Dear Liberal Echo Chamber,
Stop. Wasting. Your. Time.
As a blue state dweller in the tech industry, all of my social media feeds are completely saturated with Trump stories. This is outrageous! I’m disgusted! This is un-American! It’s unconstitutional/illegal! We must stop him! Protest! Call your Senators! #NotMyPresident! It’s easy to think that everyone agrees with you if that is what 90% of your Twitter & Facebook feeds look like. But the whole country DOES NOT agree with you. More importantly, Trump and the GOP don’t give a damn what any of you think. Neither do my own representatives for that matter. Contacting Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, or Nancy Pelosi is just a waste of time. They already oppose the Trump/GOP agenda[1]. What will they do if yet another voter contacts them? “Try” harder?!? The fact is, they can’t do much.
Trump can’t be stopped by talking to people who agree with you, Democratic politicians who can do little to stop him, or sympathizers who all post the same things on social media… the echo chamber will just keep echoing while Trump marches on. He’ll keep manipulating the media with an elaborate firehose of news to distract everyone from menacing things that aren’t as newsworthy like restructuring the National Security Council under cover from the protests and chaos created by the Muslim Ban. He’ll keep lying and lying, until we can’t even tell what the truth is anymore. All the while Trump (and Putin) will call the shots as they unravel America’s democracy, economy, middle class, and world stature.
The only people who can stop Trump are Republican Senators and Congressional Representatives. While you might not like gerrymandering, Citizens United, and voter suppression efforts, it’s all happened and the GOP now has a chokehold on the House of Representatives and most state legislatures. They aren’t going anywhere. Senators can’t gerrymander their districts so they are slightly more at risk but not much more. So the GOP Senators and Representatives don’t give a damn what you think either. But you know who they do care about? THEIR constituents. THEIR Republican voters. THEIR swing voters and independents.
Instead of being outraged on social media, instead of contacting your Democratic Senators and Representatives, instead of thinking that Trump is losing this war because your echo chamber all hates him, do something that matters. Go find someone you know who lives in a red state; someone whose House Representative and Senators are Republican. TALK TO THEM. Find out if they agree with you, and if not why. Ask what they believe American values to be. Discuss the key parts of the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. Talk about how demagogues & fascists rise to power and discuss the similarities to the Trump administration. Ask if they are upset by what is happening. If they are, ask them to call their GOP Representative & Senators and tell them that Trump’s actions are dire threat to our democracy and American values — ask them to demand that their political representatives put country before party and oppose Trump.
Your red state compatriots need to call — emails, social media posts, even writing letters are just not as effective. The most impactful thing they can do is call their politician’s home district offices or go to a town hall meeting. The best thing you can do is get out of the liberal echo chamber and talk to someone in a red state. They can stop Trump.
[1] Though somehow Feinstein has 100% pro Trump voting record as of 1/30/17)
