING]
​Schumer and Budget Vote:
​​Senate leader explains why he allowed the GOP budget bill to pass in the March 14 vote
[ACTION]
​ACTION CALENDAR:
Activities you can join to help stop the catastrophe
[UNDERSTANDING]
​How the Elite Rigged Society
​And why this is a hopeful​ time
It may well be time for the Senate to ease Schumer out of the Leader position and bring forth a new generation of leadership. But his explanation for why he allowed the Republican budget Continuing Resolution to pass rings true: a government shutdown would likely have been even far worse, removing the last obstacles (including the courts) from the Trump-Musk wrecking machine. (Still, I don’t know that he has the fight in him for the next budget battle.)

🔗 Read here.
​ADDED MARCH 19, 2025
This calendar contains actions you can join to help turn the tide against the Trump-Musk rampage. Check back regularly for new opportunities, and email [email protected] if you have events to add. Share the link to this calendar: tiny.cc/DemocracyAction

🔗 Visit here.
​ADDED MARCH 19, 2025
I often disagree with David Brooks, The New York Times’s conservative columnist, but this brief (14-minute) talk about what is happening in our society — and why now may be a hopeful time — has a lot of good thinking in it (and some funny jokes). It ends on a surprisingly uplifting note. Perhaps he is a bit too sanguine about the current state of affairs, but his underlying point is valid: that times of advancement — personally and socially — are usually times of struggle.

🔗 Watch here.  (YouTube video, 14 minutes)
(You might have to watch or skip a short ad first.)
ADDED MARCH 22, 2025
[UNDERSTANDING]
​Resistance Is Alive & Well:
Protests are far more numerous and frequent, & shifting to more powerful forms of resistance
[HOPE]  [UNDERSTANDING]  [ACTION]
MORE RESOURCES:
From fellow organizer Carol Blaney
Another article from Waging Nonviolence (publisher of “10 Ways to Ground Yourself”). Significantly, I found this article in the “things I’m reading“ section of a New York Times columnist’s page, which is interesting in itself: A top-tier mainstream journalist is promoting resistance activism.

🔗 Read here.
​ADDED MARCH 26, 2025
Resources for a Brighter Future is another page of good materials from Carol Blaney, a partner of mine in progressive activism. Its sections include Find Your Footing, Take Action, and Understand What's Happening. It's an excellent extension of this page.

🔗 Visit here.
​ADDED MARCH 24, 2025