Your local work leaves you with so much to do. A climate-change-fueled fire rages through town. Your funds are constantly depleted, and you’re barely able to keep up with needs. None of the established funding sources can move as fast as you can. You wish you had more resources — so you scheme an ambitious plan.
When a right-wing militia march ends up burning local businesses, you take two steps. You deliver no-interest loans to local businesses to repair their shops — before the city even sends them a loan application. But you also write an op-ed for the newspaper: “As a community resource, we cannot quietly stand by. Marches to scare and intimidate are wrong. Members of our community belong.” You announce a challenge — for every right-wing marcher, you’ll raise $100 to donate to local progressive causes. Two members of your funding circle quit in protest. But you raise twice that amount by the end of the next day.
Over the next year, you see small political changes around you. But it feels like barely a dent amidst the national scene. Despite lower poll numbers, Trump continues filling the government with his loyalists. The courts eventually approve his Schedule F reclassification — 50,000 government workers are now being systematically replaced by Trump loyalists. Bureaucratic fights rage across many institutions. Trump installs judges across the country who gerrymander election maps in multiple states to give Republicans long-term power. But your heart tears as you see the language of fear and violence growing: immigrant communities terrified by right-wing militia patrols, increased violence against peaceful protestors, attacks on emissions standards, and exaggerated calls for political arrests.
