The Next Phase of #TheResistance

Hecate and I had dinner last night and as we were chatting about whether it would make sense to immediately drink all the high end booze we’ve each been storing before so-called President Trump gets us all blown up (conclusion: YES), we came to the realization that we’re moving into another phase of #TheResistance.

We had spent Election Night together, cried together, and talked frequently in the following days about our feelings of sadness, loss, betrayal, and devastation. We both quickly jumped into a variety of types of activism (some of which, in retrospect, were not particularly well-considered) out of the need to Just Do Something and fear over what might transpire if we didn’t immediately do EVERYTHING.

And the intervening months have been difficult, to say the least. But (at least) two things have become apparent: one, it could be a lot worse than it is, and thank the Goddess that Trump’s incompetent and The (86% female) Resistance is unbowed; and two, we’re in this for the long haul.

Yes, it’s looking more and more likely that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller will find evidence of impeachable offenses (assuming Trump doesn’t fire him, and if that happens, I’ll see you in the streets – I’ll be the one with the torch and pitchfork). I’m not optimistic that Congressional Republicans will do anything about that, since they seem congenitally unable to do anything (another blessing in disguise, and who knew actually being forced to govern rather than petulantly shout “no” like a nap-deprived two-year-old all the time would be this hard, amirite?), but, Goddess willing and #TheResistance keeps rising, they won’t stay in power forever.

And that led us to the second part of our discussion: #TheResistance needs to move into a Phase Two. Trump and his evil minions are going to continue to yank our chains – or at least try to yank them – with this, that, and the other crisis du jour. And I’m not attempting to belittle the crisis du jour either – threatening to nuke North Korea because Giant Toddler wants his Big Boy War and the only people he has advising him are generals (and you know what they say: when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like global thermonuclear war) is as serious as a coronary – but running from fire to fire prevents us from thinking strategically and planning for the future. Chaos is a feature with these yahoos, not a bug.

So I’d like to urge all of us, in our mundane and magical workings (and aren’t they really the same thing? As Hecate is fond of remarking: it’s all real, it’s all metaphor, there’s always more), to be sure to carve out some time to think on (and meditate on, and craft policy for, and sing for, and lobby our elected representatives for, and dance for, and donate to, and work magic for, and plan for, and make love for, and run for office for) Starhawk’s Good Reality that we want to birth into being.

The Democrats are starting to do this, with the introduction of the Fair Representation Act and state moves to require release of tax returns to get on the ballot (n.b. call your state reps in support of this immediately) and coming up with their own plans to improve the Affordable Care Act and introducing and pushing hard for co-sponsors for the Washington DC Admission Act (not for nothing, #DCStatehood would mean 52-50 rather than 52-48 in the Senate right now, and if your Senators and Representative aren’t on the list of co-sponsors yet, the51st.org offers terrific resources you can use to lobby them about that).

Windows and doors of opportunity will crack open, at the national level, in state legislatures, in your local city council, at your job, at your place of worship, in your circle of friends and family. When that happens, we all need to be ready to kick those fuckers wide open and charge through. The only way that’s going to happen is to take time to think about and plan for what that’s going to look like. That’s our next task, fam, so get on it.

Image found here.

Like what you read? Follow me on Twitter @MrsWhatsit1