A counter-movement is forming
A physician friend just yesterday asked me where her donations would have the most impact for stopping Musk-Trump. She was thinking of a couple of nationally known nonprofits. I didn’t have an answer but said I would try to get her one. There are likely many more of you who would send cash to fight the Muskovites if you knew best where to send it.
Here are two lists of pending court cases against the Musk-Trump self-coup:
Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions (Just Security)
Lawsuits Related to Trump Admin Executive Orders (Court Watch)
But the two long lists of court cases linked above are a diverse mix of governments not set up for directed donations and private groups that may be. The name-brand nonprofits my friend mentioned are not among them. There are too many NGOs, and it’s hard to know where to focus fire.
Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) spotlighted several groups involved in just one of the lawsuits launched against against the Muskovites, but also key players like Democracy Forward fighting behind the scenes:
Democracy Forward is part of a group, Democracy 2025, formed last year to challenge Trump’s assault on democracy.
So the plaintiffs are here because they have standing and because they’ll be able to tell compelling stories about the injury they’ve suffered. Democracy Forward will be doing the heavy lifting of fighting this legally.
One reason I’m making this point is to emphasize the import of civil society, including groups that have been preparing for these legal challenges for months. As I and others have pointed out, the battle over fascism often centers on the battle over pre-existing networks of civil society, networks that often are not themselves political.
And sustain or build your networks. Not just your political networks, the folks with whom you’ve worked to try to elect Kamala Harris or restore reproductive rights. But your other networks, too. Sometimes, after fascists break political networks, it’s the choirs or the knitting clubs where civic discourse can regrow.
The very first thing authoritarians try to break are the networks of civil society, because isolated people are easier to terrify. So make sure yours are as strong as they can be before the wrecking crew comes.
Here, civil society stood up, asserted its membership in a society linking small businesses in rural communities to aging LGBTQ people, and succeeded, for now, in pausing Trump’s attack on parts of civil society that Russ Vought and Acting OMB Director Matthew Vaeth are attacking.
In those moments you’re feeling particularly helpless, you might focus your energy on shoring up the strength of civil society within your own local community, even if it’s no more than the knitting club.
Self care is going to be important to keep from burning out.
I read and post for maybe four hours each morning. Then I go to half a dozen social media sites to punch back against the failed Republican candidate and his attorneys who are in court trying to steal a state Supreme Court seat they lost to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs, the Democrat. After that, I spend several miles walking it off. The end of the cold snap that kept me inside for weeks means a reduction in my stress level.
Manage yours as best you can. Send money. I’ve got to text my friend.
(h/t DJ, MW)