By: Patrick W. Zimmerman & Richard W. Sharp

Stand up and be counted.
(Photo credit- Mark Schierbecker)

Time to step back from the Great Facebook Wars. The overture is over, and epic struggles await. The new President is Trump. Say it out loud. Get used to it. Chanting “Not my president” doesn’t make him go away. It doesn’t reverse the Electoral College count. It’s no different than sticking your fingers in your ears to avoid hearing bad news.

The problem

Meanwhile, in Mordor, Trump and “The Movement” are systematically threatening the very concept of equal protection under the law. He perceives as well as creates enemies, and then he attacks through:

1. Public shaming, usually via Twitter.
2. Threat of litigation
3. Threat of selective enforcement (such as: “opening up” the libel laws; education best left to the states, just like in the great-old-days).
4. Staffing the executive branch with unqualified and openly hostile heads (to use the term loosely) of departments chartered with mandates to protect all citizens.

It’s pretty clear which groups are threatened. Trump is not remotely subtle about identifying his targets and his cabinet selections generally have track records that make their positions on, for example, relations with Russia, quite clear. Finally, at the last minute, after countless “my dog ate my homework” extensions, actual policy proposals are trickling out. And they’re as terrifying as we thought they would be.

The challenge

Protests are fantastic. Useful, and they drive the Donald batty.

Protest serve as visible public reminders that, as John Oliver helpfully reminds us, this is not normal. So does satire and public ridicule (who would have thought the Donald would Make SNL Great Again?). Normalization is, to some extent, acquiescence. Ok, so what else can you, individual private citizen, do?

Put your money where his mouth is.

Worried about the (manifest) threat to LGBT rights? Fund legal challenges to same-sex marriage. Anxious about the Affordable Care Act, already the first target of the GOP-controlled legislature in 2017? Give to groups providing public services likely to be withdrawn. He wants to run the government like a business. Great, if anything, that would simply magnify the political truism that money talks.

A call to action

The trick with donations is to send them to groups that will use them effectively. To that end, we’ve attempted to supply information and clarity by sifting through the vast morass of potential options to reduce choice paralysis for those who want to resist. Some mutual assistance in the face of the coming darkness.

There are many sites that publish information about charities, such as the percentage of donations spent on programs vs. overhead, but with the coming administration, some charities will be more effective than others. Those that can do the most in defense of the public good will:

• Represent causes under explicit threat from his administration.
  • Examples: Civil rites, a nuclear-weapon-free world, climate change.
• Employ tactics likely to be effective.
  • Examples: Unleash the lawyers, purchase power and influence people, provide services cut by the administration, whistleblower protection.

Donate to these causes. Discover and publicize the many creditable organizations we have failed to list here. Identify newly threatened causes. Be informed. Take a stand.

Share this list and suggest organizations to add to it. Organizing against ignorance is a crucial part of resisting the new world order. Because “there is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

The anti-Trump defensive charity finder

We have reviewed slightly more than 100 large charities to determine which meet these criteria in addition to fulfilling their noble missions in a professional manner. We do not make the claim that one group’s mission is more important than another’s, instead we state that these charities are more likely than others to form a bulwark (build a wall, if you will) against attacks on the common good.

For example, while the prospect of the Bomb suddenly becoming an option considered by our new Commander in Chief after not having been in play in pretty much the last half century is utterly terrifying, there are only limited tactics that we can employ or groups we can support to combat the danger. Other than, you know, not voting for megalomaniacs.

The American Kidney Fund is included not because of its research funding but because they have a financial assistance program to help under- and uninsured dialysis patients, the kind of people who depend on GOP target número uno, the Affordable Care Act. In contrast, the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen are fantastic charities working to make the world a better, safer place, but don’t directly address a group likely to be targeted by the Trump Administration. They only work to cure literal cancers.

What next?

This is intended to be a list in progress and not a final product. Please let us know of others we should add by either dropping us a comment or sending an email to octopi at principallyuncertain.com.

Other than that, what’s next is basically just keep resisting on all fronts. Defend what you believe in.

Probably not happening again for awhile.
(Image credit- The Obama White House)