I get asked a lot about what ordinary people should do to have an impact in this moment. I’ve said a number of times that studies I’ve seen show that it was the work of Indivisible groups of mostly normie Democrats around the country that had the biggest impact countering Trumpism the first time around. That said, this isn’t meant to be prescriptive. Let a hundred flowers bloom. Different people will want to get active in different ways. I say this simply to make clear you don’t need a kick-ass theory or the perfect group. The biggest thing is just getting organized with other like-minded people.
I raise this now because there’s an additional part of this equation I’m not sure everyone is thinking of. States are going to be critical. While Democrats are excluded from power in Washington, they need to make the most of the legitimate political authority found in the states. There’s a lot of it. Indeed, most government in the U.S. is at the state level. Governors, attorneys general, mayors, state legislatures, state adjutant generals. These are all critical locuses of power and legitimate authority. And people need to make the most of that legitimate authority, especially legitimate executive authority.
But you also need to start preparing and buttressing your states for Trump’s onslaught. The central moment here is going to come when Trump tries to use illegal budgetary power to coerce states into compliance — on elections, on policing, on a lot of really bad things. And the stick he uses is going to be a brutal one — no road finding, no funding for schools, maybe a total cut off of Medicaid funding that will cripple hospitals, maybe no one in the state gets their Social Security checks. Sound too crazy? Why? When things really come to a head why would those cudgels be too crazy?
These demands will be very hard to resist. So state governments will have to have considered these possibilities in advance. There will have to be significant public mobilization within the states to counter the strong push to just give way. Blue states should also start now in working together in preparing for these moments. We see what happens with law firms and universities. They’re plucked off one by one. The existence of state government is why we know there will be elections in 2026 and 2028. So state governments themselves, especially in blue and purple states, are critical — both as defensive bastions and what we might call strategic depth for the the anti-Trump opposition.
I’ve already done a number of posts on this and I’ll do more. But just who your governor is is a big deal right now. The same goes for the leadership of state legislatures and other state-wide officials. Are they thinking about these things? Are they ready? You’ll find these things out and be able to make a difference by getting organized now.
