Rain Perry

Strategy and Hope was supposed to be a semi-regular email that ended with the election of Kamala Harris. Well, here we are. I want to reach back out to everyone who chose to be on this list to thank you for reading and to share my post-election thoughts, in case you find them helpful.

First off, let me say that I was very wrong. I am sorry if I gave false optimism about the election. The folks whose opinions I've trusted -- Simon Rosenberg, Tom Bonier, etc. -- are stunned about what happened. But elections all across the world in the past months have been bad for incumbents, and, though it's cold comfort, the Democratic party actually lost far fewer seats than nearly all other incumbent parties elsewhere. 

Regardless, a hurricane is churning towards us. Right now it's offshore. We don't know how powerful it will be when it makes land, where it will hit hardest, what forces might cause it to strengthen or weaken. But we've seen the chaos and damage of the first Trump administration, and we are seeing his current priorities and the people he's putting in place to implement them, so we have an idea.

Before I get specific, let me say this: over the past week, I've read a million thinkpieces and threads filled with finger-pointing and contradictory theories about how we got here and whether to start strategizing for the midterms in 2026 or make a go-bag and flee to Panama or the Canadian Rockies. Having lived through Covid (worse than we thought it would be) and Y2K (turned out to be no big deal), I suspect the answer is somewhere in the middle. So in other words, we must prepare, but we must not assume we know how it's going to play out.

The new Trump administration's stated priorities are:

• Reconfiguring the federal government (firing career bureaucrats at all levels and replacing them with loyalists, as well as eliminating numerous federal agencies)
• Instituting a mass deportation program of 11,000,000 undocumented people and their naturalized (US citizen) children
• Imposing significant tariffs on imported goods
• Pardon and release of those imprisoned for January 6th crimes
• Repeal of the Affordable Care Act

Deep breath - here we go:

Strategy

The strategy for this moment is the same as the strategy for any storm. Protect your family and your property and help the people around you. Think globably, act locally.

• Take care of yourself.
  • Joy. Counterintuitive, I know, but taking time often to do something that brings you joy is going to inoculate you against depression and powerlessness.
  • Community. We think we have community because we're on social media all the time, but that's not community. Speaking to an old friend on the phone is different than commenting on a Facebook post. Meeting up for a beer or a knitting session or a hike will restore you, as well as build connections for future action.
  • Health. Take active care of your physical and mental health and ask for help from your community if you're struggling.
  • Safety.
    • Social media are largely what got us into this mess, and none of us is immune to their force for polarization and their capacity to track and target us. Private groups are not private to the folks who own the platform. Especially if you are in a vulnerable group, or if you are organizing, do not gather on social media. Instead, use Signal or WhatsApp.
    • I hate saying this, but between Trump's rhetoric about retribution and the release of the J6 protestors, there may be political violence. Not that there's a way to prepare oneself for the shock of something like that, but understanding it's a possibility is important.

• Take care of your home.
  • Renew your passport, download copies of your tax returns and anything you will need from the federal government, because best case, there will be chaos at the federal level
  • Consider making any major purchases now, before tariffs hit: cars, appliances, cell phones, etc.
  • Talk to financial advisors about how to protect your retirement savings
  • Explore health insurance options if the ACA is repealed; plan longterm for reproductive care

• Take care of your community.
  • Civil Rights pioneer Diane Nash coined the term "Agapic Energy," aka "action founded in brotherly love," because "nonviolence" didn't seem like a big enough concept to describe the radical efforts they were engaged in.
  • Mass deportation, the centerpiece of the new administration's plans to address both immigration and the housing crisis, is probably not feasible, but it will still be enacted at some level, and probably immediately after Trump is sworn in. Trump's incoming Border Czar, Tom Homan, has cited the Eisenhower-era "Operation Wetback" as his model.
    
    • Not only is this a human rights issue, it will cause havoc in many industries like agriculture, construction, hospitality, food production, and manufacturing, which will impact the daily lives of all of us, not just families who are directly affected. Here are a few tangible things you can do:
      • Donate to local workers' rights organization like Cause and MICOP.
      • Let your local leaders know your concerns. Contact local law enforcement, farmers, builders, restaurants, and make sure they understand what's at stake. Pressure from business interests may be compelling.

Hope

I would not lay all this out without offering real hope.

• This instagram post about a community made up of both "Trumpers and anarchists" coming together after Hurricane Helene to feed and help their neighbors could not be more appropriate and inspiring.
• Andy Borowitz makes a compelling argument that our fears of Trump's second term might tilt more to fear of Y2K than we think, because incompetence will prevent many of his plans from ever coming to fruition. Tulsi Gabbard as DNI, Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Lauren Boebert as Secretary of Education all have zero executive experience.
• When I let my mind go down the rabbit hole of the darkest possibilities of Trump 2, I realize I'm imagining these things without any pushback. And that is not realistic. From members of his own party who, in order to be re-elected, want to avoid angering their constituents, to business interests who cannot afford to have their industries decimated, to the utter ineptitude and likely infighting of the people he's nominating to head his agencies, there are many, many reasons why Trump will not be able to accomplish all he wants.

Finally, please enjoy this speech by Diane Nash about her work as a young women with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Inspiring.

Love, Rain