What Can I Do?
It is easy to feel lost, isolated, and powerless in a country of 328.2 million souls, to ask “What can I do?” and to wind up not doing anything because you’re unsure of what kind of change your actions might effect. Disempowerment makes it easy to forget that the basic idea informing American democracy—of the people, for the people, and by the people—belongs to all of us. Which means that each of us, especially when we join with others, can protect democracy and, in particular the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The American public has not stopped protesting since Donald Trump was elected. If you’d like to know why millions of people have protested, demonstrated, marched, or held sit-ins all over the country, here is a collection of articles at the Crowd Counting Consortium, which documents protests in America (and sometimes beyond), between 2017 and now.
At a general assembly for Hold the Line organizers on November 8, 2020, political scientist Erica Chenoweth, who helped launch the Crowd Counting Consortium, invited participants to imagine a counter-factual scenario: “What would have happened if no one had stood up for anybody these past [almost] four years. Where would we be?”
Chenoweth reminded us that, at this moment:
We have a winner
Most states are in the process of certification (a normal election process)
Recounts will take place (they do most of the time)
A concession speech is not required legally, though it is a norm and an expectation
Lawsuits launched by the Trump administration are expected to continue (as of November 10, Trump’s legal team had won zero of six suits; see this Washington Post article)
“No one should be alarmed by the lawsuits,” Chenoweth said, urging us to push back on the frivolity of such litigation and stressing the importance of an organized and peaceful transition between adminstrations.
According to political scientist Maria Stephan, who also spoke at the November 8 meeting of Hold the Line, our actions can include:
Amplifying and approving of messaging from all Republicans who have accepted the results or are calling for Trump to concede
Contacting local Republican leaders who haven’t accepted the results or called for concession and insisting that they do so, reminding them that we need to move forward with the transition
Maintaining vigilance, especially for violence and if it takes place, empowering peace builders and de-escalators
