The War Room: Tips for Fighting MAGA
What can we do before it's too late?
Hi Salty Friends!
I launched Salty Politics to build a reality-based community for likeminded people and because I noticed that too many politicians, journalists and pundits were suddenly pulling their punches in the interest of self-preservation. But here’s the thing: if you don’t speak up and call things by their proper names, we won’t have much of a country left. That’s unacceptable.
Since then, I have been writing nonstop about the threat that Donald Trump poses and about how too many people who know better are not meeting the moment. I’ll keep doing it even as it’s clear that MAGA is going to try to shut dissent down. A while ago, I received a warning from someone close to the White House about how what I said on CNN about one of Trump’s nominees was, to put it politely, not constructive. (Except they were not so polite when passing along the message and “constructive” was not the c-word they used.) It doesn’t matter. I’ll keep calling them out, no matter what.
Because of that, I decided to make most of the content here free for everyone to read. There is still an occasional paid post and great subscriber-only benefits like chats and podcasts but I would like as many people as possible to be part of this community. I know that $8 per month or $80 per year is a lot to swing for some and I don’t want you to feel excluded if that’s you.
But I have a request: if you can afford to become a paid subscriber to Salty Politics, please do. While I have a full-time job, I am spending more and more time creating content here at least six days a week — including today’s newsletter, which has specific recommendations for what we can do to stop this MAGA madness. If you think this content provides a value to you, please consider converting to a paid subscription.
So what’s the plan?
Most of the people who should be banging the drum about what Trump is doing to the nation and the world are burying their heads in the sand. Neither the media nor our leaders in Washington are capable of meeting the moment. It’s up to us.
So what can we do before it’s too late?
Find out if your member of Congress is having a town hall and show up. It doesn’t matter whether this person is a Republican or a Democrat. Demand that our elected leaders tell us exactly what they are doing to save this country. These people are living in fear of Trump. They should live in fear of regular Americans exercising our right to vote them all out if they don’t do the right thing.
If your representative is not having a town hall, organize your own over a weekend or when Congress is out of session and invite them to join. I mean it. Throw a few bucks together with other likeminded people, make a plan to rent a large room or a VFW hall somewhere for two hours and invite your neighbors, regardless of their political party. Then, ask your congressperson to speak to you about what they are doing. If the elected official agrees to come, that’s great. If they are unable to attend in person because they are in a body cast/too chicken to look you in the eye, offer up a tele-town hall. They may punt by telling you that they already have something on their calendar for that date. Ask them to give you a date that works. If they still blow you off, you now have a ready-made community of voters who are ticked off that they are being ignored by someone who works for them. Trump isn’t the only one whose fury should scare these politicians.
Right now — today — call or email your congressperson and senators to tell them not to deliver one vote for the budget. (The phone number is 202-224-3121.) If a deal is not reached by March 14, the government will shut down. Voters decided to give Republicans full control of Washington last November. Tell your elected representatives to give the voters what they want and let Republicans figure it out on their own. They will own this shutdown and the ensuing pain. And yet here is House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole yesterday: “The real question is conditions on presidential action. And look, there's no way a Republican Senate and Republican House are going to limit what a Republican president can do.” Cole is saying this because he knows that Democrats always blink and bail Republicans out in order to be seen as the responsible party. But Americans voted for a chaos agent in America. Let him give it to them, so that they have buyer’s remorse next time around. Democrats should not deliver one vote while Trump is running roughshod over the Constitution. If you are represented by Republicans, remind them that you will remember if they don’t stop kowtowing to Trump.
Explore your options. I’ve been involved in electoral politics for thirty years and I promise you, there is always a better option somewhere. If your elected official isn’t standing up to Trump, look around for some ambitious person who is interested in challenging them. Yes, I know we live in a gerrymandered country and primaries are where the game is played in lots of districts. But none of these people should be running without an aggressive challenger, regardless of the partisan makeup of the district. For that matter, if you live in a Democratic district and your elected officials are not fighting the good fight, find someone who will. The only thing that matters is who will go to the barricades to stand up to MAGA.
Spread the word. The reason your neighbor just lost his job working for the federal government, the reason your mother may soon be out of her nursing home, the reason your 401k is tanking and the reason your groceries are costing more is because of Trump. Most people are not obsessively watching the news but they are watching their bank accounts. By every measure, we are not better off than we were one month ago and we won’t be as long as Trump rules by fiat. Why? Because he is interested in enriching himself and other billionaires, not in us. Also, he is laser focused on revenge and grievance, which isn’t going to make your tank of gas any cheaper.
Build your own community of likeminded people and crowdsource ideas. That is what we are doing here at Salty Politics. To that end, I have started a new chat that allows all of us to get to know each other better and to communicate with one another in real time. I kicked it off yesterday by asking you to share a bit about yourself, what you are passionate about and what you want this community to focus on. Please visit the Salty Politics chat here and let me know.
I thank you for supporting Salty Politics and look forward to getting through all this together with you.
To fight MAGA, should the Democrats and other opposition groups speak louder on Ukraine in DC and state capitols, with state leaders? Also, should opposition leaders/groups be voicing what they would do as opposed to this current dystopian Trump/Musk/Vance (MTV)reality)? Government serving human needs, not oligarchs; Sustainable environmental practice; absence of war, violence, and exploitation.
Julie, a good article with sensible, realistic recommendations. I realize the lack of immediate remediation is very frustrating for many on this site, but that's how our government works. I initially (weeks ago) was not receptive to your "not one vote!" approach, but now it does seem appropriate. Since several Republican Representatives have already experienced negative feedback
from constituents at town meetings, lack of future progress on legislation may begin to convince them that lockstep and blind obedience to the King may not be so good for their political health. A government shutdown in particular will raise howls of anguish. Most MAGA probably think that they will be unaffected since they make their "hard-earned money" from the "sweat of their brow"; wait until their jobs are affected by the repercussions of lack of federal funding for innumerable programs.
Unfortunately, most people here probably already live in districts with Democratic representatives so there is little more that can be done to convince them to oppose the current Executive Branch anarchy.