Choose Democracy Resources Jan.13, 2025

,It's a week away from inauguration and around the movement we hear some common patterns. Some folks are deep in a kind of pre-anxiety — bracing for the coming storm. Others are pulled into reactionary action — doing whatever they can with rushed energy. And others are tired and detached — emotionally checked out from the moment. 
There's value in each response. Pre-grief can help us gain equanimity in the face of what's coming. Acting keeps us from falling into despair and keep our muscles fresh for what's next. And being detached may be healthy — a way that people are protecting themselves so they won't spend the next 4 years fretting about every wild idea that comes out of Trump's mouth.
We're not saying that every strategy is the best of what we have to offer — but it's okay to not be too hard on ourselves. This is a marathon. Pace yourself.
We're also noticing something else that seems important. We think of it as a kind of spiritual conditioning. We see it most strongly this way: people are turning to other people. People are largely showing up for each other in grief and support and opening homes to care for each other. The direction we all need to go is more love, more neighborliness of that kind, and more open doors. So we want to affirm the ways people aren't only strategizing and planning, but also spending time with people they trust and love and licking their wounds. This is a very human thing to do.
Over at Choose Democracy we're taking an inhale after some intense weeks. We wanted to just take a moment to share what we've been up to and some resources we're tracking that may be useful to you.


VIRAL RESOURCES
We're grateful and blown away that Daniel's article on 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won has gone viral with over 1.2 million views. It's a helpful piece to acknowledge different roles and ways of processing. 
It's since been reprinted thousands of times. This has led to many follow-up interviews, three we wanted to highlight: Daniel talked more about the roles on The Authoritarian Podcast and talked in depth through each of the key points with the podcast The Majority Report. And lastly,adrienne marie brown and Autumn Brown's podcast (How to Survive the End of the World) had a longer-view flowing conversation about where we are.
Waging Nonviolence published some follow-up articles by nonviolent expert Maria Stephan on How we can meet the challenges of authoritarianism and from movement strategist George Lakey: Can nonviolence struggle defeat a dictator? This database emphatically says yes.
Over 80,000 people have downloaded the trainings Daniel and Eileen Flanagan put together. The agendas are for trainings you can adapt/use in a Trump era — from action security to strategic escalation to mutual aid. (You can some of those below — everything is at WhatIfTrumpWins.org.)
Plus coaching hundreds of groups (contributing to some of the guides below). So yes, it's been a busy time for us.
Lastly, the talented David Fernandes helped us turn the wordy article into short videos.Please share! These videos take the wisdom of Daniel's viral article into bite-sized videos: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. (Likely our final post on some of these channels!)
Please share to help get the videos out!


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Many groups are hatching plans and much is still shaping up, but we have some resources we've run across we'd like to share:

• Want to plug in but have no idea where to start? We worked with friends to create the Resistance Guidebook — with practical ideas about starting points for people who are feeling the need to do something but not sure about what.
• Are you working in the (federal) government? You may want this guide: Serve the People: a Guide for Civil Servants/Federal Employees/Military. Also familiarize yourself with this new forming group: Civil Service Strong, which offers comprehensive resources for civil servants.
• Are you working on supporting immigrants? Siembra NC has a standout resource called "Defend and Recruit" — download from their frontpage (sign-up required). It explains how to jumpstart multiple strategies from defense hotlines to ICE watch to neighborhood-based defense committees.
• Are you trying to use constituent power to make elected officials more representative? Indivisible created a lovely resource called Indivisible: a practical guide to democracy on the brink. Helpful seeing the local, state, and national strategies for applying pressure on representatives whether you're in so-called Red/Blue/Purple districts.
• And we strongly recommend reading this stand-out article: I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era.

Lastly, we could use your support! We're a tiny, lean team of mostly volunteer effort. There are direct impact organizations you know who deserve your money — groups who are at the frontlines of the coming waves. If you have money after that, we'd appreciate the support to help pay us for our offerings. Thanks.

Be kind to each other in these times.
Warmly,
- Choose Democracy