Opinion: Winning Hearts and Minds in the Battle Against Authoritarianism

Love, Justice, and Climate Change

Many of us are wondering how we can be most effective in blocking authoritarianism from completely taking over the United States now that Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans are about to assume political power. This is not an easy question, but it’s an important one. I’m sure that we will need to join with others and keep thinking about it and trying things throughout the coming months and years.

First, I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who supported the Kamala Harris campaign. We didn’t win the election, but we did enough that we prevented Trump from winning a landslide and limited him to less than 50% of the vote. This will make a significant difference in our efforts to prevent the rise of fascism over the next four years. Whether you made a donation, wrote postcards or letters, called voters in other states, went door to door, or helped in some other way, thank you!

The MAGA Republicans will have great political power, will do unconscionable harm to our collective health and safety, and will undermine equity and justice at every turn. Despite our best efforts they will frequently succeed in eliminating regulations, enacting policies, and passing legislation that benefit their wealthy supporters at the expense of the rest of us.

Where We Can Struggle and Win
However, full-blown authoritarianism also requires capturing the minds of a majority of the population. They have not yet done this and this is where we can struggle and win.

The MAGA extremists are following the classic tyrants’ playbook of seeking to implant in the public consciousness key myths and lies that seem to justify their extreme actions to come. We can each speak and write and post on social media on behalf of fact-based truth. We can engage in the struggle for the minds of all the people of the United States. Sometimes we can be effective by sharing vital information. At other times we may be more effective by listening and inviting people to share their experiences and how they see things.

Here are some key truths that I hope we can spread widely:

1. Trump does not have a mandate. He won less than a majority of the vote and his margin of victory in the popular vote was the smallest (except for Bush v Gore) since 1968.
2. Immigrants are not dangerous or criminal. Immigrants commit crimes at significantly lower rates than native-born citizens. We desperately need to retain our immigrant labor force in our food system, in the construction industry, and in virtually every part of our economy.
3. Removing government regulations at the request of powerful businesses will endanger our health and safety, do nothing to bring jobs and better pay to working people, and will enrich the already wealthy and powerful.
4. Tax cuts for billionaires are unfair and make things worse for everyone else. The ultra-rich are not paying their fair share of taxes.

$50 Trillion
As I try to make sense of the recent election and think about what makes sense now, I keep coming back to one fact. From the time of Ronald Reagan to the present day, our economy has moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of our population to the top 1%. This has continued under both Republican and Democratic administrations. This is outrageous.

The working class, white people and people of color alike, have been abandoned by both major political parties. They have every right to be upset and to demand that things be shaken up. An equitable and just future for our country requires that we build new mutually respectful relationships, especially between the working class and the middle class.

Buildng New Relationships and Alliances
It will be essential for those of us who identify as liberal, progressive, or left to give up the moral or intellectual superiority we tend to feel toward those who voted for Trump. We have no chance of building new alliances or reaching across differences with those attitudes in place.

Together we can work toward a vastly more equitable distribution of our nation’s wealth and guaranteeing human rights for everyone. Developing these relationships now, with humility, interest, care, and respect, will be an important step in combating the rise of authoritarianism.

Gábor Scheiring recently wrote about lessons he learned from watching democracy be destroyed in Hungary. He said, “… you don’t protect democracy by talking about democracy — you protect democracy by protecting people. Only a democracy that works for the people is sustainable.”

Russ Vernon-Jones was principal of Fort River School 1990-2008 and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now-Western Massachusetts. He blogs regularly on climate justice at www.russvernonjones.org.